I had a long explanation written by the forum froze, so I'll try this again.

Long story made short, I bought Vista Premium and installed it on my
computer. Two days later, the entire system fried and is toast. I have no
idea if Vista had anything to do with that or not.

So, I bought a new computer that had Home Basic on it, and re-installed my
Premium. Now, it's saying that I need a new activation code because it's
already been installed (on a computer that is now fried days later).

Is there a way to activate this without buying another copy? It seems like
in a situation like this, I should be able to transfer the copy. I
understand the license and only being able to use it on one computer, but
this seems to be an exception to the rule. Can someone point me the right
direction please?

Strictly speaking, if it is an OEM copy, it is tied to the fried one!

If it is a Retail copy, you can install it on as many computers as you like,
as long as it is installed on only one at a time.

But!!!!
When you try to activate it, take the phone option, and hang on until a REAL
person answers you.
Just say that your Hard Drive, and/or Graphics card fried; you replaced one
or the other, and you need to reactivate.

Best of luck.

"robtucker430" wrote:

> I had a long explanation written by the forum froze, so I'll try this again.
>
> Long story made short, I bought Vista Premium and installed it on my
> computer. Two days later, the entire system fried and is toast. I have no
> idea if Vista had anything to do with that or not.
>
> So, I bought a new computer that had Home Basic on it, and re-installed my
> Premium. Now, it's saying that I need a new activation code because it's
> already been installed (on a computer that is now fried days later).
>
> Is there a way to activate this without buying another copy? It seems like
> in a situation like this, I should be able to transfer the copy. I
> understand the license and only being able to use it on one computer, but
> this seems to be an exception to the rule. Can someone point me the right
> direction please?