Reinstall Vista after wiping hard drive and installing Ubuntu

I decided to leave Microsoft forever, but they keep pulling me back in! Specifically, I need Vista back on my machine to run testing software for my states bar exam.

I wiped my entire hard drive and installed Ubuntu, and now when i try to use the rescue and recovery discs i burned or use the f11 function at startup to run rescue and recovery, it just goes thru the process but the gives me startup error.

I called Lenovo and they said my pc is out of warranty and ill need to pay $45 for the CD's.

Did i lose my vista forever by wiping the hard drive?

Is there some way to get and install vista for free and use my product activation key at the bottom of the pc?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq/120228-clean-vista-install-no-activation.html

Edit: Sorry, it looks like the download links are dead. The license should be in the BIOS or the key is on a label on the PC, so you just need to get the ISO files from somewhere.

 

I'll look into this....it seems a bit complex for my level of skill and I don't understand everything that is written in the post. If I have questions may I direct them to you on this thread?

Yeah really that's all I think I need are the Lenovo Vista Business 64 (SP1? I don't know for sure) .iso's and I should be good with my valid product key right...so where to get those iso's? If anyone can direct me there I'd appreciate it.

 

You might even dare trying to run the testing software with Wine, before going to all this trouble.

 

My brother the Linux nerd who convinced me to switch said that...too bad Ubuntu seems to be gone now..all I have is a rescue and recovery screen from windows/ lenovo that doesn't work. I don't think I can get Ubuntu back w/o reinstalling and that's a hassle b/c he doesnt live near and I have next to 0 Linux knowledge...and he has the install discs I used

 

For a test you could load VirtualBox or similar VM software and run Vista without even activating it in trial mode for 30 days.

Using VirtualBox to run Ubuntu and any other operating system

 

It would probably be simpler to install VirtualBox on Ubuntu, create a VM, and install Vista into that.

However, it still assumes you have the Vista install disks.

Does the Bar Exam software run on Windows 7? If so, the cheapest investment in time and money would be to purchase a retail copy of Windows 7, install it, and move on.

What ThinkPad do you have? Disk size? Amount of memory?

VirtualBox is at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/virtualbox/downloads/index.html