Invalid product key from original Vista Ultimate CD

[Guest]

Hello!

I had downloaded the 90-day trial (as an update on WinXP Pro) and used
Windows Vista Ultimate 23-bit without any problems. However, when the time to
actually purchase Windows Vista came, I was not very punctual with the
timing, and I ended up getting that annoying window after startup giving me
the options to active online, log-in with limited functionality, activate by
phone etc. I had tried to do all that but due to the fact that I cannot buy a
Product Key online from my country (Greece) for unknown reasons , I could
not activate by phone since after I called them and provided the installation
ID to the automated voice, I was told, to make a long story short, that I
could not active by phone either.

I ended up buying Windows Vista Ultimate 32-but from a retail shop. Thinking
that I could just enter the product key (from the re-enter your product key
option on the pop-up window at startup), and the product key was wrong- it
was mentioned that I was in use!

I tried booting with the CD, and it appears that I can install Windows Vista
that way, but as you know I would have to format my hard disk and loose
everything! Which I cannot afford by any means.

Which means - I cannot install Vista Ultimate from a Windows environment, my
product key for some reason does not seem to work, and the only way I can
install vista is by formatting my hard disk....nope, I'm not gonna do that!

Is there anybody that might shed some light on how I could resolve my
problem? Could I possible roll-back into WinXP (how?) without losing my
programs and data, and then install Vista from the CD? Any other possible
solutions?

Any help / answer to my post would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot!
Dimitris

 

[peter]

You do not have to format .....you can install into the Vista directory
thats already there.........changing the product key during the
installation.
peter