Vista - Reinstalling Vista on a New Hard Drive?

I have an old hard drive which I've installed Windows Vista on. I want to
buy a 500 gig SATA drive. How can I put my copy of Windows Vista on my new
hard drive if I can only use the code once?

I've also upgraded only from Home Basic to Home Premium. Can I re-download
that without paying for it agian? Thanks.

Havraha wrote:
> I have an old hard drive which I've installed Windows Vista on. I want to
> buy a 500 gig SATA drive. How can I put my copy of Windows Vista on my new
> hard drive if I can only use the code once?
>
> I've also upgraded only from Home Basic to Home Premium. Can I re-download
> that without paying for it agian? Thanks.

It isn't true that you can only use the Product Key once. If you are
unable to activate over the Internet just use the phone and tell them
you've replaced your hard drive.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

I've re-installed Vista ultimate on my machine 3 times since October of last
year and, so far, on each occasion i have been able to activate over the
internet. Strangely I had more trouble activating the copy of Windows XP on
my first partition:-)

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
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"Havraha" <Havraha@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:355C8BC5-5798-4251-BC27-B6C514C132A1@microsoft.com...
>I have an old hard drive which I've installed Windows Vista on. I want to
> buy a 500 gig SATA drive. How can I put my copy of Windows Vista on my
> new
> hard drive if I can only use the code once?
>
> I've also upgraded only from Home Basic to Home Premium. Can I
> re-download
> that without paying for it agian? Thanks.

As the others say, you'll be allowed to activate a few times before you are
challenged by having to call and possibly explain yourself.
But since installations allow at least 3 days grace before being forced to
activate, hold off on activation as long as possible until you have
everything stable the way you want it.
For XP, you have to activate to receive all the updates past SP2 (you can
download a standalone installer of SP2 if your media is lower than that, so
that can be a pain.

"John Barnett MVP" wrote:

> I've re-installed Vista ultimate on my machine 3 times since October of last
> year and, so far, on each occasion i have been able to activate over the
> internet. Strangely I had more trouble activating the copy of Windows XP on
> my first partition:-)
>
> --
> John Barnett MVP
> Associate Expert
> Windows - Shell/User
>
> Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
> Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org
>
> The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
> kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
> reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
> any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
> use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
> mail/post..
>
> "Havraha" <Havraha@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:355C8BC5-5798-4251-BC27-B6C514C132A1@microsoft.com...
> >I have an old hard drive which I've installed Windows Vista on. I want to
> > buy a 500 gig SATA drive. How can I put my copy of Windows Vista on my
> > new
> > hard drive if I can only use the code once?
> >
> > I've also upgraded only from Home Basic to Home Premium. Can I
> > re-download
> > that without paying for it agian? Thanks.
>
>