You have a few options: Upgrade Product Key This requires a license to upgrade from. Typically you need your old version of Windows installed. There are some workarounds posted particularly for users in the same situation as you, that need to replace hard drives etc. and only have the upgrade media (as most systems are medialess now unfortunately). Otheres require an absolute clean installation after formatting with the likes of DBAN to get rid of Malware/Virus infections and don't have the old media. Without these workarounds users wouldn't be able to activate. Firstly you can buy the upgrade and use the Digital River .iso to install there is no point in doing a double install (Vista than 7). The Digital River .iso will allow you to boot from the media you created from it (USB or DVD - USB Recommended). Look at my wiki A Clean install of Windows 7, you should install Windows 7 but don't input the product key and select skip when prompted to enter the product key. The Upgrade Product Key won't work directly with product activation however if you follow the instructions in Step 11d - a small workaround using slmgr in the command prompt it will activate without an issue thus allowing for clean installation (maximal performance). As you are installing on a eligible system the workaround is perfectly valid and you will still be correctly licensed. Again it will save you time sourcing your Vista Media, Reinstalling Vista/Upgrading to 7 and prevent loss of performance from upgrading from Vista to 7. OEM Product Key You can also consider using the systems builder or OEM version of Windows 7: [URL] Its essentially identical to the retail version but cheaper and allows for clean installation. The only drawback is that it is tied to the computer it is first installed on i.e. it is non-transferrable. Retail Product Key You can also buy the retail full version but this is the most expensive choice.
I have a Dell Studio 540 I bought in 2009 that came with Vista 64-bit pre-installed. I didn't get any Vista install discs but instead had a recovery partition (D). I didn't create any backup discs at the time. Now my hard drive is about to crash and burn (I'm getting "imminent failure" warnings from Vista and from Dell's diagnostics). I've purchased a new hard drive, but I want to know how to reinstall Vista on the new drive once it's replaced my failing one. I'm trying to create recovery/OS reinstall discs, but I'm not finding a way. I don't seem to have any Dell backup software to do this, neither Datasafe or Dell Backup. (My hard drive was previously wiped clean and Vista reinstalled a couple of years ago when my video card failed. Maybe these apps got wiped out at that time, I don't know.) I still have the recovery folder on my (still) working hard drive and have also copied it to an external hard drive. Can anyone tell me how to create install discs so I can reinstall Vista to my new hard drive?
How do I create reinstall discs for Vista from my recovery partition?