Vista reinstall

Hi everybody,

Okay, my dad has a laptop, it's pretty low spec and has Vista basic. It's running like a dog and I was looking to try and install XP. Since I don't know anybody with an XP disc or own one myself it's out of the question. So I was going to settle with reinstalling Vista. Turns out Toshiba didn't provide us with a disc. There was a restore partition but it's gone. So, is there away to create some sort of recovery disc that can let me do a clean install of Vista or am I snookered?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

kylehimself said:

Hi everybody,

Okay, my dad has a laptop, it's pretty low spec and has Vista basic. It's running like a dog and I was looking to try and install XP. Since I don't know anybody with an XP disc or own one myself it's out of the question. So I was going to settle with reinstalling Vista. Turns out Toshiba didn't provide us with a disc. There was a restore partition but it's gone. So, is there away to create some sort of recovery disc that can let me do a clean install of Vista or am I snookered?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

I'd say you're pretty much screwed on that one...

You're going to have to do a clean install of something, but what?

CommonTater said:

I'd say you're pretty much screwed on that one...

You're going to have to do a clean install of something, but what?

I have both Vista and 7 install discs but they are x64 and Home Premium. I know a guy with Vista 32 but his is also Home Premium and there is no way this laptop will handle it. I hate the way these manufacturers don't supply the OS disc.

There's no such thing as a Vista Home Premium disc.

All the MS install discs contain all editions.

It might say Home Premium on it - but all editions are on there. If you enter the Basic edition product key during installation - that is what you will get.

If you skip entering the product key ( also uncheck activate automatically online ) you will be presented with a list of the Editions - highlight the one you want - obviously Basic, and continue. You have 30 days to enter the key.

You can use your friend's 32 bit install disc - with the product key off the side of your dad's machine.

You need to d/l and copy to cd the drivers for the machine from the manufacturer website.

If you use the key off the side of the machine - you probably need to call the manufacturer ( NOT microsoft) to activate.

Otherwise , you can extract the product key and activation code from the HD , install Vista Basic edition , put the key and activation code back on the HD - no need to call the manufacturer.

kylehimself said:

CommonTater said:

I'd say you're pretty much screwed on that one...

You're going to have to do a clean install of something, but what?

I have both Vista and 7 install discs but they are x64 and Home Premium. I know a guy with Vista 32 but his is also Home Premium and there is no way this laptop will handle it. I hate the way these manufacturers don't supply the OS disc.

SIW2 said:

There's no such thing as a Vista Home Premium disc.

All the MS install discs contain all editions.

It might say Home Premium on it - but all editions are on there. If you enter the Basic edition product key during installation - that is what you will get.

If you skip entering the product key ( also uncheck activate automatically online ) you will be presented with a list of the Editions - highlight the one you want - obviously Basic, and continue. You have 30 days to enter the key.

You can use your friend's 32 bit install disc - with the product key off the side of your dad's machine.

You need to d/l and copy to cd the drivers for the machine from the manufacturer website.

If you use the key off the side of the machine - you probably need to call the manufacturer ( NOT microsoft) to activate.

Otherwise , you can extract the product key and activation code from the HD , install Vista Basic edition , put the key and activation code back on the HD - no need to call the manufacturer.

Thanks buddy, this sounds like the easiest route to take. I'll give it a go. Much appreciated.

Here is a Windows Vista key finder in case you need to extract it from the current installation. Works also on XP and Windows7.

Cheers bud.

Just wanted to say I got the Laptop sorted out. It's running like a dream. Cheers to everybody for the input. You all earned yourselves some rep.

Cheers guys!

Great news.

How did you do it?

Did you use your friend's dvd and the key off the sticker-how did you get it to activate?