Vista - activation key problems!! help please!!

hi all, here's the problem, I ran out of space on my 40gig so I went out and bought a new 80gig sata drive, I ghosted all my stuff across to the new drive and it boots up fine. left it last night turned on connected to the net cause it was doing updates. logged on this morning and get the activation screen come up and it says i only have 3 days to activate it!! help!!

Hello Squessy Cheese,

If you cannot activate Vista online, then you should be able to by the phone.

Activate Vista by Phone

Hope this helps,
Shawn

hi brink, I did that last time when I installed vista on the old hdd, but shouldn't it already be activated cause I ghosted all my files across the the new hdd?

Normally it would be, but with the hardware change it may have thought that you installed it on another computer and is wanting you to activate again.

squeesy cheese <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote:
So activate it.

i might ring Microsoft later and explain to them what's happened, thanks for your help though!

i cant, i put in my activation code and it rejects it and says its already in use

squeesy cheese <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote:
Then you'll have to phone it in.

I had the same problem after installing a new drive on my machine last week.
All I did was click the activation option. My ghosted image was actually
from October last year, this allowed me to go back to a complete clean
install rather than later images which had other software installed which I
didn't want. The activation went just fine over the internet. If you do
happen to get a refusal or a 'product key already in use' just select the
'telephone' option. This is an automated service so please listen carefully
to the instructions. If it still does not activate after you have gone
through the automated procedure then 'don't hang up' stay on the line and
you will be transferred to a 'real' person who will help you activate your
system.

PS: After activation don't forget to image your newly activated hard drive.

--

--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://www.winuser.co.uk
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Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org
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"squeesy cheese" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:fe0d7e1ad209743916137ff061bd2e24@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

just phone Microsoft (bill gates) and got my vista activated thanks everyone for your help!!