installing vista

[Vernon]

i have a system that has vista oem on the hard drive.
(recovery dvd is on the hard drive.)

can i get the retail version from the internet as a backup install and use
the key with that, or do i have to use the oem dvd as the backup.

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Some OEM versions of Windows Vista are usually hard coded to the system they
are distributed with, which means, they use a specific type of key and
require activation by the OEM. Your computers document should provide
instructions on how to create a Recovery disk or a built in application that
automatically does the process.

If none of those are available its best you contact the OEM about obtaining
media which usually just cost shipping and handling.