Home Prem OA: Unactivated after moving HDD

olddmel · 29 Sep 2015

I have 2 oldish laptops, an HP and an Asus, both of which came with Windows 7 Home Premium OA.

The hdd on the HP died and could not be cloned

I successfully upgraded the Asus to Win 10, but the Asus died recently

So... I transferred the Asus hdd to the HP. It worked at first, but some issues made me decide to do a reset. Now it tells me I need activate Windows but will not accept the product keys of either computer.

I'm assuming the problem is to do with the OA versions being different and Windows detecting this. Please, please, please can someone tell me how to get around this, other than finding and installing the HP Win 7 OA installation and then re-upgrading to Win 10 or will even that not work.

alphanumeric · 29 Sep 2015

Reinstall Windows 10 on the HP. Make sure to reinstall the same version it got via the free upgrade. When prompted for a key just click skip. If you install the correct version it will activate. When you originally did the free upgrade and activated, that PC received a digital entitlement for the version of Windows 10 that was installed. It's stored on the activation server. You can then clean install without having to redo the upgrade.

olddmel · 29 Sep 2015

alphanumeric said:

Reinstall Windows 10 on the HP. Make sure to reinstall the same version...

The HP hdd died about a year ago so it was never upgraded to Win 10. I still have it's hdd there are so many bad sectors that I couldn't clone it (tried under Windows and Linux). Both computers are hand-me-downs so I don't have installation disks etc. The only things I do have are stickers with product keys for both.

now john · 29 Sep 2015

It might be easiest just to download a Windows 7 installation iso from this link: Windows 7
Use the HP windows key to download it.
Then make a DVD or USD drive from the iso file and install Windows 7. Run Windows update until it is completely updated. It should then be able to be upgraded to Windows 10. Upgrade and then run Windows update until it is completely updated. Then make a recovery device (DVD or USB drive) in case you ever need to reinstall Windows 10 on that computer.

alphanumeric · 29 Sep 2015

I don't think that download site will accept OEM keys? The Digital River downloads were taken down too, so finding an ISO for Windows 7 could be tricky. Any ISO will do though, you just do this to make it a universal install disk. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85813-windows-7-universal-installation-disc-create.html? You can go to MSDN and get the official SH1A hash code for an ISO. You just can't download one without a subscription. Then worst case scenario, download an ISO from bit torrent and check the hash code against what MSDN says it should be. If they match the ISO most likely hasn't been messed with. Other than that I don't know of another source for an ISO.

now john · 29 Sep 2015

alphanumeric said:

I don't think that download site will accept OEM keys?

On that page he could enter the OEM key that he has and see if it accepts it. It wouldn't take much effort to try.

Otherwise maybe HP could supply a disk.

This is from the FAQ for the site.
Windows came pre-installed on my device, can I use media from this site to download and install?Before using operating system copies from this site for install, re-install or recovery on devices with pre-installed operating systems, see your device manufacturer or reseller for the customized drivers and applications specific to your machine. Using operating systems copied from this site for install, re-install or recovery may void your support agreement with your manufacturer or reseller. Any drivers or programs that were installed by the device manufacturer or reseller may be removed during installation.

So it may be possible, but there is another note that says that there is only limited availability for them.

NavyLCDR · 29 Sep 2015

olddmel said:

The HP hdd died about a year ago so it was never upgraded to Win 10.

The only way to get Windows 10 on it for free is to install a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 on it and have that activated. You don't need to do the updates for any of those once you have installed one of them and have an activation - you just need to then upgrade to Windows 10 using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool.

Getting the base Windows 7 with only an OEM product key is going to be your problem.

olddmel · 29 Sep 2015

My question was about getting out of this predicament WITHOUT GOING BACK TO WIN 7.

OEM ISOs are tricky to find, but not impossible, or I can go the universal installer route which will work for Win7 but may cause problems in the upgrade. Note: you cannot download OEM ISOs from Microsoft, only from HP etc.

NavyLCDR · 29 Sep 2015

olddmel said:

My question was about getting out of this predicament WITHOUT GOING BACK TO WIN 7.

I've seen Windows 10 Pro OEM license for $99. That would be how you would do it without going back to Windows 7.

alphanumeric · 29 Sep 2015

You can install with a non OEM DVD with the code on the COA sticker. As you know though, finding a clean unaltered Windows 7 ISO is not easy. You will have to buy Windows 10 if you don't want to do the free upgrade. There is no hardware ID/digital entitlement for that hardware on the activation server. The free upgrade has to be done before a clean install will activate. Or purchase a license and a new product code.