What if you need to reinstall Vista but only bought the upgrade?

I have XP and considering getting Vista. Trying to decided between the
upgrade version or the full version but I have a question. Say I buy the
upgrade version and then a year or 2 from now I replace my HDD or my system
crashes and I need to reinstall Vista. Will I be required to reinstall XP
first then Vista if I buy the upgrade version?

RollTide1017 wrote:
> I have XP and considering getting Vista. Trying to decided between
> the upgrade version or the full version but I have a question. Say I
> buy the upgrade version and then a year or 2 from now I replace my
> HDD or my system crashes and I need to reinstall Vista. Will I be
> required to reinstall XP first then Vista if I buy the upgrade
> version?
===================================
Maybe the following article will clarify:

(918884) How to install Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918884/en-us


--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

"RollTide1017" <> wrote in message
news:5DA95670-9A47-43C9-8EA3-...
>I have XP and considering getting Vista. Trying to decided between the
> upgrade version or the full version but I have a question. Say I buy the
> upgrade version and then a year or 2 from now I replace my HDD or my
> system
> crashes and I need to reinstall Vista. Will I be required to reinstall XP
> first then Vista if I buy the upgrade version?


Recently there has been a procedure documented on a variety of sites that
allows for you to install an upgrade addition of Vista without the
qualifying OS being installed. It has not been around long enough or tested
enough to know the long term effects of this, especially on activation, so
for now I can't say that would work for you.

That said the the answer to your question would be yes, reinstall XP then do
the upgrade. There are other ways around this, however. One way is to
image the Vista install after it's activated (and image it regularly part of
a normal backup) and restore the image if a problem arises. I would also
recommend you image the XP installation prior to the upgrade so you have
something to restore if the upgrade doesn't work for you.

The Business, Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Vista come with Complete
PC Backup which is an imaging backup. It can be used to create the Vista
image. Acronis True Image 10 works in both Vista and XP, and does imaging
and file backups. It's a nice program with more features than Vista's
Complete PC Backup.

--
Rock [MVP - User/Shell]

Rock,

Just a note about the backup/restore program. It works, I tested it but you
cannot restore to a different disk - at least it wouldn't allow me to. No
way to change the target drive. It's a limited program - will do the basics
but one of the other disc imaging programs out there would be a better
choice for someone needing the flexibility and power of a better imaging
program.

I'll be making a post about not being able to install Vista x64 to a SATA
drive - and what I've found out so far. Right now I'm testing installing
Vista x86 (32 bit version) to a SATA drive. More later.

Bob S.


"Rock" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> "RollTide1017" <> wrote in message
> news:5DA95670-9A47-43C9-8EA3-...
>>I have XP and considering getting Vista. Trying to decided between the
>> upgrade version or the full version but I have a question. Say I buy the
>> upgrade version and then a year or 2 from now I replace my HDD or my
>> system
>> crashes and I need to reinstall Vista. Will I be required to reinstall
>> XP
>> first then Vista if I buy the upgrade version?
>
>
> Recently there has been a procedure documented on a variety of sites that
> allows for you to install an upgrade addition of Vista without the
> qualifying OS being installed. It has not been around long enough or
> tested enough to know the long term effects of this, especially on
> activation, so for now I can't say that would work for you.
>
> That said the the answer to your question would be yes, reinstall XP then
> do the upgrade. There are other ways around this, however. One way is to
> image the Vista install after it's activated (and image it regularly part
> of a normal backup) and restore the image if a problem arises. I would
> also recommend you image the XP installation prior to the upgrade so you
> have something to restore if the upgrade doesn't work for you.
>
> The Business, Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Vista come with Complete
> PC Backup which is an imaging backup. It can be used to create the Vista
> image. Acronis True Image 10 works in both Vista and XP, and does imaging
> and file backups. It's a nice program with more features than Vista's
> Complete PC Backup.
>
> --
> Rock [MVP - User/Shell]

"BobS" <no-> wrote

> Rock,
>
> Just a note about the backup/restore program. It works, I tested it but
> you cannot restore to a different disk - at least it wouldn't allow me to.
> No way to change the target drive. It's a limited program - will do the
> basics but one of the other disc imaging programs out there would be a
> better choice for someone needing the flexibility and power of a better
> imaging program.
>
> I'll be making a post about not being able to install Vista x64 to a SATA
> drive - and what I've found out so far. Right now I'm testing installing
> Vista x86 (32 bit version) to a SATA drive. More later.

> "Rock" <> wrote

>> "RollTide1017" <> wrote
>>>I have XP and considering getting Vista. Trying to decided between the
>>> upgrade version or the full version but I have a question. Say I buy
>>> the
>>> upgrade version and then a year or 2 from now I replace my HDD or my
>>> system
>>> crashes and I need to reinstall Vista. Will I be required to reinstall
>>> XP
>>> first then Vista if I buy the upgrade version?
>>
>> Recently there has been a procedure documented on a variety of sites that
>> allows for you to install an upgrade addition of Vista without the
>> qualifying OS being installed. It has not been around long enough or
>> tested enough to know the long term effects of this, especially on
>> activation, so for now I can't say that would work for you.
>>
>> That said the the answer to your question would be yes, reinstall XP then
>> do the upgrade. There are other ways around this, however. One way is
>> to image the Vista install after it's activated (and image it regularly
>> part of a normal backup) and restore the image if a problem arises. I
>> would also recommend you image the XP installation prior to the upgrade
>> so you have something to restore if the upgrade doesn't work for you.
>>
>> The Business, Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Vista come with
>> Complete PC Backup which is an imaging backup. It can be used to create
>> the Vista image. Acronis True Image 10 works in both Vista and XP, and
>> does imaging and file backups. It's a nice program with more features
>> than Vista's Complete PC Backup.

Ok I have made images with it but haven't played with the restore yet. I
also have Drive Image 7 installed under XP on this system that's in a
multiboot with Vista, and have images of all drives made under that, and I
just got Acronis True Image 10 - great sale price from Newegg.com at $26.00.
Got it installed on Vista but haven't gone beyond creating the Bootable
Rescue Media. It definitely has more features. For basic image based
backup I think Complete PC Backup is fine for many.

--
Rock [MVP - User/Shell]

That was the plan and intent ... that you would have to reinstall XP.

But it turns out that there is a way to circumvent it and install from
the upgrade version without installing XP first. Even to a completely
blank new hard drive.


RollTide1017 wrote:
> I have XP and considering getting Vista. Trying to decided between the
> upgrade version or the full version but I have a question. Say I buy the
> upgrade version and then a year or 2 from now I replace my HDD or my system
> crashes and I need to reinstall Vista. Will I be required to reinstall XP
> first then Vista if I buy the upgrade version?

Why not tell him the easy way of doin' it? It should save some time since
he IS licensed

http://www.instantvista.com/windows-vista-upgrade.html

This should save you some headache later on. Print it out and save it.


"John Inzer" <> wrote in message
news:...
> RollTide1017 wrote:
>> I have XP and considering getting Vista. Trying to decided between
>> the upgrade version or the full version but I have a question. Say I
>> buy the upgrade version and then a year or 2 from now I replace my
>> HDD or my system crashes and I need to reinstall Vista. Will I be
>> required to reinstall XP first then Vista if I buy the upgrade
>> version?
> ===================================
> Maybe the following article will clarify:
>
> (918884) How to install Windows Vista
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918884/en-us
>
>
> --
>
> John Inzer
> MS Picture It! MVP
>
> Digital Image
> Highlights and FAQs
> http://tinyurl.com/aczzp
>
> Notice
> This is not tech support
> I am a volunteer
>
> Solutions that work for
> me may not work for you
>
> Proceed at your own risk
>

"Zim Babwe" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Why not tell him the easy way of doin' it? It should save some time since
> he IS licensed
>
> http://www.instantvista.com/windows-vista-upgrade.html


The question is, will he have a VALID license after upgrading an upgrade?
Microsoft upgrades work this way:
1) One must have a PREVIOUS valid license to use Upgrade media.
2) This previous valid license serves as the basis for using the Upgrade
media, and the previous license becomes invalid once it is used as the base
for an upgrade.

Which leads to a question: Can an invalid upgrade license serve as the
base for an upgrade of itself? Until now, this has never been the case with
Upgrade products from Microsoft, which leads to this conclusion: the
recently discovered method of using upgrade media to install Vista over
itself is apparently a huge bug, which Microsoft never discovered until it
was pointed out to them. Something tells me that this hole will be filled
rather quickly by Microsoft.

--

Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the original newsgroup and thread.
------------------------------------------------------

Why won't he have a valid license after the upgrade? He has a valid copy of
XP. He purchased an Upgrade Vista copy. Both legal.

Only the install is different, but the results are the same. One
functioning OS on his computer. No problem. Not trying to cheat anyone
here.

Your other question, with an invalid upgrade license. Of course he is
violating the EULA, but will the Microsoft Police catch him? Probably not,
but they screwed up big time if that's the case.

If buildings were built by programmers, the first wind would knock them
down.


"Donald McDaniel" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Zim Babwe" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Why not tell him the easy way of doin' it? It should save some time
>> since he IS licensed
>>
>> http://www.instantvista.com/windows-vista-upgrade.html
>
>
> The question is, will he have a VALID license after upgrading an upgrade?
> Microsoft upgrades work this way:
> 1) One must have a PREVIOUS valid license to use Upgrade media.
> 2) This previous valid license serves as the basis for using the Upgrade
> media, and the previous license becomes invalid once it is used as the
> base for an upgrade.
>
> Which leads to a question: Can an invalid upgrade license serve as the
> base for an upgrade of itself? Until now, this has never been the case
> with Upgrade products from Microsoft, which leads to this conclusion: the
> recently discovered method of using upgrade media to install Vista over
> itself is apparently a huge bug, which Microsoft never discovered until it
> was pointed out to them. Something tells me that this hole will be filled
> rather quickly by Microsoft.
>
> --
>
> Donald L McDaniel
> Please reply to the original newsgroup and thread.
> ------------------------------------------------------
>

"Zim Babwe" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Why won't he have a valid license after the upgrade? He has a valid copy
> of XP. He purchased an Upgrade Vista copy. Both legal.
>
> Only the install is different, but the results are the same. One
> functioning OS on his computer. No problem. Not trying to cheat anyone
> here.
>
> Your other question, with an invalid upgrade license. Of course he is
> violating the EULA, but will the Microsoft Police catch him? Probably
> not, but they screwed up big time if that's the case.
>
> If buildings were built by programmers, the first wind would knock them
> down.
>
>
> "Donald McDaniel" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> "Zim Babwe" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Why not tell him the easy way of doin' it? It should save some time
>>> since he IS licensed

His upgrade license would ONLY be valid if it were installed according to
the EULA for Upgrades.
I'm afraid all these people using this method to do a clean install of Vista
using an upgrade key are in for a big surprise from WGA at sometime in the
future.

DON'T get me wrong: I believe Vista's Upgrade policy is highly illegal
itself.


>>>
>>> http://www.instantvista.com/windows-vista-upgrade.html
>>
>>
>> The question is, will he have a VALID license after upgrading an upgrade?
>> Microsoft upgrades work this way:
>> 1) One must have a PREVIOUS valid license to use Upgrade media.
>> 2) This previous valid license serves as the basis for using the Upgrade
>> media, and the previous license becomes invalid once it is used as the
>> base for an upgrade.
>>
>> Which leads to a question: Can an invalid upgrade license serve as the
>> base for an upgrade of itself? Until now, this has never been the case
>> with Upgrade products from Microsoft, which leads to this conclusion:
>> the recently discovered method of using upgrade media to install Vista
>> over itself is apparently a huge bug, which Microsoft never discovered
>> until it was pointed out to them. Something tells me that this hole will
>> be filled rather quickly by Microsoft.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Donald L McDaniel
>> Please reply to the original newsgroup and thread.
>> ------------------------------------------------------
>>
>
>


While his installation media may be valid, his license would not be valid,
since it would not be installed according to the EULA for an upgrade.

Since Microsoft is not a public police agency, I doubt that their "police"
will get him. But they refer such things to the Courts, who DO.

--

Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the original newsgroup and thread.
------------------------------------------------------