Windows Vista ultimate OEM

[Steve]

What can I do to my computer, from its original specification, before my OEM of Vista starts complaining at me?

I'm thinking an extra TB or so of HDD, another couple of GB of RAM.

Say I wanted to remove the existing single (250GB) HDD and replace it with two 500GB HDDs, would I be allowed to reinstall on the new HDDs?

I built the system myself.

 

[Spark123]

32bit or 64 bit o/s?
You can utilise up to I think it is 3.5gb of memory with a 32 bit version, the 64 bit can take a chunk more.
Shouldn't be an issue replacing a hard disk, thats a lot of storage space is a TB! Replaced mine without issue, installed more RAM and replaced the processor too.
How are you looking to install the hard disks, as a RAID (you'll need m/b drivers to make them work).

 

[TonyWarrington]

Say I wanted to remove the existing single (250GB) HDD and replace it with two 500GB HDDs, would I be allowed to reinstall on the new HDDs?

Why not? Presumably you have a paid for Windows Vista CD and will do a clean install rather than porting over from old HD (Vista may complain about that due to hardware changes?).

The question of whether you are allowed to do it - well I think the MS rule is that you must not leave the old version on your original HD and then sell it. So if you do not tell them we wont either

EDIT: As Spark123 said with 32bit system you are limited to 4GB. Windows itself will probably report memory from 3 - 3.5GB

Windows 64-bit. Depends on what edition of Vista you are using
Home Basic is limited to 8GB
Home Premium is limited to 16GB
Business, Enterprise and Ultimate 128GB.

Although memory is relatively cheap you should check if there is any benefit for the applications you are likely to use by adding more RAM. Also important to check MB max memory limits

 

[Deluks]

You could get a disk imaging program and simply clone the OS partition over from the old to new. but the program will need to make the partition the same size as the original, splitting up the storage space on the new drive (a good idea anyway tbh)

2GB memory is minimum, 4GB is cheap enough, but Vista will only use 3.2ish, as mentioned.

The latest Vista updates will see and report that all 4GB are available, but will still only be using about 3.2ish.

If any probs occur then call the Microsoft activation line and tell them to sort it. If you are a paying customer then you don't deserve to be messed about by their anti-piracy measures.

 

[gcol]

The latest Vista updates will see and report that all 4GB are available, but will still only be using about 3.2ish.

Untitled

• gcol
• 7 Jun 2008
• 1

I have 4 Gb of RAM, but Vista on my PC only recognises 3.5GB, the other 0.5GB is wasted on 32 bit.

 

[Adam_151]

It will neep at you after so many 'major' hardware changes and ask to be re-activated, usually you just click the button and it will do it over the net, but if you are frequency swapping hardware it might get suspicious and you may have to call them

Its no big issue!