Rescue and recovery not working

[krishnajames]

I wiped my hard drive and installed Ubuntu. Now I need Vista back to use some testing software for my state bar exam. Rescue and Recovery discs as well as f11 system restore keep giving me a startup error. Is Vista gone for good? Lenovo wants to charge me $45 to send discs that will work. Can get an an .iso for this version (Vista Business 64 SP1, I think) somewhere and use my product activation key on the bottom of the PC? I don't have time to search the forums and i'm not really an expert. Please help.

[topmahof Community Moderator · Accepted solution]

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/04/29/windows-vista-with-sp2-rtm-slipstreamedintegrated-dvd-iso-i...

something here should work for you.

[topmahof Community Moderator]

don't put the key in when it says to.  wait until vista is loaded. then reboot. then go to control panel, system and at the bottom put the key in.  you might have to call M$ to get it activated but that only takes 10 min.

[krishnajames]

I know this is really old but I just wanted to come back and say thank you for putting up some answers. I appreciate all people who post solutions at this forum. The solution I used was to reload XP (which I like much more than Vista) and forgo my Vista install. I will probably use XP it forever if I can. Thanks!