I recently posted a question about installing an upgrade disk of Vista onto a new HD. Got some suggestions, here is what I have found in my particular case. I tried installing on a blank disk and when I entered the product key it asked to insert the Windows XP disk. I inserted it but the install stopped. I then did another install w/o the product key and it went OK and the OS worked OK, but when I tried to activate, it would not because I did not install over an XP program. Reformatted the disk, installed XP and all the drivers I could think of and then ran the Windows Vista upgrade advisor. This is key, because it detected some files (like net framwork and a couple of others) that needed to be installed before installing the OS. It hasn't been worry free, but so far is working OK and I got the activation OK. Gotta play by Bill's rules I guess.
Regards,
Larry
Regards,
Larry