OEM Vista install

C

Creator1111

New Member
I've been asked to get a laptop working that someone has brought from a third party. I've confirmed that the hard drive has failed. My plan is to get a new hard drive and install Windows Vista on it. This laptop has a Windows Vista key written on the underside of the case. I have two questions...

1) How do I check that this Windows key is not already in use?
2) I need to install Vista on the new drive but no disks came with this laptop. My own Vista disk is OEM and will only install on my laptop. How do I get around this?

For question 1) I have proved the Vista key on the underside of this laptop is 'valid' by changing the key on my own laptop to it and received a valid message back from Microsoft. What I want to know is, does this just validate the key or mean that no one else is also using this key.

For question 2) Can I just plug the new hard drive in to my own laptop, use my OEM Vista disk to install Windows Vista, and then transfers this drive into the other laptop and use it's key to activate Windows Vista on it?

Thanks for you help in advance

Mark
 
All OEM keys from OEM machines are actually disabled from microsoft. So technically, they aren't valid keys at all. They used to be years ago though. All preinstalled copies of OS's are now preactivated. You will need to contact the maker of the laptop for the recovery cd's. If the recovery cd's aren't available anymore, you can use an OEM version of vista, ONLY genuine Microsoft Vista OEM install cd's can be used. When it asks you to enter the license key, enter the key on the bottom of the laptop. Most likely it own't activate and you'll need to call up microsoft and tell them what you did and they will issue a new key.

You should not have entered the laptop key on your own machine, you may run into issues now.
 
johnb35 said:
All OEM keys from OEM machines are actually disabled from microsoft. So technically, they aren't valid keys at all. They used to be years ago though. All preinstalled copies of OS's are now preactivated. You will need to contact the maker of the laptop for the recovery cd's. If the recovery cd's aren't available anymore, you can use an OEM version of vista, ONLY genuine Microsoft Vista OEM install cd's can be used. When it asks you to enter the license key, enter the key on the bottom of the laptop. Most likely it own't activate and you'll need to call up microsoft and tell them what you did and they will issue a new key.

You should not have entered the laptop key on your own machine, you may run into issues now.
Click to expand...

When you install with an OEM disk just skip entering the key. Later on you can activate the machine online when you type the key in. Entering it when it first prompts will only require you to re-enter it or talk to the MS robot.
 
Think I was lucky in that both laptops are a few years old. I've reinstall Vista on my own laptop a few times and activated it successfully. What about installing Vista on to a blank drive on my laptop, swapping it out into the other one and activating Vista on it with it's own key. I need to get around the problem that my copy of Vista will only run on my laptop?
 
You can't install windows while the drive is in a different computer that its gonna be in. When you install windows it installs some drivers that pertains to the hardware that its currently being installed on. So if you move the drive to a different computer with different hardware, it will either not boot up or you will have a boot loop where it just keeps trying to load windows and just keeps looping.
 
get a oem copy of vista thats made for the brand of computer that you are trying to put it on,and use the key from the bottom of computer.

Or you can buy windows vista that comes with another key,look on e-bay
 
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