Ok. So i Bought a New motherboard and installed it, Now, noone told me and i have never even heard that when you install a new motherboard that it Clears your hard drive. So i took the windows Vista anytime upgrade disc and installled Vista home basic on accident. i had Vista Home Premium originally and only had the Key Code for Home Premium. After i realized i installed a version i didnt have a key for, i tried to install Home Premium with the same disc, it wouldnt work. there were all kinds of errors and it would restore windows to the way it was when i first installed Home Basic. So it gave me a 30 day period to enter the Key Code for Home Basic which i used up. The point is that i cant afford to go out and buy a brand new version Of windows Home premium, also i dont even want to even if i had the Money because i already have the Key Code for Home Premium. So now my computer is Locked, after Booting and looks like windows loads it goes to a black screen with no icons no nothing. Just a window that says purchase the rights online now, or enter a valid key code. so my question is this. I bought a different computer like 3 years ago. it has Windows Xp on the hard drive, i have the Back up disc for it, but the disc says on it that it can only be used with an E Machines computer, I have the Key Code for the Windows version that is on the hard drive. So, Can i use the back up disc in my new comp and will it install Xp? Keep in mind that my computer is locked. Now there is another computer im the house that has Vista Home Premium like i did. Is there a a way i can just take the OS off his comp somehow and install it on my comp without it screwing with my brother in laws comp? Or does anyone have a different idea of what i can do? Please any feedback would be great. thanks in advance.
How can i format the hard drive when windows is locked and i cant do anything? there isnt even a start button after windows has loaded . . Ctrl+Alt+Del doesnt even bring up a window . . its jusy a black screen with 1 window for the activation of Windows . .If i X out of the activation screen the comp shuts down . .
Down load tools from HDD manf. You want the bootable Version (ie ISO).
Boot to this CD and remove the partition, You do not have to format. Once the partition is removed you can now boot to Vista install disk. It will see a clean, unformated HDD. Using Vista you can now partition (one or multiple partitions) the HDD and install your vista.
I bougnt a new laptop HDD (segate 250 gig). while wating for XP Pro, I installed vista, then later on used Seatools (From Seagate) to remove partition. Then installed XP Pro.
Message edited by RetiredChief on 06-13-2008 at 06:52:00 PM
Boot from the Windows CD dude... you have the option to delete / recreate and format partitions. Don't do it from within Windows... in fact NEVER attempt to install Windows or Windows Upgrades from within Windows... always boot with the install CD.
------------------------------Desktop: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit; Intel Q6600 CPU; E-VGA 780i SLI motherboard; E-VGA E-GeForce 8800GT; OCZ Vista 4GB dual-channel kit; Ultra X2 750W power supply; 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB in RAID 0. Laptop: Acer Aspire 8730-6314;
Reply to Zoron
Oh and incidentally, you CAN'T format the drive you have Windows installed on... even if Windows was up and running and fully activated... it simply won't let you while Windows is running.
RC's suggestion is good as well...
------------------------------Desktop: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit; Intel Q6600 CPU; E-VGA 780i SLI motherboard; E-VGA E-GeForce 8800GT; OCZ Vista 4GB dual-channel kit; Ultra X2 750W power supply; 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB in RAID 0. Laptop: Acer Aspire 8730-6314;
Reply to Zoron
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