First install, from the boot, put the activation numbers/details into the area required, the second install leave blank. The first time, in boot fashion, using the Vista upgrade disc and the second time, not in boot fashion but by simple install from disc placed in the DVD/CD chamber. I had a go at Microsoft Australia today and suddenly I was advised that in order to reactivate the upgrade of Vista Home from XP SP2, I would need to reinstall the Vista upgrade disc twice. For all your work, I owe you the courtesy of advising todays developments in case others have the same problem as myself, in losing the Vista Home Premium upgrade facility for reasons not necessarily their own (like myself) and failing to get support. Guru, a little more info you may be appreciative of.Ī bit late at night, but I've had a very productive period on my main concern, activating an updated version of Vista Home Premium. Mr Guru, please, in words of one syllable and appreciating that my knowledge of various aspects is limited, can you advise me how to solve this. I'd like to do this because I will personally use XP with my favorite 'older' programs which Vista rejected and the kids can use Vista.

I have sufficient space in my four partitions to install Windows XP on one, upgrade it to Vista and then install XP on another partition to dual boot. I have used Easy BCD and Vista Boot Pro 3.3 and followed instructions shown on various forums, but nothing seems to work.By this time, the 30 days had gone and I had to again reinstall Vista. Once it got to the stage where it rebooted to finish its work, it couldn't access the drive to do so. I have a 250 gig hard drive, broken down into 4 partitions. So, I got out my original XP SP2 disc and decided to reinstall it, to show Microsoft that I wasn't cheating. Microsoft Australia simply advised me to reinstall my XP and that Vista would do the right thing. I also saw that the upgrade facility on my Vista disc had been deactivated. I was advised that 'or else' meant, buy another, or another activation code. It would seem that I did a 'clean' install which Microsoft didn't like and I had 30 days to activate it, or else. Well, without thinking, I reinstalled it, but of course, my XP no longer existed. Something went wrong and on succeeding, it crashed after I had activated it. I decided to upgrade XP Home to Vista Home Premium. I have been battling now for over a month trying to find a solution to my specific problem. I'm an oldie, not terribly computer savvy, but my grandkids are not terribly impressed with me.

Xp home vista upgrade