Groundbeef
02-23-2009, 06:51 AM
Well, after much tinkering, I have been able to get my laptop working again. Unfortunatly, the data on the original C: drive has been totally lost. I have put it in a safe place, and if I can spend the money down the road I may try to get it recovered.
I pulled the D: drive out, and made it the new "C". I tried to install XP, but there was an issue with the SATA drivers, and I couldn't get it to work. On a whim, I popped in a copy of VISTA, and it didn't have a problem.
So I went to Circuit City, and got a copy of Vista Home Premium for $65. The only problem I had was that it was an "upgrade" copy. I forced a clean install on the drive, and it worked perfect....until I tried to activate. Because it was an "upgrade" copy, one is not supposed to do a clean install.
I contacted MS, and to my suprise and delight, they were more than happy to activate it for me. Because I had the key to my XP copy, they were able to verify that I qualified to "upgrade".
I hooked up the laptop to the internet, followed the tech's instructions, and was activated within 10 minutes.
Now I am in the process of rebuilding programs, installing old stuff. I will be also be much more diligent about backing up critical files.
I pulled the D: drive out, and made it the new "C". I tried to install XP, but there was an issue with the SATA drivers, and I couldn't get it to work. On a whim, I popped in a copy of VISTA, and it didn't have a problem.
So I went to Circuit City, and got a copy of Vista Home Premium for $65. The only problem I had was that it was an "upgrade" copy. I forced a clean install on the drive, and it worked perfect....until I tried to activate. Because it was an "upgrade" copy, one is not supposed to do a clean install.
I contacted MS, and to my suprise and delight, they were more than happy to activate it for me. Because I had the key to my XP copy, they were able to verify that I qualified to "upgrade".
I hooked up the laptop to the internet, followed the tech's instructions, and was activated within 10 minutes.
Now I am in the process of rebuilding programs, installing old stuff. I will be also be much more diligent about backing up critical files.