Vista - Upgrade key and crashed hard drive

Ok, Wednesday my hard died on me. If there was any time this would be less
of a pita, it would be installing a new OS. And lucky me my RMA'd hard drive
comes on Tuesday. Now after reading various things on the net I need a
couple of points clarified. If I get an 'upgrade key' version of vista do I
need to install XP and update to service pack 2, or can I just boot from the
vista disc and toss in my XP disc to 'prove' that I am actually upgrading?

The upgrade version of Windows Vista requires that
Windows XP be installed and activated before you
can perform an upgrade. It will not ask for the Windows XP
CD as you must be actually running a "genuine" version of Windows XP.
If you want to install Windows Vista without first installing Windows XP,
then purchase a "Full Licensed Version" of Windows Vista.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

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"CheeZe5" wrote:

Ok, Wednesday my hard died on me. If there was any time this would be less
of a pita, it would be installing a new OS. And lucky me my RMA'd hard drive
comes on Tuesday. Now after reading various things on the net I need a
couple of points clarified. If I get an 'upgrade key' version of vista do I
need to install XP and update to service pack 2, or can I just boot from the
vista disc and toss in my XP disc to 'prove' that I am actually upgrading?

This keeps the old option of some users borrowing legal discs from a friend,
then using the upgrade version and detecting the disc. Pretty much a work
around to keep people from doing ilegal upgrades.

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:

> The upgrade version of Windows Vista requires that
> Windows XP be installed and activated before you
> can perform an upgrade. It will not ask for the Windows XP
> CD as you must be actually running a "genuine" version of Windows XP.
> If you want to install Windows Vista without first installing Windows XP,
> then purchase a "Full Licensed Version" of Windows Vista.
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Shell/User
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "CheeZe5" wrote:
>
> Ok, Wednesday my hard died on me. If there was any time this would be less
> of a pita, it would be installing a new OS. And lucky me my RMA'd hard drive
> comes on Tuesday. Now after reading various things on the net I need a
> couple of points clarified. If I get an 'upgrade key' version of vista do I
> need to install XP and update to service pack 2, or can I just boot from the
> vista disc and toss in my XP disc to 'prove' that I am actually upgrading?