A Quick Question About Installing Vista's License & Partitions

I just had a quick question: My current Vista install is screwed up (reporting .NET Framework 3.0 is not installed, yet its checked completely in Add/Remove Windows Features; corrupt system files, etc.), so I'm needing to reinstall. The problem is I'm without a backup medium ATM, so my plan is to create a new partition, install Vista, copy over my files from the old (current) installation, and format my current installation.

My question is this: is this even allowed under the license (Vista Ultimate Upgrade disk I got from my university)? My only real concern is will it block activation. I'll be using the 'clean install' method with the upgrade disk (I still own a valid XP license, but trying to upgrade from it caused a lot of issues last time I tried, so I use the Upgrade Vista over Itself method to get a clean install...seeing as I still own XP, it seems like playing by the rules to me). My only concern is activation; do I have anything to worry about? Would it be best to activate the new install *after* moving everything over and formatting the old install?

Thanks in advance.

You are installing on the same hardware, so as far as I can guess, the keys Vista generates from your hardware should be exactly the same as they were the first time. There isn't anything stopping you re-installing on the same hardware as far as i know.

I see no reason why not, though you do seem to be going a faffy way around reinstalling while keeping data - why not just backup the data you need to another disk (or take a full disk image) then reinstall and restore the data from backup? It's what I'd do.

I've already got the new partition made; now its just a matter of installing Windows on it, and dropping in my old data. I won't have to repartition until its time to delete the old Windows install. ^_^

Besides, my external HDD died about 3 weeks back and I haven't gotten to replace it yet. >.<

Are you planning to use the Windows install on the new partition for the future, or is it just a stopping gap?

If It's just a stopping gap, remember that you have 30 days grace period to activate it :)
If you're changing it again within 30 days, I wouldn't activate it and risk the hassle.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Agent

Are you planning to use the Windows install on the new partition for the future, or is it just a stopping gap?

If It's just a stopping gap, remember that you have 30 days grace period to activate it :)
If you're changing it again within 30 days, I wouldn't activate it and risk the hassle.

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I won't be changing it again; it'll be my new day-to-day install (the current one I'm one has several problems and corrupted system files, so it'll be formatted as soon as I copy all my data off of it).

Honestly, I don't see a problem since its the exact same hardware...same hard drive, eve,, just a different partition. Still, I likely won't activate the new install until after I format the old one. ^_^

Update: I did the online activation from within Windows with no issues at all. :mrgreen: