License question

wayneout · 22 May 2020

I have a failing hard drive so I got a second internal hard drive and am now in the process of cloning the old hard drive to the new hard drive. Then I want to take out the old hard drive and put in either a ssd or hdd whichever my motherboard will accept. (It is a Dell 8300) I want to then put just windows 10 on the new ssd and nothing else. I know how to do all this but I am not sure what my license calls for. I had Windows 7 professional on it at first and then I did the free upgrade to Windows 10. I have a new computer which has Windows 10 home on it. It is a Dell 8950. When I go to check my Microsoft account it shows both of my computers. The one that I am asking about has Windows 10 professional 1903. Since my license was first used for Windows 7 professional, will it be good for Windows 10 professional since the free update has expired? I really do not know what my license number is but I do know how to get it using a "run" command but I didn't need it when I upgraded. I know that I didn't sign in with my Microsoft account but used a local sign in. I really do not know if Microsoft changed the license number when I upgraded. Sorry for the long post for a simple question.

dalchina · 22 May 2020

Hi, you can begin to get ideas on this if you read the introduction and links here:
Activate Windows 10

The key question in moving a license to another machine is whether it is deemed a retail license rather than OEM.

There is no license key as such for Win 10 once it's activated as you will see from the above. (Although you can purchase one to activate or upgrade of course).

Linking your activation to a MS Id can make it easier to move to new hardware.
Link Microsoft Account to Windows 10 Digital License

If you already used an MSA to sign in to your activated Windows 10 Home or Pro PC, your MSA will be automatically linked. You can use this MSA linked digital license to re-activate your Genuine Windows 10 device by running the Activation troubleshooter, if you run into Activation issues caused by hardware changes.

If you sign in to your activated Windows 10 Home or Pro device with a local account and not a Microsoft account (MSA), then you will need to add your Microsoft account to link the MSA to the digital license activated on your PC.

After you add your Microsoft account and link it to your digital license, you can use the Activation troubleshooter to help reactivate Windows after a hardware change.

To protect yourself from failing disk scenarios:
a. Use disk imaging routinely- thus you have a restorable backup- to a new disk or PC.
The very act of imaging your disk verifies the content's integrity.
b. Use a monitoring and alerting program - e.g. Crystal Diskinfo (free).

Samuria · 22 May 2020

If the old hd has had sectors and you clone it to a new drive those bad blocks will be permanently written to the new drive also you don't know what files are corrupted

dalchina · 22 May 2020

As to upgrading from Home to Pro like that, I'd wait for advice from someone who's done it. Or find a thread on tenforums discussing it.

idgat · 22 May 2020

Don't clone a corrupted disk.

Clean install.

Won't need a key, will be auto activated because of previous/existing system/installation. Update to pro with Pro key ("Change product key").

Berton · 22 May 2020

Changing from Home to Pro has gone well for me on a couple of Desktops and a couple of Notebooks. They were connected to the Internet and using the Pro Product Keys that I had and never had been used worked, didn't seem to need much downloading from the 'net. If doing the download using the MCT both Home and Pro are in those downloads, no choice of one or the other, only whether x86, x64 or both. An Upgrade will pick up the edition installed, a clean install will be determined by the Product Key or if waiting to activate later will decide which to do.

Winuser · 22 May 2020

Are you wanting to install a SSD in your old computer with a clean installed Windows 10 and activate it with the Pro key? If yes that shouldn't be a problem. You can use ShowKeyPlus to get the key. ShowKeyPlus can be found in the Microsoft Store. It may be activated with the Windows 10 Pro Generic Key – VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T. I had to use this on my laptop when I purchased a Pro upgrade from the MS Store. For some reason it upgraded my Home version to a Enterprise version. When I called MS they gave me the generic key to activate it to Pro.