How to Upgrade from Vista Business 32-bit to Vista Enterprise 32-bit on W500

I have a brand new ThinkPad W500 with Vista Business 32-bit installed. However for my company I have to upgrade to Vista Enterprise 32-bit.

The copying process of the files from the Vista Enterpise with SP1 Upgrade DVD goes fine, however the installation process stops at some point and a subsequent message pops up:

"your harddisk SERVICEV003 is too small "or "doesn't have enough space" or a similar message. I checked this partition to see what the total size is: 1.46 GB of which 685 MB is still free.

So, apparently the upgrade process uses this partition SERVICEV003 on S:\>

How can I change it so as to force the installation process to use the C:\> drive instead?

Please note that I use an Upgrade DVD with Vista Enterprise (with SP1) 32-bit as opposed to a Full Version DVD with Vista Entrprise (with SP1) 32-bit. Total size of this DVD is about 2.5 GB.

I look forward to some expert advise.

 

Do you want the recovery partition?

 

why are you asking that? Please explain.

I don't necessary need it. I made a product recovery DVD, so in case of a crash of the Harddrive, I can use that.

 

How did you start the upgrade process? From within Vista, running from the C: partition, by finding and double-clicking on setup.exe on the DVD, or from a boot of the DVD?

 

From within Vista. This particular upgrade dvd doesn't allow for a boot/format function.

 

As MastahRiz already explained, I started while running Vista, putting the DVD in the DVD player and have Windows Installer starting. As I stated, it copies all the files, but the installation process stops because of the limited size of the S:\> partition.

Do you think the S:\> partition is on the Intel boot speedup flash rom? Or is it a partition on the Harddrive? How can I check that out?

 

As far as I know, the SERVICEV003 drive is always just a 1.46GB partition of your main C drive.

 

You can check it out from control panel>Admin Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management. The S partition will be visible, with size, type, name, etc. I do not understand why the setup is defaulting to install on a partition other than C:. However, I have read in other threads that Vista Business is not in the upgrade path for Vista Enterprise. When they say Upgrade, they mean from XP pro, VLK. You may need a full install disk, not an upgrade disk.

 

Thanks MastahRiz. How can I increase this partition to e.g. 5 GB? I know, that in that case e.g. the C:\> partition will be decreased by the same value.

 

bsodder, Vista Business is a prerequisite to upgrade to Vista Enterprise. That's what the Open License of Microsoft states. So, one cannot upgrade from XP to Vista Enterprise.

When the Upgrade DVD starts, a Window opens where I have to choose if I want to Upgrade or if I want to make a fresh install.

I also have the Fulll Version of Vista Enterprise (non-Upgrade).

 

OK - If you put the full version install in and boot, (I assume this one will boot), and page through the menu, does it get to the screen where it recognizes that you have an existing vista partition (C:, not S and asks if you want to install new, or upgrade? If you try to upgrade from the boot, do you get the same problem?

 

Yes, the Full Version is an iso image which I had to burn, so I assume this is a bootable version. The Upgrade version in an autostart/Windows Installer program.

I'll check it out. I'll let you know. stay tuned.

 

I think I'm going to do what has been described in this posting: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4678376#post4678376

i.e. delete the Q partition (I created Recovery DVDs) and increase the S:\>
partition by the same value.

That should do it.

 

Deleting the Q drive will add the space directly to C without giving you any option of adding it to S, unfortunately.

 

I created a new partition and designated it D:\> (I reassigned the DVD drive with E:\>.

Interestingly I could not increase the size of the partition D:\> drive above 40GB. My HD drive is a 160 GB HD. The C:\> drive could not be reduced under 100 GB! Mind you, I have nothing installed yet, it's almost a pristine W500 e.g. I did not yet install Office 2007 Enterprise.

I'm wondering why I can't reduce the C:\> drive to e.g. 40 GB or 50 GB. I can't imagine that Vista Business and the Lenovo apps which are included need some 100 GB. This is ridiculous. Can anyone explain?

MastahRiz, the Q partition is about 10 GB only. I also noticed that I can't increase the size of the S:\> drive.

I just ordered the Intel X25-M SSD with 160 GB. I'm going to take drastice steps to get Vista Enterprise installed and Office 2007 Enterprise as well.

 

What are you actually trying to do? Do you really want to keep the Vista Biz partition on C:? Just delete every partition on the drive, and start over with the Vista Enterprise Full install DVD... Then install Thinkvantage system upgrade, and install all the TV utilities and drivers through System Upgrade

 

exactly, that is what I'm planning to do.

 

OK, I tried it out with the Full Version. Indeed, an Upgrade canNOT be made when booting from the iso image. Only a clean install can be made of Vista Enterprise. An Update only can be made from within Vista. Which I did. It copies all the files from the DVD, it expands and after sometime a reboot is done. After the reboot a message pops up stating that the installation has failed. After that it reboots again I can can choose to continue with the installation (which fails each time) or continue wiht the pre-installed, non-upgraded, Vista Business version. Here a pop-up message appears that the S:\> is full and I should clean it. Which I did. It cleaned some 650 MB of temporary Windows install files.

In other words, the SERVICE003 partition just won't allow to upgrade from Vista Business to Vista Enterprise, just because of the too limited size of the SERVICE003 partition.

So, now the original Vista Business cannot even be repaired anymore. I'm afraid I have to restore it to factory default installation. What a pain.

I assume that the Upgrade DVD I was working with before relates to Upgrading from XP to Vista Enterprise. Not sure though.

 

Strange behavior - almost seems like the install media is faulty. However, you are still trying to upgrade from within Vista Biz. If you have to restore from factory anyway, then why not just reformat the hard disk with the Enterprise full install disk, and install from scratch with Vista Enterprise, using the entire HD? Assuming that he install disk is not faulty...If you burned the factory product restore disks, then you could still recover Vista BIZ from them if it fails. Actually, doing fresh installs with Vista takes far less time than you have already spent on this project.

 

Yes, I'm going to make a clean fresh full install with the Full Version. No update anymore.

No, I don't think the media is faulty. I'm pretty sure it's OK. I can burn another one to be sure. No, the problem is that the upgrade installs the upgrade installation files on the SERVICE003 partition. And that partition is just too small to complete the upgrade succesfully. And this partition cannot be increased in size (for some reason). May be there are tools to increase it, but I'm just fed up with the trial and error process.

Yes, I made recovery DVD media of the Lenovo Vista Business.

I first have to backup some files before I'm going to make the clean install.

In a few days I've got to repeat the clean install again, when I have my brandnew Intel X25-M 160 GB SSD arriving. Or I may decide to make an image and to save me time. Haven't decided yet.