Vista Ultimate OEM REinstall

[Rod]

Hi

Long story, short, I rebuilt my home PC yesterday.

I had a 40GB HDD on which I had Vista Premium and my Applications. THIS WAS
running out of space.

I had a 30 GB hard disk on which I had all my docs....plenty of space on
this.

I removed the 40GB disc, installed a new 320GB disc (along with a new video
card, power supply, RAM and DVD burner) and rebooted using F1 command, from
DVD, and installed OEM Vista Ultimate which computer shop sold me as best
(read: cheapest) way to go to Ultimate - especially as I was rebuilding so
much of my PC...IS THAT RIGHT? . All went fine....

....BUT I failed to notice until after activating Vista that I had installed
it on the second HDD (the small 30 GB one 'left over' from my original PC
configuration!!!!!) Bugga...

So now I have a 320 GB hdd with nothing on it, a 30GB hdd with Vista on it
and already only having 12GB of free space, and all my DOCUMENTS that were
on it OVER-WRITTEN by the installation of Vista...

So...questions

1. Anyway to recover those documents, or are they, as I fear, gone????
2. If I reinstall Ultimate OEM again, ON THE RIGHT disc this time !...which
I want to do, as the HDD the OS is on will run out of space at this rate
very quickly when I start loading up my Applications on it.... ...
3. Can it be reactivated by internet or phone? Do I have to reactivate it?

Tks
Rod

 

[Malke]

Hi

Long story, short, I rebuilt my home PC yesterday.

I had a 40GB HDD on which I had Vista Premium and my Applications. THIS
WAS running out of space.

I had a 30 GB hard disk on which I had all my docs....plenty of space on
this.

I removed the 40GB disc, installed a new 320GB disc (along with a new
video card, power supply, RAM and DVD burner) and rebooted using F1
command, from DVD, and installed OEM Vista Ultimate which computer shop
sold me as best (read: cheapest) way to go to Ultimate - especially as I
was rebuilding so much of my PC...IS THAT RIGHT? . All went fine....

...BUT I failed to notice until after activating Vista that I had
installed it on the second HDD (the small 30 GB one 'left over' from my
original PC configuration!!!!!) Bugga...

So now I have a 320 GB hdd with nothing on it, a 30GB hdd with Vista on it
and already only having 12GB of free space, and all my DOCUMENTS that were
on it OVER-WRITTEN by the installation of Vista...

So...questions

1. Anyway to recover those documents, or are they, as I fear, gone????
2. If I reinstall Ultimate OEM again, ON THE RIGHT disc this time
!...which I want to do, as the HDD the OS is on will run out of space at
this rate very quickly when I start loading up my Applications on it....
... 3. Can it be reactivated by internet or phone? Do I have to reactivate
it?

1. The only way to recover the documents is either by using data recovery
software or, if cost isn't a factor and the documents are crucial, send the
drive to a professional data recovery company. See the general data
recovery information below.

2. and 3. Yes, you can reinstall Vista. Yes, you will probably need to call
for activation, but this isn't a big deal. Just tell them you installed it
on the wrong hard drive by mistake. Yes, you must activate.

General data recovery:

*IMPORTANT* - If you think the drive is physically healthy, it may be
possible to retrieve the data by software methods. DO NOTHING FURTHER ON
THE DRIVE. The data is still on the hard drive but if you overwrite it, it
will be extremely difficult or impossible to recover it. If you use data
recovery software, install it on another machine and either use it from
that operating system or create a bootable cd/floppy and work with that. If
you don't have the skill and/or equipment to do these procedures and the
data is crucial, take the machine to a professional computer repair shop
that has experience in doing data recovery. This will not be your local
version of BigStoreUSA. In-shop data recovery is usually not exactly cheap
(for ex., my charges are generally $150-350USD), but it normally costs less
than sending the drive to a company like Drive Savers. You need to make the
determination of the value of your data and decide what to do.

Or you can send the drive to a professional data recovery company like Drive
Savers (my preference) or Seagate Data Recovery. General prices run from
$500USD on up. Drive Savers recovered all the data on a failed laptop drive
for one of my clients and it cost $2,700. He thought it was worth the
money; only you know what your data is worth. I understand that some
insurance companies are now covering data recovery charges so check with
yours.

Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/

Here are some links to various programs. I use Easy Recovery Pro, but it is
expensive. People whom I respect have recommended R-Studio and Restoration.
YMMV. Even the programs that aren't free will usually let you download a
trial version to see if it would recover data before you buy.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software ?Undelete? -
http://www.undelete.com/undelete/undelete.asp
R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
File Scavenger - http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

Malke

 

[Rod]

Tks so much for quick reply....

Rgds
Rod

1. The only way to recover the documents is either by using data recovery
software or, if cost isn't a factor and the documents are crucial, send
the
drive to a professional data recovery company. See the general data
recovery information below.

2. and 3. Yes, you can reinstall Vista. Yes, you will probably need to
call
for activation, but this isn't a big deal. Just tell them you installed it
on the wrong hard drive by mistake. Yes, you must activate.

General data recovery:

*IMPORTANT* - If you think the drive is physically healthy, it may be
possible to retrieve the data by software methods. DO NOTHING FURTHER ON
THE DRIVE. The data is still on the hard drive but if you overwrite it, it
will be extremely difficult or impossible to recover it. If you use data
recovery software, install it on another machine and either use it from
that operating system or create a bootable cd/floppy and work with that.
If
you don't have the skill and/or equipment to do these procedures and the
data is crucial, take the machine to a professional computer repair shop
that has experience in doing data recovery. This will not be your local
version of BigStoreUSA. In-shop data recovery is usually not exactly cheap
(for ex., my charges are generally $150-350USD), but it normally costs
less
than sending the drive to a company like Drive Savers. You need to make
the
determination of the value of your data and decide what to do.

Or you can send the drive to a professional data recovery company like
Drive
Savers (my preference) or Seagate Data Recovery. General prices run from
$500USD on up. Drive Savers recovered all the data on a failed laptop
drive
for one of my clients and it cost $2,700. He thought it was worth the
money; only you know what your data is worth. I understand that some
insurance companies are now covering data recovery charges so check with
yours.

Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/

Here are some links to various programs. I use Easy Recovery Pro, but it
is
expensive. People whom I respect have recommended R-Studio and
Restoration.
YMMV. Even the programs that aren't free will usually let you download a
trial version to see if it would recover data before you buy.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software ?Undelete? -
http://www.undelete.com/undelete/undelete.asp
R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
File Scavenger - http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

 

[Rod]

Quick Follow Up Question....would I reinstall using the Product Key first,
then phone Microsoft for an activation key, or do I need to GET a new key
before reloading??

Tks
Rod

 

[Malke]

Quick Follow Up Question....would I reinstall using the Product Key first,
then phone Microsoft for an activation key, or do I need to GET a new key
before reloading??

You don't need to get a new key. The Product Key is good for as many
installs on the same machine as you need. After the installation is
finished, you'll be prompted to activate Windows. This will probably fail
with the message that the key is already in use. You'll be given a
telephone number - call it and if necessary, wait for a human. It isn't as
awful as it sounds.

Malke

 

[Rod]

many many thanks.

Rgds
Rod

You don't need to get a new key. The Product Key is good for as many
installs on the same machine as you need. After the installation is
finished, you'll be prompted to activate Windows. This will probably fail
with the message that the key is already in use. You'll be given a
telephone number - call it and if necessary, wait for a human. It isn't as
awful as it sounds.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

 

[Rod]

Last question...

before I take the reinstall/reactivate plunge....

....before I noticed (yeah I know...NOT very observant of me...!) that I had
installed Vista onto this small 30gb HDD, I installed Office 2007 and Roxio
onto the separate 320GB D drive. If I reinstall Vista onto the 'new' 40GB
HDD, what happens to the Common Files/App Data/Roaming files etc in the
present, to-be-replaced C Drive??? Obviously they wont be there, but does
Office and Vista 'recreate' them, or should I delete all programs form my D
Drive and then reinstall them as well after I reinstall Vista??' Hope that's
clear...

Rgds
Rod

 

[Malke]

Last question...

before I take the reinstall/reactivate plunge....

...before I noticed (yeah I know...NOT very observant of me...!) that I
had installed Vista onto this small 30gb HDD, I installed Office 2007 and
Roxio
onto the separate 320GB D drive. If I reinstall Vista onto the 'new' 40GB
HDD, what happens to the Common Files/App Data/Roaming files etc in the
present, to-be-replaced C Drive??? Obviously they wont be there, but does
Office and Vista 'recreate' them, or should I delete all programs form my
D Drive and then reinstall them as well after I reinstall Vista??' Hope
that's clear...

I would uninstall those programs and then reinstall them. Start over
cleanly.

Malke

 

[Malke]

Last question...

before I take the reinstall/reactivate plunge....

...before I noticed (yeah I know...NOT very observant of me...!) that I
had installed Vista onto this small 30gb HDD, I installed Office 2007 and
Roxio
onto the separate 320GB D drive. If I reinstall Vista onto the 'new' 40GB
HDD, what happens to the Common Files/App Data/Roaming files etc in the
present, to-be-replaced C Drive??? Obviously they wont be there, but does
Office and Vista 'recreate' them, or should I delete all programs form my
D Drive and then reinstall them as well after I reinstall Vista??' Hope
that's clear...

Sorry, I may have misunderstood you in my last answer. If you're replacing
the system drive completely then you don't need to go through any
uninstalls of anything on a different drive - just delete any folders.
You'll be reinstalling the programs anyway.

Malke

 

[Rod]

All done,,,,2 new 350gb hard disks....one for system/apps one for data,
pics, music. Took all day but nice and clean!!!

Tks for help and advice. I am downunder, so thats why I "take so long" to
reply to you mate!! I am awake, you're asleep (I presume) and vv...

Rgds
Rod
Perth

 

[Malke]

All done,,,,2 new 350gb hard disks....one for system/apps one for data,
pics, music. Took all day but nice and clean!!!

Tks for help and advice. I am downunder, so thats why I "take so long" to
reply to you mate!! I am awake, you're asleep (I presume) and vv...

I'm so pleased to hear that all is well. Thanks for taking the time to let
me know. Yes, I'm in California, USA so there's a big time difference.
Enjoy your new hard drives.

One more thought - Now that you have everything all nice and neat, you may
want to buy an imaging program like Acronis True Image and make an image of
your perfectly working system. This makes restoration a matter of minutes.

Cheers,

Malke

 

[That Guy]

Backup backup backup..........

I'm so pleased to hear that all is well. Thanks for taking the time to let
me know. Yes, I'm in California, USA so there's a big time difference.
Enjoy your new hard drives.

One more thought - Now that you have everything all nice and neat, you may
want to buy an imaging program like Acronis True Image and make an image
of
your perfectly working system. This makes restoration a matter of minutes.

Cheers,

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!