Vista Upgrade license not working!

I bought (at no small cost) a Vista Ultimate Upgrade retail software to upgrade my PC (running XP Media Center). During the install, the PC blue-screened; I had to restart the install and it told me I could no longer install to that partition but could delete and recreate a new partition. I did this, and the install worked fine, but the license key when entered basically says that I need to have the full version license key! I called Microsoft and they were very helpful: they told me to reinstall XP, then reinstall Vista. I'm flabbergasted.

I delayed the activation or following their advice out of frustration; this was a month and a half ago, I went ahead and installed everything and use the desktop daily. Now, it complains every few hours about being unactivated... and I have the retail software with key sitting on the same desk.

Is there any way I can use my purchased, legitimate key to get this moving? Or do I really have to drop and reinstall XP then Vista then all of my apps? Because if I have to do that, I'll go back to XP and put this Vista on ebay.

 

huh? I seem to recall that previous upgrade offerings from MS required you to have a installation CD from the OS that you were trying to upgrade from... times change though I guess.

I would try calling MS again and maybe speak to someone higher up on the food chain. I can't imagine that there would not be a work around for this issue.

 

I believe there was talk about thsi before.
Pre Vista you just neede the CD - now with Vista you need the "old instal".

Anyway:
One way is just to put XP back on - not bothering with drivers, etc.

The other way, as TabbedOut suggested, call MS again - although I fear you won't get far

 

It's an upgrade so Vista needs the original XP disc to verify it's legit.

 

Thanks - and I have my original XP disk (the full retail disk, not the upgrade, and the key that goes with it) but Vista does not give me a chance to prompt me to insert it as a check. I remember with XP that it would let me install the Windows 2000 disk to verify I owned it. Vista doesn't even ask, it just checks my C: drive.

I tried Microsoft again, and got no where. Is it really this hard?

 

Yes.. They changed the way you upgrade because people were borrowing friends ME discs to install XP upgrade with which breaks the licence.

With Vista you actually need to run the upgrade from within an upgradeable O/S to be granted the upgrade key rights.

 

What probably happened is that when you had the BSOD and then just went along and created a new partition and installed there is that you basically got what the system thinks is an original full installation of _Vista and not an upgrade installation sitting on top of an old XP installation. As a result, the activation system is now "expecting" to get a full retail product key and not merely an upgrade key.

Now, I'm hoping that I'm just wrong and some brighter soul will come along to correct me, but it probably is the case that you'll have to reinstall XP and then do the upgrade installation on top of that so that the activation system "knows" to expect an upgrade product key and doesn't keep demanding a full product key.