vista activation problem

Qlen · 7 Nov 2007 at 22:50

I bought a copy of vista ultimate from ocuk a few months ago and have been using it since. Unfortunately i had a harddisk failure and had to reinstall everything including vista. However upon attempting to activate it tells me the Key is already in use and i need to buy a new one...
Question is, what will happen if it doesnt get activated and secondly is there a way i can get it to activate properly once again without having to shell out another 120 on somthing that should already by working?

thanks

EternalMovement · 7 Nov 2007 at 22:53

Is there not an option there for you to ring Microsoft up and manualy activate over the phone?

Replacing the hard drive is fine and should not affect your licence.

Beerbaron · 7 Nov 2007 at 22:56

yeah should be. i needed to do this when i installed my 64bit vista as i had previously installed 32bit. i got 32bit and 64bit as it was retail and has the same serial.

Qlen · 7 Nov 2007 at 22:59

yeah i just did it over the phone and it worked but im still wondering why it wasnt able to do it over the internet :/

thanks for replies guys

.Lethal · 7 Nov 2007 at 23:13

You can replace any part of your PC except the motherboard and still be legally allowed to re-instal Vista as OEM.

One of the reasons why I went with the Retail version of Ultimate, and the fact you get both 32-bit and 64-bit in the box.

PhillyDee · 8 Nov 2007 at 09:48

When you change any hardware, you have to do it over the phone. After that, if it needs doing again, it has the same hardware signature, and can be done over the t'internet again.