Can anyone help me with this problem? I upgraded to Windows Vista Home
Premium last week. It worked fine for a little while, then my hard drive
failed. I called my Dell representative, and he said the problem was that my
Dell computer was using a RAID 1 array, which Vista didn't support yet. The
only way to restore my computer was to turn off the RAID array and do a clean
re-install of Vista.

This worked, and everything has been working fine. The problem is that now
Windows Vista wants to be activated (again) and says that my Product Key is
not valid for a clean install. I was legitimately upgrading from Windows XP
to Windows Vista, and only did the clean re-install after the system totally
failed.

Does Microsoft ever make an exception?

The normal upgrade path is to have XP installed first and then install
Vista....Vista needs XP installed.
You might try "upgrading" Vista with Vista and then activate
peter
"hughleef" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:56BEA68D-10E3-45D6-9E32-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Can anyone help me with this problem? I upgraded to Windows Vista Home
> Premium last week. It worked fine for a little while, then my hard drive
> failed. I called my Dell representative, and he said the problem was that
> my
> Dell computer was using a RAID 1 array, which Vista didn't support yet.
> The
> only way to restore my computer was to turn off the RAID array and do a
> clean
> re-install of Vista.
>
> This worked, and everything has been working fine. The problem is that now
> Windows Vista wants to be activated (again) and says that my Product Key
> is
> not valid for a clean install. I was legitimately upgrading from Windows
> XP
> to Windows Vista, and only did the clean re-install after the system
> totally
> failed.
>
> Does Microsoft ever make an exception?

"hughleef" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:56BEA68D-10E3-45D6-9E32-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Can anyone help me with this problem? I upgraded to Windows Vista Home
> Premium last week. It worked fine for a little while, then my hard drive
> failed. I called my Dell representative, and he said the problem was that
> my
> Dell computer was using a RAID 1 array, which Vista didn't support yet.
> The
> only way to restore my computer was to turn off the RAID array and do a
> clean
> re-install of Vista.
>
> This worked, and everything has been working fine. The problem is that now
> Windows Vista wants to be activated (again) and says that my Product Key
> is
> not valid for a clean install. I was legitimately upgrading from Windows
> XP
> to Windows Vista, and only did the clean re-install after the system
> totally
> failed.
>
> Does Microsoft ever make an exception?


Did you install without entering the key? If you did, did you pick the right
version of Vista that matches your key. If yes to both then insert the DVD
and do an "upgrade" from within Vista this time entering your key. You
should now be able to activate. You may have to phone for activation if you
had activated the first installation.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca

Thanks for the advice. I tried this workaround after reading something
similar in the Windows Supersite. Unfortunately, it did't work for me. The
installation gets almost all the way to the end, and then says that Vista was
unable to configure certain components and the upgrade has failed. It then
rolls back to the existing install.

I wonder if Microsoft got wind of this workaround and disabled it because of
the potential for abuse.

"Kerry Brown" wrote:
>
> Did you install without entering the key? If you did, did you pick the right
> version of Vista that matches your key. If yes to both then insert the DVD
> and do an "upgrade" from within Vista this time entering your key. You
> should now be able to activate. You may have to phone for activation if you
> had activated the first installation.
>
> --
> Kerry Brown
> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>
>

"hughleef" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:55EB4597-4CF2-4ABB-B531-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for the advice. I tried this workaround after reading something
> similar in the Windows Supersite. Unfortunately, it did't work for me. The
> installation gets almost all the way to the end, and then says that Vista
> was
> unable to configure certain components and the upgrade has failed. It then
> rolls back to the existing install.
>
> I wonder if Microsoft got wind of this workaround and disabled it because
> of
> the potential for abuse.

Did you choose "custom install" when doing the Vista upgrade? Several "how
to" descriptions around the web don't mention that it fails if you don't do
this, and the errors you're getting sound like what happened to me when I
followed them.

So install the correct version without a key and deselect the 'automatically
activate' option, then after it's working, insert the DVD and install again,
using the key and choose custom install to that same partition (it will save
the old windows folder which you can delete later).

Gary

I just finished "upgrading" an Activated Vista Home Premium Upgrade edition
which I had running for about 3 weeks now and had the windows.old folder
deleted already.
I originally installed as a new install which created the windows,old
folder.I was having problems with the Vista Event Viewer not functioning and
could not turn the service on...no matter what.I finally gave up and decided
to to a reinstall.
This time I installed as an upgrade install which overwrote the previous new
install.I entered the Product Key during the installation and after
installation I activated over the net....no phone call required.
So it is possible to do a "repair" in that manner.......
peter
"hughleef" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:55EB4597-4CF2-4ABB-B531-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for the advice. I tried this workaround after reading something
> similar in the Windows Supersite. Unfortunately, it did't work for me. The
> installation gets almost all the way to the end, and then says that Vista
> was
> unable to configure certain components and the upgrade has failed. It then
> rolls back to the existing install.
>
> I wonder if Microsoft got wind of this workaround and disabled it because
> of
> the potential for abuse.
>
> "Kerry Brown" wrote:
>>
>> Did you install without entering the key? If you did, did you pick the
>> right
>> version of Vista that matches your key. If yes to both then insert the
>> DVD
>> and do an "upgrade" from within Vista this time entering your key. You
>> should now be able to activate. You may have to phone for activation if
>> you
>> had activated the first installation.
>>
>> --
>> Kerry Brown
>> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
>> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>>
>>

"peter" wrote:

> I just finished "upgrading" an Activated Vista Home Premium Upgrade edition
> which I had running for about 3 weeks now and had the windows.old folder
> deleted already.
> I originally installed as a new install which created the windows,old
> folder.I was having problems with the Vista Event Viewer not functioning and
> could not turn the service on...no matter what.I finally gave up and decided
> to to a reinstall.
> This time I installed as an upgrade install which overwrote the previous new
> install.I entered the Product Key during the installation and after
> installation I activated over the net....no phone call required.
> So it is possible to do a "repair" in that manner.......
> peter
> "hughleef" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:55EB4597-4CF2-4ABB-B531-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Thanks for the advice. I tried this workaround after reading something
> > similar in the Windows Supersite. Unfortunately, it did't work for me. The
> > installation gets almost all the way to the end, and then says that Vista
> > was
> > unable to configure certain components and the upgrade has failed. It then
> > rolls back to the existing install.
> >
> > I wonder if Microsoft got wind of this workaround and disabled it because
> > of
> > the potential for abuse.
> >
> > "Kerry Brown" wrote:
> >>
> >> Did you install without entering the key? If you did, did you pick the
> >> right
> >> version of Vista that matches your key. If yes to both then insert the
> >> DVD
> >> and do an "upgrade" from within Vista this time entering your key. You
> >> should now be able to activate. You may have to phone for activation if
> >> you
> >> had activated the first installation.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Kerry Brown
> >> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
> >> http://www.vistahelp.ca
> >>
> >>
>
> I just did a clean install with Vista business. On 2nd. pass, it will not come up to the enter key screen. Any suggestions.

2nd. computer. 2nd. OS 2nd. Key. 1st. put away before I started. (OEM)