Win10 Install with harddisk mirroring on multiple workstations.

Hi guys,
Currently we run 5 workstations on win7/8 on old hardware. In the near future, we want to migrate to windows 10 - and use the free upgrade offer from ms.

Problem is, we'll get new hardware for all workstations. So the plan is, to build the new hardware. install win7/8 on every new hardware and use the free upgrade on the new hardware. After that, a new clean-install will be made.

the clue is, besides the OS it'll take very much time to install all 3rd party software on the machines.
To skip this work, we would like to duplicate the harddisk after the setup of the whole system is done. This should be possible from driver-side, because the hardware will be identical.

But now comes the win10 licence question I know win10 will recognice the hardware and validate the licence due to the win7 upgrade. but what will happen if i switch the harddisk to the new system?

or i can try to keep the system unlicenced (no network connection. Best way?) until i mirror the harddisk. But this will also a pain in the ass, because no internet to update the other parts of the system

what do you think is the best way to deal with this?
thanks for your insight

I'm not seeing the problem. On a clean install you will be prompted for the KEY, and the Key they are looking for is the old key not a new key. THAT step can be safely skipped. Install it, configure it, clone it to an image and you should be good for the others unless I'm missing something major. After that, one can go to each station and input whichever Windows 7/8 key is available. It is is Win8 there are utilities that can fetch from the bios. old or "new" hardware, it shouldn't matter.

hm not sure if i miss something since i did my last win10 setup :) (free upgrade + following clean install). this was what i've done the last time, worked fine for me back then. but maybe i'm outdated now.

1) install win 7/8 clean with key
2) upgrade to win10 (hardware hash saved to MS)
3) install win 10 clean
4) skip all key input requests
5) win10 will automatically validate the licence

and my problem is step 5 - not sure how there licence system will react

trynn said:

and my problem is step 5 - not sure how there licence system will react

Windows 10 will calculate an Installation ID based upon the hardware configuration and version of Windows 10 installed. It sends that installation ID to MS activation servers, and if there is a match for it saved from the upgrade installation then the activation server returns the activation code.

A hard drive replace is not enough of a change in hardware to change the Installation ID.

cognus said:

I'm not seeing the problem. On a clean install you will be prompted for the KEY, and the Key they are looking for is the old key not a new key. THAT step can be safely skipped. Install it, configure it, clone it to an image and you should be good for the others unless I'm missing something major. After that, one can go to each station and input whichever Windows 7/8 key is available. It is is Win8 there are utilities that can fetch from the bios. old or "new" hardware, it shouldn't matter.

The current RTM build of Windows 10 does not support that. The clean install of Windows 10 is looking for a Windows 10 product key, not a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key. If build 10565 gets pushed to the public - that is the first build that is supposed to accept a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key for a "clean install" upgrade.

NavyLCDR said:

A hard drive replace is not enough of a change in hardware to change the Installation ID.

But i'll replace all the other hardware, not the hard drive. You have an idea how win10 will react to this?
is it just trying to re-activate? (new hardware should already be saved @MS at this point)

i did it. on an older hp G4 I input the windows 7 key and off to the races we went. that was around week 2 of rtm public IIRC
If it is calc'ing algorithm from hardware, why is the field even there? there is no Windows 10 key "issued" to the user when one is thinking through the upgrade. are you saying that the current build [like today] is putting into the "clean install" image a Windows 10 key that it is building from both the installed windows 7 key & config data [assuming one creates the media from the target system] ? and, Trynn... are we talking about 7 or 8? or both

NavyLCDR said:

The current RTM build of Windows 10 does not support that. The clean install of Windows 10 is looking for a Windows 10 product key, not a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key. If build 10565 gets pushed to the public - that is the first build that is supposed to accept a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key for a "clean install" upgrade.

@cognus, some workstations are currently on Win7, some on Win8.1. But dont think this matters at the end.

trynn said:

But i'll replace all the other hardware, not the hard drive. You have an idea how win10 will react to this?
is it just trying to re-activate? (new hardware should already be saved @MS at this point)

Motherboard replacement will cancel the activation. At that point either:

A unique, purchased Windows 10 product key will have to be entered,
The system will have to go back to Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, activated with that OS product key and then upgraded again,
or hopefully, starting with build 10565, Windows 10 will allow you to enter the old Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 product key to activate.

cognus said:

i did it. on an older hp G4 I input the windows 7 key and off to the races we went. that was around week 2 of rtm public IIRC

Highly unlikely since Microsoft did not write that capability into Windows 10.
Microsoft's latest Windows 10 Insider build helps cure a major activation headache | PCWorld

pcworld said:

Not all of those users complained about trouble activating Windows 10 outside of the OS’s new process—which originally did not rely on actual product keys, the alphanumeric codes issued with legit licenses—but many were stymied if Windows 10 didn’t do its job, or if they had done an install-from-scratch without first upgrading a Windows 7 or 8.1 device. They were mystified why there wasn’t a way to enter a product key from their previous edition of Windows, as had been possible with pre-10 versions.

But hey, if you did then you have the "virgin birth" of Windows 10 since that capability wasn't in any version of Windows 10 up to and including build 10558.

cognus said:

If it is calc'ing algorithm from hardware, why is the field even there? there is no Windows 10 key "issued" to the user when one is thinking through the upgrade. are you saying that the current build [like today] is putting into the "clean install" image a Windows 10 key that it is building from both the installed windows 7 key & config data [assuming one creates the media from the target system] ? and, Trynn... are we talking about 7 or 8? or both

The field remains there because people have and will buy retail Product Keys for Windows 10. Upgrades from Windows 7/8/8.1 did get issued Product Keys during online activations of Windows 10 - they are generic product keys and everyone's is the same, depending upon which version of Windows 10 they upgraded to.

The way an upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1 activates is that during the upgrade a program found in the sources folder of Windows 10 install media/ISO called getosstate.exe is run on the old OS. That creates a file called genuineticket.xml. The old Windows 7/8/8.1 product key is carried over in the genuineticket.xml file ONLY for the purpose of reverting back to the old OS during the 30 day revert period. The genuineticket.xml contains the flags that the previous OS was properly activated and licensed and Windows 10 uses that to PUSH the Installation ID created from the combination of the generic Windows 10 Product Key (the same one that all upgrades get) and Hardware ID to the MS activation server which then stores the installation ID and returns an activation code.

When a clean install is done - there is no genuineticket.xml file carried over from an upgrade, and if the user skips the product key then WIndows 10 calculates the Installation ID based upon the Hardware ID calculated from the hardware configuration and the same generic Product Key - that is then provided to MS activation server for a search - and if a match is found, then the activation code is returned.

Starting in build 10565, Microsoft allows the user to enter a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key in Windows 10 to trigger that PUSH of the installation ID onto the MS activation servers - which was NOT written into previous builds of Windows 10.