Bought a used laptop, is my Windows 7 Genuine?

NoelDP said:

Night Hawk said:

That would be using the recovery disk creation utility either prepackaged or downloaded from the Dell support site as many OEMs are now offering since they are no longer providing recovery media on new pcs. The other thing to know is which edition of Vista as well as 32bit or 64bit came preinstalled since 7 wasn't the original OS.

This is where the casual copying from the actual disk disqualifies the present disk you received since the first owner had kept the original media. It was valid for the previous owner having purchased the 7 edition but unfortunately the original disk wasn't included with the sale of the Dell to you. Now you will need your own product key for 7 to be legit.

There are very limited circumstances under which it is possible to download any WIndows operating sstem from anywhere other than Digital River - and Recovery disks is not one of them, so far as I am aware.

What makes you think the original OS was not Win7? - everything inthe report indicates that is was.

You second paragraph doesn't make sense. In practice the license for an OEM system lies with the machine - not the owner, and not the disks. You can reinstall the OS with either the proper recovery disks (either from the recovery partition or acquired at time of purchase of the machine or later), or with a Retail or OEM System Builder OS disk - so long as the COA Key on the machine is used.

Unless the COA sticker is destroyed, or the COA Key blocked for some reason there is NEVER any need to puchase a new licnese for the original OS.

Read the first post by the d0m0 a little bit closer and you will see just why I was mentioning the utilty to create a recovery disk that works when the hidden recovery partition with the OEM data and prepackaged wares is present and intact.

So can you guys tell if this is a genuine copy? If not, I have the OEM Vista that came with it and a Vista product key sticker behind the battery, and I can install that. But I don't want the hassle if Windows 7 is genuine.

The system originally came with Vista not 7. The 7 install was a custom install where the previous owner apparently copied the 7 media and handed that over not the original disk. The installation was legit but now a new product key/license would be needed since the transfer of ownership wasn't seen to through MS.

The burned copy is not legit for any clean install of 7 being a casual not from the sale onwards since d0m0 is not the owner of the original 7 media used. To make the present installation legit purchasing a new key for the present 7 Ultimate edition install would be needed or buying either retail disk if not through the MS online store for seeing any future 7 reinstall since the copy is bad news(dump it!).

For most selling a used system the first step is simply nuking everything off with a security tool unless they have an OEM disk to go with it whether branded or System builders. That wasn't the case there however where restoring Vista followed upgrade to 7 again later would be after a new purchase of 7 if not simply buying a new key to validate the present. These are the actual options.

Double post.. sorry... read post below

d0m0 said:

NoelDP said:

d0m0

Please confirm/deny the following.
1) the machine has a COA sticker either on the case, or inside the battery compartment

2) Said COA sticker states Windows 7 Ultimate

3) Said sticker states Vista (what edition??), and the Key is legible

4) You have the Recovery disk for Vista

5) The Product Key for Win7you were given agrees with the one in the report (at least the last three groups, anyhow)

1) Yes it does, under the battery.

2) No, it is Vista

3) Vista Business, and key is legible.

4) I have the original Vista Reinstall disk from Dell

5) Yes they match

IMO, the Windows 7 Ultimate is not a validly licenced one. The seller has not purchased any Windows 7 Ultimate with a valid licence. The fact that he has given you the OEM-SLP key and not any other key confirms it.

In all likely would the seller had "worked upon" the machine to accept the OEM-SLP key which is clearly hacking and piracy. You will have problems if you try to install Windows 7 Ultimate any time later since the OEM-SLP key alone will not activate it (unless he had built-in the other necessary data too in the burnt-copy he had given you in which case it will selfactivate on reinstall - but then he would have told you so and need not have given any key at all)

However, before trying to install Windows Vista business on the machine, I would advise that you make a backup of your current installation. (just in case you have any problem in activating Vista, you can restore it and use your laptop and keep using it till the problem is resolved or till you get a genuine Windows 7

OK - that straightens things out for us all - thanks.

Yes, the Win7 install is definitely counterfeit.

You should have no problems with the Vista Recovery Disks - BUT....

Depending on the type of hack used by your vendor, you may not be able to activate the OEM_SLP Key from the disks (which teh system will automatically insert). If that happens simply change the Key to the one on the COA sticker, and try activating over the internet - if that fails, use telephone activation and speak to an operator.

jumanji said:

IMO, the Windows 7 Ultimate is not a validly licenced one. The seller has not purchased any Windows 7 Ultimate with a valid licence. The fact that he has given you the OEM-SLP key and not any other key confirms it.

The seller had "worked upon" the machine to accept the OEM-SLP key which is clearly hacking. You will have problems if you try to install Windows 7 Ultimate any time later since the OEM-SLP key alone will not activate it.

However, before trying to install Windows Vista business on the machine, I would advise that you make a backup of your current installation. (just in case you have any problem in activating Vista, you can restore it and use your laptop and keep using it till the problem is resolved or till you get a genuine Windows 7.)

Yes, you're right - I missed the last sentence when I read d0m0's original post, and neglected to go back and read it again until late last night.

There should be no problem activating the machine with Vista one way or the other. If the vendor has actually hacke d the BIOS (stupid, but possible) then the OEM_SLP self-activation will fail, in which case d0m0 simply has to change teh Key to the COA Key, and hten activate that - it ignores the state of the BIOS completely.

Night Hawk said:

The system originally came with Vista not 7. The 7 install was a custom install where the previous owner apparently copied the 7 media and handed that over not the original disk. The installation was legit but now a new product key/license would be needed since the transfer of ownership wasn't seen to through MS.

You're right - see my response to Jumanji.

d0m0 said:

Ok... so I installed Vista on the D: partition, just in case there was any problem with the OS I could boot into 7.

It installed all right, but it never asked me to enter my product key!! And it was already activated!! I installed from the official Dell reinstallation DVD!! I checked my product key via Belarc and it was DIFFERENT from the key on my sticker under the battery. So I changed the key to the one under the battery, but Vista still was activated and did not ask me to validate via phone/net etc.

So now I am in the process of installing drivers and other softwares, so now this is ok and I can format the C: partition with Win 7??

Please post an MGADiag report - I am not in the least surprised by what you say (although the bit about installing to the D: drive is a little strange! <g>)

Once you wipe the C volume you could lose the boot files and BCD store for Vista as well as 7. You installed Vista after 7 while they share the same boot sector. You will likely need to rebuild the BCD entirely if the bogus 7 install didn't create the 100mb System Reserved partition at the front of the drive due this being an OEM machine.

The best move as NoelDP indicated would have been simply backing up the C volume either for files and folder you wanted to keep.(user settings and files with Windows Easy Transfer tool for future legit 7 install) being the preferred option until you are able to see a genuine 7 install go on. You'll get there once you get your own genuine 7!

When buying any used machine the first thing I would do is simply wipe the existing OS installation regardless of legit or ... other in order to see a clean install of which ever OS will be run eliminating any other OS problems and clutter from the existing install. In fact the host drive here is soon to be wiped entirely once a fresh 7 install goes onto the second OS drive where the 8 Customer Preview is on presently.

The Release Preview will then go on the present host drive to test the detection of 7 as well as the other OS improvements as far as recovery options seeing that temporarily become the default OS. If you decide to keep Vista as the second OS there once you have a genuine disk you could consider a dual boot there as well even if it was simply to get some experience. Plus you could set 7 up the way you want things later and then experiment in the Vista install or ? take a look at 8.

The ideal set up of course for a dual boot in the long run would be eventually seeing a 7 host and Vista or other on a completely separate drive with each OS seeing a stand alone install. Editing the boot loader for adding/removing boot entries or using the boot device menu method to select which drive will be booted into are a few things. At least by then each OS will be a genuine install of your own!