Windows 7 - "Activated" but still "Not Genuine"

friends this is frankly a Vista question but in Googling the problem it appears possible that both 7 and Vista suffer from the malady. I have a perfectly legit compaq sr2170nx minitower that came OEM'd with Vista Home Basic. My job was to restore it. Did so, and with the original-issue CPQ discs. I used it as a lab mule to try to pull damaged files off a damaged drive and in the midst of a dozen restarts the system went non-Activated. I renewed the Product Key and it is now showing "Activated" but the desktop is still displaying "Non-Genuine" and blacked out.

what's the standard fix? Nothing else in the system has changed - just adding, then removing, a Ultra ATA damaged drive from the IDE bus.

thankx
z

Swapping the damaged drive will do it. Somehow the info got damaged.

You could try reactivating it by entering your serial key again. Try installing Security Essentials that will check it for you.

Or you might have to call Microsoft.

Here are the MS contacts: How to find a phone number for a Microsoft Product Activation Center

i got it done. just re-entered same key [coa] but the issue, which they don't bother to tell you, is that it must ALSO be re-validated. its the kind of thing [sorry to say] that breeds future Apple buyers

Glad to hear your okay now, thank you for posting back!