Activating windows 10 after major hardware change help

NavyLCDR said:

I wish there was a way to create favorites on this forum - your method would definitely be at the top of favorites!

You can create a favorites folder in your subscriptions and then move whatever thread into it.

NavyLCDR said:

I wish there was a way to create favorites on this forum - your method would definitely be at the top of favorites!

On the Seven Forums at one time there had been a guide for extending the trial period for 7 upto 120 days legally which was removed to avoid any type of problem with MS! You won't be seeing any like there for 10. During the first week after the wait to get 10 on finally resulted in tending to another upgrade to repair the first type of install the activation servers were bogged down literally and the repair wouldn't activate. So I gave the rearm code used previously for the 7 RC builds and it took!

When later seeing a clean install of 10 go along side 7 Pro on the second desktop before upgrading over 7 there it wouldn't work! The MS servers had no record of 10 being on that machine until it saw the upgrade take place and then activated the clean install within a few system restarts. By then after that first week the servers were no longer tied up and each install since has been found activated when first arriving at the desktop. When later swapping the 4gb of Mushkin Enhanced memory out as I may have mentioned earlier for 8gb of Kingston Hyper X Fury the activation was temporarily lost but came back in a couple of days on it's own without the need for any tricks. That was a minor hardware change while a major one is expected to see a clean install follow another upgrade over the previous which then needs a clean install of that.

"Got ya runnin' in them der circles do we?!" which breaks down to simply do it and get it done with! When I wasn't able to resize an OEM primary on the laptop that was upgraded the simple solution was to "NUKE THE DRIVE"! That was after the initial upgrade and two clean installs were all found activated but still couldn't shrink the primary down just a bit about 80gb to allow for a second backup part on the single drive model. Still went from the 32bit 7 Home Premium to 64bit 10 Home!

Cityscape said:

Is switching from a hard drive to an SSD a major change?

I talked to Microsoft tech support on the phone today and they told me the only way to clean install and activate W10 on an new hard drive without a product key would be to buy a key for $100. What happens is I bought my laptop with 8.1 and then upgraded to 10. Now I want to switch to W10 and I don't know what to do. I hear some people say it will automatically activate but not according to the guy I talked to at MS. (I found my W10 key with Magic JellyBean but I'm not sure if that would accepted either on clean install)

10 is being offered as a "Free Upgrade Over" the previous version that once activated automatically to the system you have there can be installed fresh without worry and without any key period. The person you spoke with was apparently trying to get you to pay outright for a purchase of 10 rather then explaining how to go about upgrading first and once activated seeing the clean install take place.

Anyone in support is there to get you to buy not explain shortcuts to an end. And it doesn't matter that it was MS or some other software company since the goal is to market the product. In fact when using the same key the ShowKey tool displayed on the second desktop here putting clean install onto a new second primary before upgrading the 7 Pro there the activation server simply blocked it as expected! That was derived from the hardware profile ID seen with the first desktop. A new key was generated with the upgrade afterwards but still can't be entered on the next clean install. The "skip" button is used on the enter product key now screen!

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but I'll relay my recent experience.
Yesterday my sister dropped off her Win7 notebook which wouldn't boot (/BCD error).

Tried Linux Live USB for diagnostic, even that errored-out (which was a first for me) - eventually removed the offensive HDD and hooked it up in my ultrabay - turned out the system reserved partition became RAW...

Backed up the remaining partiions ( took an age - which should have alerted me to the quality of the HDD) - anyways deleted all partitions and put it back it into her notebook.

Installed Win7 and activated, but as with the backup it slowed to a snail's pace. Decided then to grab the Genuine ticket and turf that HDD and replace it with an old one I had.

Installed Win10 clean on that, added the genuine ticket - went online - got the key blocked error - ignored it and proceeded with the apps installations - once that was completed and rebooted - Win 10 was activated.

Unfortunately checking that HDD also showed some bad clusters, so purchased a new SSD and installed Win 10 - it activated immediately online.

The fact that you went ahead and entered any key brought the activation to a halt until seeing the restart where the activation process was automatically tended to. When using the key the ShowKeyPlus pointed out on the main build's 10 host install I am in at the moment and tried to use that on the second case I knew that would be an automatic fail as far as activating the initial clean install first only to show all that you can't simply activated one machine and take 10 along with you and not see an upgrade on each new machine. It doesn't work that way.

The way 10 is activating however at least for the moment is allowing for some hardware changes that would have otherwise seen the need to call into MS! The first memory installed on the main build here saw that memory replaced when the dimms simply sat too high and bumped up against a large hsf. 7 had just recently gone on the then new build and immediately saw the "This may be a countfeit copy of Windows" watermark appear. One fast to MS to see that taken care of!

With 10 however having installed two of the first memory's four 2gb dimms tossed into the second mini tower I use for test purposes I put together at first from some then unused drives and a few budget priced parts as well as having upgraded the cpu already on the main build. When swapping that pair out for the newer Kingston Hyper X "Fury" memory 10 went deactivated for about a day or so no longer. That was a switch!

With previous versions MS allowed for some degree of minor hardware changes to allow for someone sticking in a better video or sound card as well as adding more memory in but not swapping brands for anything installed on the board like the memory. That was still a major change for 7 but not presently seen with 10.

Now once activated the first time you will automatically find 10 activated for each new clean install that takes place. With the 7 Home Premium 32bit laptop I saw upgrade to 10 the upgrade came out buggy! missing the Start button, a blank screen in Start<Settings, and absolutely could not open up the AllApps if the world was coming to an end! The buggy expected to be buggy upgrade was immediately replaced by the 32bit Home clean install and then onto the 64bit for the second clean install. Then the OEM primary was found not able to be shrunk any to allow for a second backup partition since hardly anything will even be going onto it to start with.

Drive nuked cleaned to start all over fresh having already removed the 300mb 3rd party and 400mb HP partition and then see the OEM System Reserved at the front of the drive become history as the new primary and backup partitions were put on! 10 activated instantly as expected.