A question about legality.

Actually, you can install win7 with the disk you have and leave windows UNACTIVATED. You can run it in trial mode for upto 120 days (4 months). Hopefully that should leave you with sufficient time and pennies to buy a new license.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...-120-days.html

Since you have the key on the label available for the PC that had the hard drive failure why not use the Vista disk that came with your Lenovo to install Vista and use the correct key, if you end up wishing to go to Windows 7 then simply purchase an upgrade.

gregrocker said:

On the Vista computer, once the HD is replaced you can borrow or locate any Vista installer, unlock all versions if necessary, to install your version with the Product Key on the machine.

You can also order factory Recovery disks from maker to restore to factory condition, but this reinstalls the bloatware which many want to avoid. It's possible your maker will provide just the Vista DVD if you request it, along with a useful apps/drivers disk.

Or you can instead buy a copy of Win7 Upgrade since you have a qualifying Vista license and don't need to have Vista installed to clean install Win7 using one of the workarounds given here: Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

Will probably end up doing this, thanks for clearing it up.