Reinstall Vista with no disk

denverbronco26

New Member
Well, my friends computer got loaded up with virus's, adware, spyware, etc. and i figured its not worth the time trying to remove each one so I wanted to do a reinstall and get it "fresh" again. The only problem is that he said that he never received any disk with the computer he bought. The computer was not custom built.
I am pretty good with computers but this is only my 2nd time ever even using a Vista OS before, so I'm not sure what to do with this one. I did however notice there was a partition with a vista file in it. I did not take a good enough look to see what exactly it was.
I have the activation code and everything and I want to do a complete reformat on it. Can someone help me out?
 
Call the company that made the computer and ask them for a reinstall disc. You could try downloading a trial version of Vista from Microsoft and registering it, but the computer probably came with an OEM version of Vista...
 
not to sound like a noob, but what is an OEM, i would look it up but i currently have 10 tabs already opened in firefox cuz of an essay im writing
 
not to sound like a noob, but what is an OEM, i would look it up but i currently have 10 tabs already opened in firefox cuz of an essay im writing

From Wikipedia:
There are two types of OEM when it comes to operating systems. The first is when a pre-built computer is purchased, there is an OEM disk that comes with the system, which can not be transferred to any other system, because that disk is designed to run only with the specific system components. The second type of OEM Operating system is one that can be purchased, and that can be transferred to any other system, without the dependence on the systems components. The main difference between the two is that one is only meant for that specific system, and the other can be used on any system.
 
Well I think it has the OEM on a seperate partition. I have the activation code. Can I do it without the disk and just use this OEM?
 
Ok i checked out the boot up and there is nothing about a key config to access the restore. Just for note i have yet to format. Can someone explain to me what to do to format it and use the recovery partition on the computer to reinstall to factory defaults?
 
If you need to do a reinstall still then just download a CLEAN vista disk from a torrent and burn that. Then use the key that you already have. No worry, downloading a CLEAN vista disk is Legal as long as it's clean and Non-tempered with. It is actually encouraged to share a vista ISO on torrents!!
 
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