[scottline]

Hi everyone. I recently bought a new laptop with vist home premium on it and it worked fine. A couple of cays later i used mu friends vista ultimate cd with product key and it downloaded perfectly. It is now asking me to activate it online. do i use the product key from the box? i need to contact them for the product key. If it dosent work is there anyway of going back to vista home premium and using the product key for that? Thank you for your help

[namenotfound]

If the product key was already used once, then using a second time (on a different computer) won't work if you try to activate via the Internet.
You'll have to call Microsoft for a different product key.
Also, if this version of Vista is already on your friends computer, then you can't (legally) put it on your without getting a shared license (a license that lets you use the copy on multiple computers).

[scottline]

thanks. So what about the vista home premium that was originally on my pc, is there anyway of recovering that?

[namenotfound]

Some computer manufactures have a backup partition that you can use to reinstall the operating system (and some include discs to do this).

I know that both Dell and Gateway provide backup partitions. Look in the owners manual that came with your computer to see if yours has that, and how to do it (usually a combinations of keys during boot triggers the backup partition to start)

[scottline]

the problem is that i bough a hp pc that was on display and didnt get a cd. Sorry for putting you out but you dont know how i could do it any other way do you?

[namenotfound]

Even if it didn't come with a cd, there still should be a backup/restore partition.

I'd contact HP and ask them how to trigger it (or if someone on here uses HP maybe they could tell you)

[davehc]

As you are booting, keep hitting Ctrl & F11 together. It will come into the recovery menu.

[scottline]

I got it sorted, thanks allot for your help guys!!!!

[DaveA]

Originally Posted by scottline

I got it sorted, thanks allot for your help guys!!!!

What worked?

[scottline]

I used the f11 key on start up and reset the computer back to the factory settings. This brought back the original vista that was on the machine.