I was running Win 7 Beta 7000, having upgraded from Vista Ultimate, and decided to install Win 7 RC. I reimaged to Vista Ultimate using Acronis and then did an upgrade to Win 7 RC. I had some problems so I decided to do a repair, which didn't solve the problems. I then decided to do an RC upgrade over the existing RC upgrade and it actually went through the upgrade process. However, it did not solve the problems, so I thought I'd try to do a custom install from within the RC upgrade and it actually worked. I reformatted during the custom installation and then reinstalled my programs. I was under the impression you can't upgrade an upgrade with the same upgrade and you can't do a custom install of the RC from within the RC. What's going on? By the way, the custom install of the RC from within the previous RC is working very well and I haven't experienced any problems. All installations are from DVDs I burned from the ISOs obtained from Microsoft's website.It is the responsibility and duty of everyone to help the underprivileged and unfortunate among us.

CB - Ok.. So you wound up blowing out the previous installations and did a clean install. Right? That may have been for the best.Actually... You CAN install the same version on top of itself. This technique is useful for a number of things - repairing a hosed installation, doing a Windows Anytime Upgrade, etc... If, as an example, you had Windows 7Home Premium, and you went and got an Anytime Upgrade to Professional or Ultimate, you would insert the DVD you got with your Home Premium license (with the RTM, obviously) and install it on top of the existing installation - this time using the product key you got on line instead of the one that came in the package. In some cases, an "in place upgrade" installation will fix a bad installation of Windows 7 without having to format and reinstall everything. Either way, it's a perfectly legitimate action. As far as "forbidden" upgrades go, the only one you can't, er, rather, shouldn't do is upgrading Windows 7 build 7000 (the beta) with Windows 7 RC (build 7100). Doing so could have brought about a number of issues that Microsoft would not want to be dealing with since the Beta will be long expired by the time the final RTM version is released.

Thanks for the info, Wolfie2k6. Your reply simply lets me know how little I actually know. I appreciate it.It is the responsibility and duty of everyone to help the underprivileged and unfortunate among us.

CB - You're welcome... That's what we're here for...

As painfull as it is, you have answered one of my questions as well, regarding the install of RC over Beta. I guess it isn't a good thing to try. What about the expiration date of the Beta being earlier than first thought? I recall it being sometime in Aug when I first installed Beta. Now, It has moved up to the first week in July. What a surprise and a shock. Not a good feeling. I am ready with the RC version, but knowing I have to do another fresh install, Ouch.One more question I have. I used the encryption tool from Windows 7 beta to encrypt a partition on my e-sata drive that contains all of my documents, music, download programs, etc. When I boot to my Windows XP 64bit OS, of course I can't even see that drive. So what is going to happen when I load my RC version? I have to have access to that drive. It's vital. Can't seem to find a decryption command for the drive.

rrigney - Actually.... Nothing happened with the Beta's expiration date. The Beta still expires on August 1st, 2009. On July 1st, however, the OS will start automatically shutting itself down 2 hours after you fire up the machine. So as long as you're not going to need it for more than two hours at a stretch, you've got that last month. The RC, as you know expires on June 1st, 2010 but it will begin the 2 hour shutdown thing on March 1st, 2010. And no, you won't likely be wanting to upgrade to the RTM version of Win 7 from the RC either come October 22nd either. As far as your encrypted drive goes... The RC's version of Bitlocker should be able to make sense of the drive without any grief aslong as you know your password. You CAN, btw, remove Bitlocker from a given drive or partition by opening up Bitlocker and telling it to turn OFF Bitlocker for that drive and clicking the Decrypt drive option.

You can, however, do an inplace upgrade of Windows Server R2 Beta (build 7000) to the RC (build 7100). I did mine that way, just to see if it would work. Just fyi.

bnborg - Ok... But then again, a server is a heck of a lot more complicated when it comes to setting up than a client. Most servers tend to be running stuff like Active Directory, DNS, DHCP and a plethora of other services - so an in place upgrade on that makes more sense. It's also one thing ifa desktop is down for 24 hours, but a server's another story.If you've got 50 or 100 users freaking out because they can't access their work files, that's generally NOT a good thing. Not that you should have had a beta OS running your production environment in the first place...

No, Wolfie, this is just my test environment.You are absolutely correct.

bnborg - Didn't mean to imply that you would do anything that daft... At least, tho, the point got across...I think that's why they're a bit more flexible with the Beta to RC server upgrades...