Windows 7 from Vaio to Dell Studio, how in the world?

Hello Everyone:
I'm new to this site and after reading and reading and then some more I have no choice but to ask for help. I have a dell studio running Windows Vista Premium 32bit, ran the upgrade advisor and found that I can upgrade to W7 Premium. I bough an upgrade cd for W7 premium 32bit on ebay, it is from a Sony Vaio, it came with the activation number/key. Can I use the cd to upgrade my dell to W7?, if possible i would like to get rid of Vista completely, any suggestions. Thanks for your attention, JIM

We have now helped with enough of these Sony Upgrade Kits that we know the DVD provided is not bootable, but you can run the files in the Win7 32 bit folder you'll find when browsing the DVD. Several have reported the key worked on another brand machine, which was surprising.

It's best to convert those files into an ISO to burn to DVD using this method: https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/32055-bootable-iso-create-installation-files.html You can burn the ISO from the same drop-down menu on the page where the ISO is created.

You can then boot the DVD to use Custom>Drive Tools to format the HD before install. It can also be used for repairs when Win7 will not start.

If you want to just run the files, then be sure to make a Win7 Repair CD, after saving a Backup Image externally so you never have to reinstall Win7 again.

@ gregrocker, so doing what you just told me, I can install windows 7 and use the key that it came with to activate and have a full version, right?.

We have had two recent cases where users clean installed and activated Sony Upgrade Kit on another brand computer. This is not supposed to work since the keys are supposedly tied to the S/N of the intended machine. But they are also supposed to ship a clean-copy DVD of Win7 in these Upgrade kits and Sony didnt' do that either. So it might be that these are either retail Upgrade keys which can migrate, or OEM keys not yet tied to the hardware until installed. You will have to install and attempt to activate to find out.

If you don't want to delete your current installation, shrink it in Disk Management to create and format a new partition, then run the VAIO setup file from your existing OS. See if it will take the key.

Hi:
Finally I got the dvd ready to go with those pesky files, vlite version 1.2 didn't work had to use version 1.6. Now my question is which installation and tutorial to use?. I would like to remove vista completly from my laptop and leave no trace of it.

Clean Install Windows 7

When you boot the DVD it will scan the HD, see Vista and pass a flag to allow Upgrade key.

Got it!, finally decided to take the plunge and it worked awesome, everything installed correctly and without a problem. Finally got rid of vista completly and got myself a fresh and new Windows 7, thanks to FZ21Z and specially to gregroker for the great help. You got yourself another loyal visitor. I will recommend Sevenforms.com to everyone. Thanks!.