Using Genuine Vista Product Key on Someone Else's Disc

[karling07]

Hey,

I just bought an HP laptop that came with Vista Ultimate (x64). If I want to reinstall Vista Ultimate on that laptop (like if I mess it up or something), will it be possible to just borrow my friend's Vista disc (x64) and then put in the product key of the version that HP shipped with the laptop?

Thanks

 

[setishock]

Go to recovery manager and make your own disc's.
And the direct answer is no. The HP disc's have all the drivers already for your laptop.
I just made my disc's yesterday off the laptop. Doesn't take very long to do it. I would suggest you use dvd's or have a stack of cd's handy.

 

[karling07]

Well I have no problem downloading the HP drivers from their website - my biggest concern is that I want to be dual booting with Vista and several other nonwindows OS's. Recovery disks usually restore the ENTIRE laptop to its original state, while all I want is the OS.

Perhaps I would be able to use this:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1593/vista_shrink_partition

To shrink the Vista partition and work from there?