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#1
Windows 7 Product Key after Reformating
So I am planning to reformat my hard drive because its performance has been reduced to trash lately. My biggest concern is that I purchased Windows 7 upgrade as a student offer from Digital River and I still have the product key but Digital River seems to have discontinued having the file on their servers.
Anyways I managed to find the now provided ISOs but now I am worried about my product key. From what I understand, the offer was an upgrade so there are a few questions raise:
- Can I use the product key to validate a clean install?
- Do I have to install Vista first, via recovery, then install Windows 7?
- Most importantly, can I use the product key more than once? Provided I format the hard drive of the original machine.
Google has lead me to mixed results of yes-no's and I would appreciate clarity.