Using recovery CDs for install on another computer.?

Question

Hi,

My mum recently bought a laptop with Vista Home Premium installed. Obviously I was soon won over by the eye candy and want to install it on another computer. It is an HP laptop so I used the included utility to create recovery disks. I was wondering if I could boot off the recovery CDs and use them to install Vista on another computer.

Thanks! Replies would be much appreciated.

PS. Spare me your rants on Windows Vista.

Answer 1

A recovery disk does not contain the Windows OS.  It is just a tool to diagnose and fix system issues.  

You need an actual Windows Vista CD, and if it has already been used on one machine, you will get an error when trying to activate it.  You can call MS and tell them you reinstalled on a new machine, that may work.  

Answer 2

If it is a different make and model the answer is no, most recovery disks will check the BIOS of the host machine, most manufacturers like HP put a tag in the BIOS for the recovery Media to check, if it is not found it will give an error and not load. Plus most recovery media will install the drivers for the graphics, sound, lan etc. Putting these into a PC that doesn't have the right hardware will generate a Blue Screen error. You are better off buying a genuine OEM CD from a reputable dealer (not Ebay where the risk of buying a copy with a used licence number is still unacceptably high)

Obviously you were not thinking of using your Mum's Licence number on another machine were you? The Genuine Validation Tool with Vista is very accurate these days, you would find that the number would be flagged by Microsoft and you could find that her valid number is cancelled! It has happened before though I suspect on a number used multiple times rather than twice!

Answer 3

Windows Vista is amazing, so you will see no ranting from me, the people who hate it either 1) Haven't tried it

2) Are too stupid to know how to actually use it

Anyway, sorry to tell you, but the recovery disk can't install Vista to anything, it can only fix errors with Vista.

Answer 4

only way to do this if you have the same modle of computer your mom has. other than this the answer is no, the recovery cd will let you know when you attempt to conduct the process.