reinstall on a new harddrive

my seagate hard drive failed, so i replaced it with a temporary hitachi...
after i installed vista onto it it told me that the key is already in use.
can anyone suggest how i can work around this? or is that it .. one hardware
failure and youre screwed?

any help will be appreciated, i have 2 days

maybe i should have included that this is a perfectly legitimate copy of
vista that was previously installed and registered on the seagate hard drive.

"shybashfulguy" wrote:

> my seagate hard drive failed, so i replaced it with a temporary hitachi...
> after i installed vista onto it it told me that the key is already in use.
> can anyone suggest how i can work around this? or is that it .. one hardware
> failure and youre screwed?
>
> any help will be appreciated, i have 2 days

You have to do the phone activation bit, and hang on until you get a real
person.
The Product Key IS in use, by YOU! That is at microsoft from the 1st
activation

"shybashfulguy" wrote:

> maybe i should have included that this is a perfectly legitimate copy of
> vista that was previously installed and registered on the seagate hard drive.
>
> "shybashfulguy" wrote:
>
> > my seagate hard drive failed, so i replaced it with a temporary hitachi...
> > after i installed vista onto it it told me that the key is already in use.
> > can anyone suggest how i can work around this? or is that it .. one hardware
> > failure and youre screwed?
> >
> > any help will be appreciated, i have 2 days

Thanks Mick .. did the thing .. it was simple.. I am obviously MORE simple ...

cheers

"Mick Murphy" wrote:

> You have to do the phone activation bit, and hang on until you get a real
> person.
> The Product Key IS in use, by YOU! That is at microsoft from the 1st
> activation
>
> "shybashfulguy" wrote:
>
> > maybe i should have included that this is a perfectly legitimate copy of
> > vista that was previously installed and registered on the seagate hard drive.
> >
> > "shybashfulguy" wrote:
> >
> > > my seagate hard drive failed, so i replaced it with a temporary hitachi...
> > > after i installed vista onto it it told me that the key is already in use.
> > > can anyone suggest how i can work around this? or is that it .. one hardware
> > > failure and youre screwed?
> > >
> > > any help will be appreciated, i have 2 days

These days, no-one explains anything, lol.
We are all left in the dark to find out for ourselves.

"shybashfulguy" wrote:

> Thanks Mick .. did the thing .. it was simple.. I am obviously MORE simple ...
>
> cheers
>
> "Mick Murphy" wrote:
>
> > You have to do the phone activation bit, and hang on until you get a real
> > person.
> > The Product Key IS in use, by YOU! That is at microsoft from the 1st
> > activation
> >
> > "shybashfulguy" wrote:
> >
> > > maybe i should have included that this is a perfectly legitimate copy of
> > > vista that was previously installed and registered on the seagate hard drive.
> > >
> > > "shybashfulguy" wrote:
> > >
> > > > my seagate hard drive failed, so i replaced it with a temporary hitachi...
> > > > after i installed vista onto it it told me that the key is already in use.
> > > > can anyone suggest how i can work around this? or is that it .. one hardware
> > > > failure and youre screwed?
> > > >
> > > > any help will be appreciated, i have 2 days