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trevellian
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Registered User regular
I had what I suspect was an MBR corruption - or at least a corruption of one of the files loaded during bootup. The system would get 60-70% through booting, then flash a bluescreen and return to the start of the boot process.
The only way I could get my system to boot was bia going to the recovery CD and re-installing the OEM version that came with the machine initially.
Having done that I was in the process of patching up the OS to get it back to where it was. I downloaded and installed SP1 but before I could go any further I got the message that "this version of Vista is not validated" and was informed that I would be cut off from updates, and have access to the control panel etc removed until I validated the OS.
Not particularly bothered with that in itself as I thought it would be a minor thing to re-validate the OS. However when I tried I simply got the message that "this version is no longer available" and the only options I was then give was to pay 100+ euro to upgrade to Win7 or report my OS as a pirate copy.
I have tried searching for what to do to correct this - as I cannot believe MS can legitimately cripple my machine simply for being 4 years old (some software I have will not run without SP2), however my google-fu hasn't delivered me a clear answer on how to proceed.
Anyone else had this problem? Or know how to approach it?
Please do not just say "upgrade to Win7, it's better anyway" as I will be getting a replacement PC[1] later in the year so I do not want to shell out for a Win7 licence now when I will be getting one with the new machine when I can afford it. I just want my current machine working so that I have something to use for the next few months until replacement kit is bought.
Cheers.
[1] Once I do get replacement kit though this P.O.S. machine will be wiped and installed with a linux flavour to live out it's days as a file server on the home network.
trevellian on
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Not in the window following the "validation" process - but I think I saw one when I was furkling about on the MS site.
I'll check it out tonight.
Try the steps in this article to get the installation validated: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940315
Well it did eventually validate/activate, but I wouldn't say it was without issue ;-p
Bizarrely I had the machine powered on last night but, because of the unmitigated failure to get it to validate the previous night, I didn't even try to validate the OS last night - just updated a few applications.
To my surprise, just as I was finishing up, I noticed that OS updates had started to automatically download so I went to the system details and saw that the OS was now listed as fully activated o.O
So I now have SP2 installed and the OS validated. Still can't get BF3 to run, but I'll try dealing with that later.
Cheers for the help you two.