New
#1
Upgraded from Win 7
I upgraded to Win 10 from Win 7 via the free upgrade a few years ago.
Do I need to keep my original Win 7 installation disks & Product key?
I upgraded to Win 10 from Win 7 via the free upgrade a few years ago.
Do I need to keep my original Win 7 installation disks & Product key?
Keep the Product key for an emergency. The disks are no good unless you want to clean install a downgrade.
Keep the installation key. Next time you want to install Windows 10 use that key. I would also keep the CD-ROM, you never know when you might need it. You can use that to install or troubleshoot any Windows 7 PC
A friend of mine wants to rebuild his PC, it has a Windows 7 license code sticker on it, but it actually has Win 10 installed, I guess from the free upgrade, so can he just download the Win 10 ISO and use the Win 7 code or should he use a programme (Magic Jelly Bean used to be OK) to find license code or will the win 7 one work, or maybe it auto detects that it was upgraded to Win 10 sometime?
Many Thanks
Steve
It will auto activate, he doesn`t have to do anything.
When he did the upgrade from 7 to 10 he got a Digital License for that hardware.
Just install W10, and it will self activate, just skip where it asks for a key.
Great thanks. I'll get him to create an image first just in case and maybe use one of those programs that allow you to save your drivers, just in case.
Thanks again
Steve
To find all Windows keys (original OEM in BIOS, currently installed and which key was used for upgrade to 10), you can use the utility ShowKey Plus.
We've made a start on the rebuild, we've backed everything up etc. He has a Samsung 840 Pro SSD, when we boot it sees it as a SCSI, I'll have a look to see if the BIOS has ACHI, if not the Samsung site says to go to the Motherboard site and update the BIOS,I have done this in the past and it stooped the PC that I was working on from working completely, so a bit concerned about that.
The Samsung Magician software doesn't recognize the drive either, but it does boot and work as a drive.
If we do get it working correctly as a SSD, I was going to do a secure erase first if the Samsung Magician software allows that, I guess then install Win 10 and then re-install the Samsung Magician software?
There are some incompatibilities between SSD drives and certain notebooks. Chances are that the storage controller is configured as AHCI in BIOS. Try changing it to IDE (or compatible/legacy whichever applies).