virus/vista problems HELP

i got a virus the other day, called "win32 vitro" and its pretty bad. so i plan on reformatting my hard drive and just reinstalling everything (nothing else to do that i know of) but the vista installation disk i have is a trial or something? i dont have a serial number, and unless i activate it using one, i was on a 30 day trial the first time i installed it. i did activate it recently, but then i got this virus and now i have to erase my HDD.. so if i reinstall vista using this disk, after the reformat, will the disk recognize that i already used the trial? or will it recognize i havent used it because my hard drive info is gone? i know im a complete N3wB when it comes to operating systems, but i gotta learn at somepoint. so, help please? :/

I'm not sure what you have there. Every Vista disc can be considered a trial of sorts. You can install it, then delay activation for 30 days. I believe that can be extended to a max of 120 days. If you don't have a key though, you won't be able to do a permanent install.

johnz said:

I'm not sure what you have there. Every Vista disc can be considered a trial of sorts. You can install it, then delay activation for 30 days. I believe that can be extended to a max of 120 days. If you don't have a key though, you won't be able to do a permanent install.

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oh ok, thank you. but if i already ran the trial for almost 30 days, then erased my hard drive, would it still recognize yhe days i had it running as a trial? like would i only have a certain number of days left?

You'd have to reinstall, and it'll work for another 30 days. That time can be extended, but I don't know how right off hand.

What's your ultimate goal? AFAIK you can do the reinstall every 30 days indefinitely, but that's the hard workers way to pirate :^D If you want something to run on your machine, I would suggest Ubuntu. It's a nice O/S, easy to use, and it looks good. That'll also help with the virus issues ;^)

Where exactly did you get your Vista CD from? Whoever sold it to will tell you how to use it. If you got it from bittorrent or other such sources better stop asking anything about it here, right now.

johnz said:

You'd have to reinstall, and it'll work for another 30 days. That time can be extended, but I don't know how right off hand.

What's your ultimate goal? AFAIK you can do the reinstall every 30 days indefinitely, but that's the hard workers way to pirate :^D If you want something to run on your machine, I would suggest Ubuntu. It's a nice O/S, easy to use, and it looks good. That'll also help with the virus issues ;^)

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haha thanks, i just needed to reinstall because of a virus. bu i cant have any other OS i dont think though, i play a lot of games x3
ill consider it for another hard drive though

pharoer said:

Where exactly did you get your Vista CD from? Whoever sold it to will tell you how to use it. If you got it from bittorrent or other such sources better stop asking anything about it here, right now.

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its legal