Fix the Most Common Windows 7 Upgrade Problems
By Robert Strohmeyer, PC World
<http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/183382/fix_the_most_common_windows_7_upgrade_problems.html>

Installation Hangs at 62 Percent

The first installation problem you're likely to encounter in your upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 may not be obvious at first. But after your progress bar sits at 62 percent for more than 10 minutes or so, you'll know something is wrong. The culprit is a service called Iphlpsvc, which may stop responding to the system during the installation. Fortunately, the solution is relatively easy. If you don't feel like messing around with your system settings, download Microsoft's automated fix, MicrosoftFixit50319 <http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9693817>, and install it. Follow the wizard, and it should resolve the problem in about a minute.

If you'd rather just correct the problem yourself, start by rebooting your PC. After logging back in, click Start, right-click Computer, and click Properties. Click Advanced, Environment variables, then System variables, New. In the 'Variable name' field, type MIG_UPGRADE_IGNORE_PLUGINS. In the 'Variable value' field, type IphlpsvcMigPlugin.dll. Click OK to close the windows, and then start your installation again.

Endless Reboots

A more annoying (and more common) Windows 7 upgrade headache is the reboot loop. This irritating bug causes the system to reboot and to present a message stating that Windows 7 could not be installed, and that the previous version (Vista) has been restored. The next time you reboot the PC, Windows begins the upgrade process again, leading to the same error after the next reboot. And so on.

To escape this endless reboot cycle, select Vista from the boot menu at startup, and then insert your old Vista installation disc into your PC's optical drive. When the Vista setup menu appears, exit setup. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories. Right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as Administrator from the contextual menu. At the command prompt, type

D:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All

replacing D with the letter of the drive that contains your Vista installation disc. This will reset the boot parameters for the system.

Now reboot your machine and begin the installation process again.