I have used Showkey Plus to find the key to my laptop but am confused as to which of the keys I should use if ever I have to replace the harddrive.
IE I have one key that is titled the installed key and one that is called the OEM key can anyone please advise me of which one to use to save trial and error?
Hi, why do you think you'd need to use a key when doing that?
And what type of keys do you have? E.g. OEM Win 7 Home vs Win 10 Pro...
Hi Dalchina I just wanted to know because the machine came with 10 Pro and like I said if the hard drive should signs of going bad I would need some way of reinstalling 10 Pro using one of those keys.
I haven't been keeping up to date with how reinstall and it seems to be a tad different to when I last did an install from media that I am guessing I would have to make a stick for on my desktop and then reinstall from it??
Replacing a drive doesn't need you to enter a key. Activation should be automatic.
You can check your drive with tools such as
Hard Disk Sentinel (trial)
HD Tune (free) Heatlh and Error Scan tabs.
If you have been following tenforums recommendations you will have disk images (e,g, Macrium reflect - free/paid).
The act of creating a disk image also verifies the integrity of your data giving an indication if there is corruption.
With a disk image you can restore your Windows image to a new disk without clean installing.
You can clean install Windows freely as many times as you wish- tutorials available.
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