Upgrading to Windows 8 from Windows 7 on an Aurora R4 with the A07 BIOS

Upgrade or Overlay installs have never worked very well in the history of Windows. If you take the time to understand what is really happening during an "OS upgrade" ... you would understand why.

Backup data and clean install Windows. Dual-Boot if you want to.

Your problem is likely being caused by a resident Process, Service, or Driver that is incompatible with Windows-8. Maybe Intel-RST or hundreds of other possiblities ... better to clean install and move forward.

Upgrades should work, they just need support from the manufacturer. There are no resident entities that are the cause of this issue (services and drivers don't hook in at that point in time during the installation I'm afraid). I would like some support for this. Its a known bug with the latest BIOS. It needs an update to accommodate some safe booting issues.

I meant, secure booting.

Upgrades are not successful all the time, I agree with Tesla1856, back up your data and start from scratch.

Windows 8 Upgrade and Installation Instructions

Speaking from personal experience I would recommend staying with W7 until there's absolutely no choice but to move on up (Preferably to W9).  W8 is probably excellent for tablets with it's little tappable onscreen buttons, but it's almost unusable with trackpads and not a whole lot better with mice and trackerballs.

Not to mention the fact that those cute little buttons turn into really big yoooogaly squares...

Wug.

I did a clean install of Windows 8 from Windows 7 but did have trouble with the bios after A07 as it set the boot mode to UEFI rather than legacy, not sure that's going to help you though as In my case it killed the Win7 install but thought it worth mentioning.  I would also recommend clean installing as I've never been a fan of upgrading operating systems, you should already have your files backed up separate to the machine in case of a disk failure and if not now is a good time to do so.

Also I disagree with the comment above about it being pointless to upgrade Windows 7 to 8, there is far more to 8 than the touch screen interface and that can be easily ignored (I never use it on the Aurora R4).  I find general usage is noticeably snappier under Windows 8, I prefer the new power user menu which replaces the start bar, the new task manager is vastly more useful particularly for a hex core hyperthreaded machine like the R4 and there's other smaller touches as well like the new file transfer dialogue which shows a graph of performance and gives options to pause or cancel.

John

I think we are all too quick to jump the gun here. We're all racing and pushing into a debate about operating systems and architectures, speed and reliability, and so forth, but I think we should address my initial concerns. There must be a reason that Windows upgrade is having issues upgrading an Alienware Aurora R4 with the A07 bios. Its not a very common bios, and I'm sure with some minor tweaks the Windows installer can properly hook in after the spinner begins to spool up the next series of the Windows 8 installation process. I think the people at Alienware need to address this issue for consumers, so that I can be proud of the company I purchased a computer from and get customers to return to them for newer models when they are released in a few years' time. Software and software must work together. Please Alienware, at least try to find me the missing link as to what the cause of this issue could be.

There must be a reason that Windows upgrade is having issues upgrading an Alienware Aurora R4 with the A07 bios.

How many people does it take (all telling you the same thing) before you start to believe us?

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/a/clean-install-windows-8-upgrade.htm

Do you think we are trying to help you? Do you think we might have some experience with all this from years before?  

Tesla, I know you're trying to help me, and I appreciate it a lot my dude. I hope I'm not coming off as unappreciative because I do appreciate your help. I think we can agree to disagree on our view points but still accept them and still engage in this discussion if you'd like. A little about me, I'm both a CE and an EE. The Pro upgrade is known to work while keeping files and apps for lots of people. We are at an age where Windows upgrades are getting more reliable. Sometimes its easy to point the finger and say that Microsoft made another unreliable operating system upgrade, but I think that there are more factors at play because its hard to support every architecture. I think since this computer was released with Windows 8 just around the corner and people such as myself happened to purchase it, the manufacturer should and could probably step in with patches that may let consumers have this particular Windows 8 upgrade type properly hook itself in during the installation process.

Hopefully, you did a full drive and partition backup image before you started all this. That was your fail-safe (in case your install is now corrupt from the attempts). It's also how you recover data files later on clean install.

I think the Microsoft upgrade from Win7-64 to Win8-64 does work, but only on vanilla builds. Again, the problem is likely (and I quote my previous response) ...

"Your problem is likely being caused by a resident Process, Service, or Driver that is incompatible with Windows-8. Maybe Intel-RST or hundreds of other possiblities" ... something that is dug-in deep.

... Microsoft can't support all Windows software and drivers (and versions there-of) from all companies.

I could say more, but you obviously want Dell to help you so I will back-away (even though most of us know that only Microsoft can help you at this level). So you are welcome to wait some more (even though Dell already gave you their answer).

I think since this computer was released with Windows 8 just around the corner and people such as myself happened to purchase it, the manufacturer should and could probably step in with patches that may let consumers have this particular Windows 8 upgrade type properly hook itself in during the installation process.

I have finally found a working solution to this, thanks to a post in the Alienware Gamer's forum. The trick was to download and install the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver, and I was then able to upgrade successfully. Please see this link for details downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx. Once you download it, browse to the GUI folder and run the installer in there. Once you're done running the installer, upgrading to Windows 8 Pro should work successfully. Question I am wondering, since I have a primary SSD and secondary storage drive from the factory, why was this RAID driver installed with my system?

Question I am wondering, since I have a primary SSD and secondary storage drive from the factory, why was this RAID driver installed with my system?

Why?, the same image is used for all machines and Dell decided they wanted it installed.

It's not just a RAID driver ... it's an enhanced HDD driver (and software app suite) for the Intel SATA controller.

But like I've said before, according to my experience (which is non-RAID on my desktops) ... it's optional. The Microsoft supplied driver (with Intel's name on it, BTW) works fine and fast.