Cheapest upgrade 32bit to 64 bit on DELL

[chrisbaker42]

I have just bought a new machine that has Vista Home basic pre-installed and I want 64bit. The machine I have replaced had Home Premium 64bit but as that was OEM it is still installed on the computer and so I can't use the cd on this new machine. What is my cheapest option for getting 64bit on this machine?

 

[Jiff Lemon]

Another OEM disk is probably the cheapest way.

Which model Dell have you got? We've had issues with some of them when trying to install 64bit O/S's

 

[chrisbaker42]

Inspiron 531

 

[Chrisoldinho]

Does the CD from the 1st one not work with this one? At the end of the day you did buy it and you are only using it on 1 computer so I can't see how your violating the license.

Another quick workaround is to remove the product id from the PID.txt in the Sources folder on the DVD drive (you will need to extract to a temporary folder and re-burn to a DVD do this), once done simply select the version you want in the Vista setup, it will install and give you 30 days to activate. Now simply buy a license when it prompts

You are not doing anything illegal here and it means you can get working much faster without having to wait for another DVD to arrive in the post.

Hope this helps, Chris.

 

[chrisbaker42]

I sold the first machine complete with the installed vista so although I still have the disc it is licensed to the old machine.

 

[AV_Fodder]

Officially an OEM licence is only for one machine and can't be moved to another. That's why they have the retail version, you're allowed to (in a limited way) move that to another machine.

Vista does allow you to install without entering a serial and then gives you 30 days to activate (like chrisoldinho said above). In that 30 days you can get another licence and use that serial when you activate; it's the first thing Vista asks for one you activate it if it's not already entered.

 

[mwallan]

if both machines are dell then the OEM dell software will install should have no issues. I have treied this on 2 dell laptops we have, one had xp and the other vista. now both had vista and xp in dual boot mode and no issues at all

 

[chrisbaker42]

No the old machine was a self build.