I wanna go back to Vista, legal.

Ok, this is going to be hard for me to explain...but I know you guys should be able to figure out what I'm trying to say.

I have a HP a6250t (I think). It cam with 32bit Vista Premium. Well, my little IT brother in law (at the time) thought it would be a good idea to put win7 64bit ultimate on there..

Now..I know this sounds crazy...but I don't want an illegal copy of software...I just don't. I looked for the folder that was marked "old" and it's not there. I think he completely deleted Vista.

Is there anyway possible that I can get my 32 bit Vista Home Premium back? I have a legit serial number for it..I just either need the discs or a download or something...I wouldn't even take a chance and call HP as the computer was bought in Nov.2007. I hate it cuz it's activated but I can't install some updates and I can't install and Sp1/SP2, etc.

Just be blunt...am I screwed, or is there a glimmer of hope...

I'm telling you this in hopes you won't tell on me also. I didn't want him to do this in the first place.

I'm too old to be worrying about this...lol..

thanks in advance that you can give...

oh, and all the info in my specs is correct...as far as ram, hard drive, etc.

Her is a link to official and legal Vista install disks you can download and burn. (Dell web site pointing to Digital River, MSs distribution partner)

Dell Community

You can then use your original serial number to activate.

If you still have the Vista recovery partition, you can go from there. It is the easiest solution. Power on and keep tapping F11. That gets you started.

Just know, that everything you didn't save elsewhere (on DVDs or external drives etc.) , is GONE when you use whs' tip with the recovery partition. It wipes the disc clean and re-installs Vista like it was the first day you got it
This machine here also came with Vista that's why I left the recovery partition alone (with HP it's usually the D: drive

-DG

kneel said:

Ok, this is going to be hard for me to explain...but I know you guys should be able to figure out what I'm trying to say.

I have a HP a6250t (I think). It cam with 32bit Vista Premium. Well, my little IT brother in law (at the time) thought it would be a good idea to put win7 64bit ultimate on there..

Now..I know this sounds crazy...but I don't want an illegal copy of software...I just don't. I looked for the folder that was marked "old" and it's not there. I think he completely deleted Vista.

I don't think that sounds crazy at all. With the plethora of great free software that is available, I just don't see a reason to pirate any software. If the commercial version is really that much better than the free alternatives, then in my opinion it should be worth the price. I haven't used any pirated software now in years and years and years.

Paste a snapshot of your hard disks @ Disk Management console, maybe the recovery partition is still intact.