Vista - Entering Product Key during Installation

I had trouble installing Vista due to a hard drive problem, couldn't find the
drives. Installed XP Pro on a new drive then Vista. Failed then tried again
with a clean install. It worked but when I entered the product key I got a
message to install from the earlier version of Windows and wouldn't let me go
any further.

So I took the option not to enter the product key and the installation went
beautifully.

Now I'm wondering what problems will come later through not having entered
the product key.

Where do I enter it now?

I'm not getting a prompt to activate so I presume that happened.

Any help would be appreciated.

I just went through the activation process and get an error that the product
key is for upgrade not clean install. I wanted a clean install because I've
had so much trouble installing this OS. Why can't it access my previous XP CD
in the CD drive to determine I own a previous Windows version?

Has anyone encountered this and found a solution?

"Mellach2327" wrote:

> I had trouble installing Vista due to a hard drive problem, couldn't find the
> drives. Installed XP Pro on a new drive then Vista. Failed then tried again
> with a clean install. It worked but when I entered the product key I got a
> message to install from the earlier version of Windows and wouldn't let me go
> any further.
>
> So I took the option not to enter the product key and the installation went
> beautifully.
>
> Now I'm wondering what problems will come later through not having entered
> the product key.
>
> Where do I enter it now?
>
> I'm not getting a prompt to activate so I presume that happened.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.

Reinstall Vista right now as an upgrade. It will find your current Vista as
the previous install and use that. No XP needed.You can't just use the XP CD
anymore, it has to be installed.

But, when you reinstall, do the upgrade option, and it should work; thereby
giving you a clean install.

--
Dustin Harper
dharper@vistarip.com
http://www.vistarip.com

--
"Mellach2327" <Mellach2327@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A411A2C2-4A78-4468-B4E6-0E41B75B39F6@microsoft.com...
>I just went through the activation process and get an error that the
>product
> key is for upgrade not clean install. I wanted a clean install because
> I've
> had so much trouble installing this OS. Why can't it access my previous XP
> CD
> in the CD drive to determine I own a previous Windows version?
>
> Has anyone encountered this and found a solution?
>
> "Mellach2327" wrote:
>
>> I had trouble installing Vista due to a hard drive problem, couldn't find
>> the
>> drives. Installed XP Pro on a new drive then Vista. Failed then tried
>> again
>> with a clean install. It worked but when I entered the product key I got
>> a
>> message to install from the earlier version of Windows and wouldn't let
>> me go
>> any further.
>>
>> So I took the option not to enter the product key and the installation
>> went
>> beautifully.
>>
>> Now I'm wondering what problems will come later through not having
>> entered
>> the product key.
>>
>> Where do I enter it now?
>>
>> I'm not getting a prompt to activate so I presume that happened.
>>
>> Any help would be appreciated.

"Mellach2327" <Mellach2327@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:A411A2C2-4A78-4468-B4E6-0E41B75B39F6@microsoft.com...
>I just went through the activation process and get an error that the product
> key is for upgrade not clean install. I wanted a clean install because I've
> had so much trouble installing this OS. Why can't it access my previous XP CD
> in the CD drive to determine I own a previous Windows version?
>
> Has anyone encountered this and found a solution?


Use this method:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5932

--
Gary VanderMolen