Oh you bast*rd!
It knocked out my Vista activation again!
These betas just don't like my OEM 'version'.....
And I don't have a spare Primary partition to do my 're-activation' trick.
So I'll have to delete ubuntu, install Vista, reactivate, format that partition and restore ubuntu. And I get to do it all again in about a months time.
At least I'll see if the Acronis back up works