Clean Install of Vista From Upgrade

I had previously upgraded to Vista Home basic which I purchased as a download
from the marketplace. The hard drive failed - upon reinstalling to a new
drive - I can't activate because I am only licensed for an upgrade not a
clean install. Is there a work-around for this issue?

Thanks in advance,

"EdC" <EdC@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B70F5DE7-8E3B-4A04-A1F5-1E803CC15D44@microsoft.com...
>I had previously upgraded to Vista Home basic which I purchased as a
>download
> from the marketplace. The hard drive failed - upon reinstalling to a new
> drive - I can't activate because I am only licensed for an upgrade not a
> clean install. Is there a work-around for this issue?


Clean install and do NOT input your key. Now, once up and running in the
30-day eval mode, put your upgrade disk in and perform an upgrade of the
trial, this time entering your key.

read this article on how to perform a CLEAN install from an UPDATE disk.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5932



mikeyhsd@comcast.net



"EdC" <EdC@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:B70F5DE7-8E3B-4A04-A1F5-1E803CC15D44@microsoft.com...
I had previously upgraded to Vista Home basic which I purchased as a download
from the marketplace. The hard drive failed - upon reinstalling to a new
drive - I can't activate because I am only licensed for an upgrade not a
clean install. Is there a work-around for this issue?

Thanks in advance,