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OK so this PC has/had Windows Vista Home Premium before my mom's friend deep-6'ed it somehow. Windows won't boot, it keeps asking for the install media. No disk was given to her with the thing (so she says - she's an idiot so maybe she thought it was a coaster or something). The CD-Key is on the sticker on the side of the case. It appears that at one time it had a restore partition but hitting F11 over and over does nothing. Is there any way to just get the media, the disk itself? She doesn't need a license, its on the sticker. I just need the disk? It doesn't seem that there's anywhere outside a pirate site that has it available for download, and no one will just sell me the disk without asking for $100 for a license which she doesn't need (and couldn't afford if she did need). Any ideas?

i assume telling her to "suck an egg" isn't an option?

where's my money?

leor wrote:

i assume telling her to "suck an egg" isn't an option?

She'd probably give me a blank look and ask "will sucking an egg help?"

leor wrote:

where's my money?

Jared has it, he said he'd get it to you.

Don't you work for a school? Possibly get it from them, if they use Vista?

Your best bet is probably to find someone who already has it and is willing to burn you a copy. Since she's got a legit CD key, I would assume that this is perfectly legal. Make sure it is the same flavor (retail vs. OEM), I don't think the keys for retail will work on an OEM install and vice-versa.

idchafee wrote:

OK so this PC has/had Windows Vista Home Premium before my mom's friend deep-6'ed it somehow. Windows won't boot, it keeps asking for the install media. No disk was given to her with the thing (so she says - she's an idiot so maybe she thought it was a coaster or something). The CD-Key is on the sticker on the side of the case. It appears that at one time it had a restore partition but hitting F11 over and over does nothing. Is there any way to just get the media, the disk itself? She doesn't need a license, its on the sticker. I just need the disk? It doesn't seem that there's anywhere outside a pirate site that has it available for download, and no one will just sell me the disk without asking for $100 for a license which she doesn't need (and couldn't afford if she did need). Any ideas?

What make and model is her computer? Once you know that, the maker's site can point you to how to access the recovery software to either system restore or format and recover.

DancinJack wrote:

Don't you work for a school? Possibly get it from them, if they use Vista?

just brew it! wrote:

Your best bet is probably to find someone who already has it and is willing to burn you a copy. Since she's got a legit CD key, I would assume that this is perfectly legal. Make sure it is the same flavor (retail vs. OEM), I don't think the keys for retail will work on an OEM install and vice-versa.

Work doesn't have Home Premium, and so far I haven't found anyone that does either.

riviera74 wrote:

What make and model is her computer? Once you know that, the maker's site can point you to how to access the recovery software to either system restore or format and recover.

Its an HP m8100n, but from what I can tell HP doesn't sell recovery disks for this thing. They gave her a recovery partition instead, which she appears to have borked. I found a place that sold it, but the site looked fishy - they didn't use https on their checkout, for one thing.

You can contact HP support and buy the discs / try to get them free. They don't sell them separately so you have to contact them. Or you could try going to the Best Buy/Staples/Box Store where she bought it and see if they have some recovery discs for that model around.

I think you can even use another OEM's disc as long as it's the right edition (and bitness?) of Vista. We've used Dell discs (real honest-to-$DEITY Windows discs, not restore images) to reinstall on HPs, for example, and it'll accept the HP license code on the case.

It shows a Dell logo in the About screen, but oh well.

It's really stupid that MS doesn't just make ISOs available to download, since it's not like Windows will work for long without a key /anyway/.

idchafee wrote:

Work doesn't have Home Premium, and so far I haven't found anyone that does either.

It doesn't have to be, you can install any version from any disk. The key determines what gets installed.

Hallucin8 wrote:

You can contact HP support and buy the discs / try to get them free. They don't sell them separately so you have to contact them.

Good luck with that. We've had to do that here at work a few times, and as often as not it is a royal PITA. There was the time it took 3 tries and nearly a month to get them to send the correct recovery discs (they kept sending us discs for the wrong model of PC); then there was the system where the recovery procedure would consistently hang after chugging away for 3 hours (in the latter case we ended up "downgrading" the machine back to XP since we never figured out how to get the Vista restore procedure to complete).

Edit:

FuturePastNow wrote:

idchafee wrote:

Work doesn't have Home Premium, and so far I haven't found anyone that does either.

It doesn't have to be, you can install any version from any disk. The key determines what gets installed.

Interesting, I didn't know that!

No Technet or MSDN sub handy?

Per Microsoft:

File Name: en_windows_vista_with_sp2_x86_dvd_342266.iso
SHA1: 25AD9A776503E6A583BEC07879DBCC5DFD20CD6E
ISO/CRC: E2AD10F9

File Name: en_windows_vista_sp2_x64_dvd_342267.iso
SHA1: AAEE3C04533899F9F8C4AE0C4250EF5FAFBE29A3
ISO/CRC: 80B2EDB5

Should those work with OEM license codes?

FuturePastNow wrote:

It doesn't have to be, you can install any version from any disk. The key determines what gets installed.

Really? So if I have a Business edition I can get home premium on there? I'll try that!

Ryu Connor wrote:

No Technet or MSDN sub handy?

No

idchafee wrote:

FuturePastNow wrote:

It doesn't have to be, you can install any version from any disk. The key determines what gets installed.

Really? So if I have a Business edition I can get home premium on there? I'll try that!

I'm pretty sure. The bitness still matters, though. Every disk installs every version; that's how they do their anytime upgrades- the new key unlocks features that are already there.

I'm sure someone will let us know if I'm wrong.

As long as you use retail or OEM disks your key will work fine. If you try it with a volume license disk it won't work.

Also, seeing as you do actually have the license I see no problem grabbing a copy from the bay...

Thanks to all, the Premium worked!