Cannot boot from cd to upgrade M1730 from vista 32bit to win 7 64bit

Hi,

I have vista ultimate 32 bit on my XPS M1730. I'm trying to upgrade to Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. The cd will not run from the operating system so I tried to restart and boot from cd (I'm doing this part right for sure). The laptop will just stay for about 40 sec trying to boot from dvd and then goes to windows vista. Can anyone help? Is there something special about M1730 or any dell XPS that I need to do to be able to boot from cd and install windows 7 fresh?

 

At the Dell splash screen, hit F12 which will take you to a temporary menu determining boot sequence. Make sure that your DVD drive is set to be the first thing booted. Then let it restart per the instructions, your Windows 7 DVD should then boot....

 

you CANNOT upgrade from a 32bit to 64bit. You can only upgrade 32bit to 32bit and 64 to 64. The only choice if you want 64 is to do a clean install. Hope that helps

 

Exactly. You will get a windows.old directory at the end with all the old stuff, but there is no automated migration path. Your best bet is to simply backup the stuff of value and blow it all away. When booting off the Win7 media, just get rid of all the partitions and let it create its own. There will be a 100MB service partition and then whatever ones you create, with at least one big one of the remaining space.

 

I guess I was not making myself clear. I restarted for a "CLEAN" install and \changed the "boot sequence" to cd. I know how to do everything you guys told me and I know I can't simply upgrade without the clean install. My problem is the win 7 64bit upgrade cd is not booting at all. It tries for 30 seconds then starts windows vista again. I thought maybe I need to format using one of the dell cds and then try to boot from win 7 cd. I don't know.

 

Try that it happened on my friends hp once and i put in my dell vista cd and it worked i reformatted and put in his 7 disc and it read it not sure why it happened but fixed it for him

 

Are you using a legit upgrade disc or an ISO burn?

 

I suspect that you burned it to a DVD using iso-program. I guess you do a maximum speed burning although you should burn it at the lowest possible speed.