Q: After successfully installing Vista. My hard drive crashed (no fault of Vista), so I got a new hard drive and re-installed Vista. The installation went fine as did the activation. However, the next day, I received a notification that the product key is already in use and that need to activate Vista. It will not allow me to activate online, so what can I do?

A: You will need to activate your installation over the phone. Just simply explain to them what happened and they will give you a product activation code. It's pretty quick and painless, usually. The phone system is automated to start with. If for some reason the automated system cannot activate your installation, you will be connected with a real person that can guide you through the process.