Formatted new hard drive, registering vista?

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cinohpa

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 11, 2007
Messages
288
I just got a new hard drive and formatted it. I told vista not to register me so that I could get everything running and make sure it was good in case I had to call them to explain that I needed to register vista again on a new hard drive (save myself the trouble of doing it twice).

I went to the start up center to "register online" but I only had to fill out forms with my information on them. I never had to actually put in my cd key or anything.

What do I need to do to register my copy of vista?

Thanks.
 
Did you use a retail disc or an OEM disc? Many OEM discs don't require you to enter a serial. Usually you have to enter it during the Installation process.

Also, you're confusing Registration with Activation. Registration is optional. Activation is not.
 
Registration and activation aren't the same thing. You should be able to tell on the system summary screen, where it shows the version, proc info, etc if it is activated or not.
 
Alright. One other question, it's been basically impossible to update anything. When I go to download updates, the dl screen starts but absolutely no progress is made for hours.

This continued to happen after I tried to update once but cancelled because my updates froze at about 55%.

Could this be because my vista's not activated?

(I'm not at my machine right now so I can't check all this out.Thanks for clarifying activation/regisration.)
 
cinohpa said:
Alright. One other question, it's been basically impossible to update anything. When I go to download updates, the dl screen starts but absolutely no progress is made for hours.

This continued to happen after I tried to update once but cancelled because my updates froze at about 55%.

Could this be because my vista's not activated?

(I'm not at my machine right now so I can't check all this out.Thanks for clarifying activation/regisration.)
Click to expand...

No, it should be able to update even before registering the serial number with Microsoft. I know I went through all updates possible and made sure my machine was running solid for several days before I finally uploaded to Microsoft.
 
if you can't windows update, check windowsupdate.log (c:\windows\windowsupdate.log) Its pretty much a load of technogarble, but if you see any errors in there you can google them.
 
Thanks for mentioning checking the log for errors. I do have an error (800703f0) it seems like other people have had it too.

I'm trying one solution out but I'm still not showing anything downloading yet so it might not be working.

Anyone else familiar with the error?

. . . does windows update just stop for hours at a time and not download anything?

I've checked a couple sources and everything seems to be saying that the downloads should be working.
 
Final update: Even after activating vista updates would still not download.

I reformatted and haven't had a problem sense, my vista's all updated again.
 
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