I hav an Acer Laptop aspire 4720Z... it came wid a preinstalled win vista...now in it there is a hidden partition which occupies 20GB hard disk space.....i hav a DVD of vista which can install vista....but it is a pirated one...so when it asks for key i enter my OEM key...i wish to know if i can use the key if i remove the partition......and if yes then how can i remove that partion.....

Well if you are going to format the whole Hard drive then you can use the your original installer to delete the hidden partition then make a new one. But be aware that it'll lose it's data once you've delete it and made a new partition. Want A Weekly Update on Latest System Security Problem http://www.systemsecurityinstitute.org

I think the answer is no you cannot , I do not usually answer post about " pirate software " but in this case it would not matter is the DVD was genuine , the key you have on the case of your machine refers to your OEM pre installed copy of vista , you can however make a reinstall copy from the partition and then delete the , usually drive d: partition , How to do this can be found in your manual .