Microsoft KB Archive/300556

= Error Message: Cannot Find Previous Version of Windows Installed on This Computer =

Article ID: 300556

Article Last Modified on 10/31/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition

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This article was previously published under Q300556



SYMPTOMS
When you try to install Windows 2000 Professional from a Remote Installation Services (RIS) image, you may receive the error message:

Setup cannot find a previous version of Windows installed on your computer. To continue, Setup needs to verify that you qualify to use this upgrade product.

Please insert your Windows NT 3.51 Workstation, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, Windows 95, or Windows 98 CD into your CD-ROM drive. When the CD is in the drive, press ENTER. To quit Setup, press F3.

If you insert a CD that contains one of the listed operating systems and then press ENTER, you may receive the following additional error message:

Setup cannot format the partition.

Your computer may not have enough memory to perform this operation, or your Windows 2000 CD may contain some corrupted files.

Setup cannot continue. To quit setup, press F3.



CAUSE
This behavior occurs because the Windows 2000 Professional image on the RIS server was created from Microsoft MSDN media that contains multiple versions of the Windows 2000 operating system. The Windows 2000 Professional version on the MSDN media contains a Txtsetup.sif file with a different value in the &quot;SetupSourcePath&quot; field than the retail versions of Windows 2000 Professional.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this behavior, remove the current MSDN CD image on the RIS server and use a retail copy of Windows 2000 Professional to create a new CD-based image.

Note: The MSDN media is intended for testing and developmental purposes only; if RIS is being deployed in a production environment, retail copies of Windows 2000 Server and Professional are required.



MORE INFORMATION
This behavior also occurs with RIPREP images if the RIS server has a MSDN version of Windows 2000 Professional as the CD-based image.

Keywords: kberrmsg kbprb kbremoteprog KB300556

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