Repair Corrupt Install From Boot Install DVD?

simrick · 17 Apr 2017

For the future, you might want to think about making regular images with Macrium Reflect Free. That way, if a drive goes, you're just an image away from being back in business.
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect - Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials

Also, HDSentinel is great for watching your HDD health for you.
Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring

p.s. Regular imaging will also help protect against infections and ransomware, whereas RAID will just copy problems and be no help at all in those scenarios.

abrogard · 17 Apr 2017

I'm inputting the key in a forlorn hope of getting it to work manually where it wouldn't work automatically.

I did a clean install on a new hard drive. I don't remember saying 'i don't have one' but yes, I didn't enter one.

It was working fine before, activated, all fine. I don't know....

Yes, once I get going I'll do that Macrium Reflect thing, for sure. thanks for that.

simrick · 17 Apr 2017

You didn't change anything in the system except the drive? And the system was activated before? Have you tried the activation troubleshooter?

abrogard · 18 Apr 2017

no, I haven't. I'll look for it and try it. bit pressed for time recently....

simrick · 18 Apr 2017

abrogard said:

no, I haven't. I'll look for it and try it. bit pressed for time recently....

Use Activation Troubleshooter in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

abrogard · 18 Apr 2017

I just had a look. I didn't get the activation troubleshooter. Didn't show. But there's an 'error details' thing and when I clicked on it I was told this key 'has been blocked'.

hmmmm...

Bree · 18 Apr 2017

As this machine has apparently previously run an activated Windows 10, then changing the key to the appropriate generic key should activate it from the digital licence on the activation servers. By 'appropriate key' I mean the one for Home or Pro, whichever one was on the PC originally.

A common reason for not activating automatically is installing Pro when it had Home before, or vice versa. Such errors can be corrected by changing to the appropriate generic key.

Or just do another clean install, this time for the right version.

abrogard · 18 Apr 2017

well I'm sure it is the right version. win10 pro. i mean there's no minor variations within that is there? it's either pro or not? i'm sure it was pro and is pro.

i've still got that old drive of course, waiting for me to try again to rescue it. perhaps i can put it in this machine and look at it as a 'secondary' or data drive and read off which version it was/is?

or booting as it does to that endless round of 'trouble shooting' is that far enough for me to get some indication from there?

In fact shouldn't there be some way to fix a windows install like that? I mean put the drive into another machine and use that machine's OS to scan/search/fix the OS on the target? Obvious way to go when you get an OS so corrupted that it won't boot any more. But come to think of it I've never seen any mention of that route.

p.s. I might have missed something there: 'appropriate generic key' ? I simply input the original key that had been in use. That's what you mean?

Bree · 18 Apr 2017

abrogard said:

... I might have missed something there: 'appropriate generic key' ? I simply input the original key that had been in use. That's what you mean?

There is a generic key for each edition of windows. If you got windows 10 by the free upgrade, this is the key you would have ended up with. The one for Pro is:
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
(according to this tutorial)

Enter the generic key and windows will check on the activation servers to see if your PC's hardware has a digital licence for that edition. If it does it will activate.

simrick · 18 Apr 2017

abrogard said:

well I'm sure it is the right version. win10 pro. i mean there's no minor variations within that is there? it's either pro or not? i'm sure it was pro and is pro.

Actually, there is W10Pro, W10ProN, W10 Single Language - all different animals

abrogard said:

i've still got that old drive of course, waiting for me to try again to rescue it. perhaps i can put it in this machine and look at it as a 'secondary' or data drive and read off which version it was/is?

or booting as it does to that endless round of 'trouble shooting' is that far enough for me to get some indication from there?

Did the system come originally with W8/8.1? If so, the key will be stored in the BIOS and you can get it by running ShowKeyPlus - it will tell you what version you had.
ShowKeyPlus - - Windows 10 Forums

abrogard said:

In fact shouldn't there be some way to fix a windows install like that? I mean put the drive into another machine and use that machine's OS to scan/search/fix the OS on the target? Obvious way to go when you get an OS so corrupted that it won't boot any more. But come to think of it I've never seen any mention of that route.

Not that I'm aware of, apart from running CHKDSK. You'd need to be "in" the problem OS, in order to do an in-place repair install.

abrogard said:

p.s. I might have missed something there: 'appropriate generic key' ? I simply input the original key that had been in use. That's what you mean?

What Bree gave you was the generic key for W10Pro. But, you shouldn't need a key at all if the system previously had W10 installed and activated. That's why the question comes up, did you install the correct version?