[francesday]

I'm trying to upgrade from Home Premium to Vista Ultimate. When I run the setup the Upgrade option is not available and a message says "Cannot upgrade from staged to non-staged version".

I've tried this with and without SP1 installed (the Ultimate DVD has SP1 and refuses even to get as far as the above unless SP1 is on Home Premium). I'm running 32 bit and upgrading to 32 bit.

I've seen lots of similar complaints on various TechNet and other forums. Anyone here have any experience / ideas? I am on the verge of doing a complete new install, but can't face the amount of work that will involve.

[DaveA]

You need to do a clean install, you can NOT upgrade from on Home to Ultimate.
That said, on most OEM built machines there is a link to BUY, a upgrade from Microsoft. This is a file that will install the higher version.

Go to "Start, All Programs, Extras and Upgrades, Windows Anytime Upgrade".

[francesday]

Hi - thanks for your reply. I've spent hours on the phone to Microsoft's TechNet support, and they don't seem to know this fact! But it's painfully clear that it is true, so I am now facing a re-install on two or three machines.

Amazing!

Thanks again, Frances

[ubicomp]

I found this answer on another board. I have yet to try it. I'm downloading the other ISO from MSDN right now...

Other post follows....
I was trying to do the same exact thing and got the same exact error. I finally called Microsoft Tech Support about it and learned that the Ultimate download with SP1 integrated on MSDN Subscriptions is a "checked/debug" build which means it is a "non-staged" build, hence the error message.

What you need to do is download the Vista SP1 for 32 bit and use the subscription key you have for Ultimate. The ISO file name is: en_windows_vista_with_service_pack_1_x86_dvd_x14-29594.iso