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Hello fellow boarders,
In my ongoing struggle to reinstall my (deeply) corrupted Vista system, I am losing patience. Twice has Microsoft said they sent for me an install disk, and twice has it never arrived even weeks after is was supposedly shipped. I'm wondering if I could download (illegally) an image of the install disk, and then install Vista with my valid and legitimately-obtained product key. Will it be the same as if I had used Microsoft's supplied disk? I hope so.
Thanks
I believe it should be. All the editions of Vista (Home, Home Premium, Business & Ultimate) are all the same DVD image; it's just the key you use to install it that disables certain features depending on the edition the key is for.
Although, there might be a difference between the MSDN, Retail & OEM versions of the DVD. Also, you'd want to thoroughly scan it for viruses...
I see. Yes, the most reliable image I found online is an MSDN copy, in contrast to the "support" copy I was supposedly sent. Perhaps there will be no debilitating difference.
You can always download it and see. It will either accept your product key or it won't.
Yes, it worked.
For anyone out there who ever tries to prepare a Vista Installation via USB flash drive, using GParted, make sure to format to NTFS. Some guides online say FAT32, but that gave me nothing but trouble.
I think you mean NTFS. Yes, I have installed Win7 from a USB drive a many times and NTFS works just as fine.