Re-using "Pre-Activated" W7

Jim:

Thanks for this very useful information.

Just to be clear, I am trying to repair my old Dell Studio XPS-8000.  It shipped to me with a backup copy of W7 in a HD partition, and no backup CD.  Thinking that my problem might be in W7 I tried to replace W7 from the partition. I received error messages that somthing was corrupted ("could not find boot manager", etc).  After lots of conversation with Dell Support they are sending me a "pre-activated" W7 CD which I will install - no key needed.

I suspect that my problem is hardware related and I will ultimately need to replace the current Dell MB (DP55M01).  If I replace with a non-Dell MB of same form-factor I would like to install W7 from the provided CD.  I have located the COA (Product Key) label on my Dell PC, which may be helpful.

Does any of the above change the procedure you outlined in your prior posting?  Easiest first step is to call Microsoft and see if they will let me re-install W7 from Dell CD.  Do you happen to know a contact phone number (or web page) for this?

Thanks again.  I really appreciate your advice on this.

--
Gerry