Reinstall Vista after HD format with product eky only - no Vista C

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kim
  • Start date Start date
K

Kim

I have a 1 month old Sony Vaio that came with Vista Home premium
pre-installed. I have purchased the Anytime Upgrade to Ultimate but want to
format the HD to get rid of all the Sony bloatware and start with a clean
installation.

If I format the HD where or how do I get Vista Home Premium? The computer
did not come with a disk...
If I go to the MS Windows website can I download a copy and use the product
key on the bottom of the computer to install Home then upgrade to Ultimate?
Or do I need a Home Premium Original disk?
Or if I format and start with the Ultimate upgrade disk will it ask for the
Home Premium product key (can I skip the installation of Home Premium)
 
Kim said:
I have a 1 month old Sony Vaio that came with Vista Home premium
pre-installed. I have purchased the Anytime Upgrade to Ultimate but want
to
format the HD to get rid of all the Sony bloatware and start with a clean
installation.

If I format the HD where or how do I get Vista Home Premium? The computer
did not come with a disk...
If I go to the MS Windows website can I download a copy and use the
product
key on the bottom of the computer to install Home then upgrade to
Ultimate?
Or do I need a Home Premium Original disk?
Or if I format and start with the Ultimate upgrade disk will it ask for
the
Home Premium product key (can I skip the installation of Home Premium)
Click to expand...



There is, or should be, a recovery partition, but the contents of that
partition include all of the bloatware.

So this is what you do (tried and trusted method). Go to Control Panel >
Programs and Features and uninstall all that you do not want..

OR

Buy a full version of Vista and install that, ensuring that you have already
saved applicable Sony drivers to a DVD or similar..
 
Mike Hall - MVP said:
There is, or should be, a recovery partition, but the contents of that
partition include all of the bloatware.

So this is what you do (tried and trusted method). Go to Control Panel >
Programs and Features and uninstall all that you do not want..

OR

Buy a full version of Vista and install that, ensuring that you have already
saved applicable Sony drivers to a DVD or similar..



--
Mike Hall - MVP
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx




Mike,
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply. I made recovery disks when I first ran the
computer but I assume they contain the Sonyware. I have removed much of the
Sony software but since doing so I get the blue screen of death sometimes - I
have run Registry Mechanic and disk clean up to no avail. It's the blue
screen plus some Sonyware that I can'r seem to get rid of that is prompting
me to want to re-format. But I really don't want to buy a new version of
Vista - seems that since I have a legitimate product key I should be able to
download Vista and install it using that product key, but it seems you are
saying that is incorrect - Is my understanding of your reply correct? Thanks
again for the help and advice.
Kim
 
Just a bit of advise, stay away from any registry cleaning tools unless you
know how to verify that what it wants to remove is in fact not needed.
Your upgrade license that you purchased is just that, an upgrade, it does
not allow you to install Ultimate on a formatted hard drive, it allows you
to do what you paid for, upgrade an existing lower version of Vista.
 
David B. said:
Just a bit of advise, stay away from any registry cleaning tools unless you
know how to verify that what it wants to remove is in fact not needed.
Your upgrade license that you purchased is just that, an upgrade, it does
not allow you to install Ultimate on a formatted hard drive, it allows you
to do what you paid for, upgrade an existing lower version of Vista.
Click to expand...
David,

Thanks for the reply - I understand about the upgrade limitation. That is
essentially my question - is there a way to download Vista Home Premium and
install it using the legitimate product key on the bottom of the computer
without buying a new copy? Once I had Home Premium installed (after the
format) I could then perform the upgrade.
Thanks for the advice on the registry tools - I will heed it.
Kim
_________________________________________________________________________________
 
The problem is that the product key on the notebook's sticker most
likely disabled (so you cant clean install an oem Vista Home with that),
and if i know good (never tried Windows Anytime Upgrade) Windows Anytime
Upgrade provides you an Upgrade key. So your problem is that you cant
install Upgrade without a legal Base (if you do it it will not activate)
and you can only install legal Base from Recovery Disc (with Sony's
malware).
So the only fully legal solution here to buy a retail one, the other
ones all gray legally.

Csaba
 
If you can get your hands on a Vista OEM installation disk it is likely that
you can do a clean install with it using your product key. It has to be OEM
as the product key you have is OEM very likely.
 
David B. said:
If you can get your hands on a Vista OEM installation disk it is likely that
you can do a clean install with it using your product key. It has to be OEM
as the product key you have is OEM very likely.

-- David,
Click to expand...

CLICK goes the light bulb...
Thanks again - I think I understand the issues now and what you say makes
sense - I have sent an email to a local IT guy that does work for our company
and may have an OEM disk.
Merry Christmas!
 
It should work, but i know good you will have to call Microsoft because
sticker Product key will requires phone activation to activate it.

Csaba
 
That doesn't apply to this discussion as the OP doesn't have an upgrade CD,
go back and read the entire thread to get caught up.
 
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