New
#1
windows 7 clean install upgrade disc formatting question
I have a laptop which has been giving me a hard time lately, and I need to reinstall windows 7 (for the 4th time in 1.2 years). I have never reformatted it before and all I have is the windows 7 upgrade disk that came with it (I got it back in September when all of those free upgrade deals were going on, it originally had vista.) I read that you can have activation issues after formatting the hard drive while installing using the upgrade disc. I think Microsoft let you do it if your email them to activate it, but I'm not sure and I don't know where you would do this. Since I don't feel like formatting it, installing vista, and then reinstalling 7, can anyone help?
EDIT: Note that I am using the upgrade disk, but you can still do a clean install with the upgrade disk. However, my problem is that in order to be activated (even with a clean install) the upgrade needs to recognize that there was a previous version of windows on the computer. Because formatting erases this, it can cause a problem trying to activate.
Last edited by Dmanrocks22; 27 Oct 2010 at 21:25. Reason: Clarification