no hdd- have vista coa-?????

[oldtimertoo]

i'm looking at dell that has no hdd, hence no o/s. It has a vista coa sticker on it. How do I turn that into an o/s? What does it cost and how do I do it? Thanks!

 

[Saga Lout]

You would need to buy a hard disk and find a Dell Vista DVD to install on but it may not work if that DVD is branded with the Product Key that matches the CoA of the machine with which it was shipped. You could make good use of the machine if you installed a free Linux operating system on it.

 

[oldtimertoo]

Yeah,that's what I was concerned with. I can borrow a friends vista but I don't want to spend money on the machine, and then buy a hard disc only to find it wont work. The machines a good buy, bur not that good. But what would you do if you totally crashed your HDD and you didn't have a system disc? Isn't that what a coa is for? Also, tell me about Linux-can you access windows programs and surf the web? And can you access websites like Youtube?

 

[Saga Lout]

In general, Linux will do anything Windows can - sometimes more and often better. A hard disk is essential unless you want to load a Live CD of Linux every time or at least every morning. Vista would need an 80Gb but Linux can sit quite happily on a 40 and one of those would cost no more than £10 or $15 or 350,000 Greek Drachmas

If the guy who has the original is still using it with Vista in another Dell, you won't be able successfully to activate it anyway.

 

[JDFan]

Yeah,that's what I was concerned with. I can borrow a friends vista but I don't want to spend money on the machine, and then buy a hard disc only to find it wont work. The machines a good buy, bur not that good. But what would you do if you totally crashed your HDD and you didn't have a system disc? Isn't that what a coa is for? Also, tell me about Linux-can you access windows programs and surf the web? And can you access websites like Youtube?

The COA is used to activate the install if you do not use the DELL image so as loong as you have that you should be able to use any iso image of the OS to install and activate your install on a new HDD --- Since it is a DELL OEM install just go to the Digital River website (the official MS sownload site) and download the proper version for the key you have ( ie. Home, Professional,Ultimate ) as the COA key will only work with the proper version but can be used for either 32 or 64 bit edition of that version! -- Here is a link ( http://techpp.com/2009/11/11/download-windows-7-iso-official-direct-download-links/ ) to a list of the various downloads (the second section links directly to digital river for bootable isos that have SP1 included so I'd suggest using them instead of the SOFTPEDIA links in the first sectin !)

Once you download and burn the iso to a disk use it to install the OS and one of 2 thngs will happen --
1.) Since it is a DELL OEM MOBO the install will activate on it's own with no need to use the key (you're done)

2.) The install will not activate and you will need to run the activation wizard and change the key to the key on your COA using the option to change the product key -- when doing this one off 2 things will happen
2 a ) IT will be successful and activate (again you're finished)
2 b ) It will fail to activate and you will need to speak to a MS rep by calling the # it gives you -- if this happens just call and give the rep the asked for info and they will provide you with an activation code.