Win7 Re-Activation/Re-Validation with Hardware Changes?

s0me0ne said:

I believe I read something before that Windows 7 will require a reactivation or revalidation even on a HDD change. Is this true? If so what things will trigger this? In XP the only things that would trigger it was a CPU or Motherboard change.

Right now I have a XP computer and use removable Hard Disk Drives with that same XP installed on all of them, but only 1 HDD is ever running, so its basically 1 computer with 3 XPs installed for 3 setups.

I want to do this with Windows 7 also, but if they are going to require reactivation each time I swap drives, its going to be a pain in the butt. Because it would require you to always have diskdrives that are the same size and model and if you upgraded one you'd have to upgrade them all, which is too expensive.

I have a similar setup as you. Yesterday I installed my Windows 7 Pro Upgrade student copy from Digital River using the Regedit and Command Prompt installation method. Activated my copy with no problem.
Today I used Acronis True Image 2010 to backup an image (Seagate 320GB) of my ACTIVATED installation.
I restored a copy to my Seagate 300GB hard drive. The restore was successful, after booting up , I checked and now my Windows 7 Pro is not ACTIVATED and I have 3 days to activate.
During the bootup process I noticed a message in the lower right hand corner with a message "ST3300620A device installed". That new device they referred to is my Seagate 300GB drive (the new hard drive that I am retoring the image to).

I have been doing this with Windows XP for years and never had a problem.

A solution to this Re-Activiation problem with Windows 7 Pro would be appreciated. Constantly calling MS to reactivate is not a viable solution for me. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

wutzup said:

I have a similar setup as you. Yesterday I installed my Windows 7 Pro Upgrade student copy from Digital River using the Regedit and Command Prompt installation method. Activated my copy with no problem.
Today I used Acronis True Image 2010 to backup an image (Seagate 320GB) of my ACTIVATED installation.
I restored a copy to my Seagate 300GB hard drive. The restore was successful, after booting up , I checked and now my Windows 7 Pro is not ACTIVATED and I have 3 days to activate.
During the bootup process I noticed a message in the lower right hand corner with a message "ST3300620A device installed". That new device they referred to is my Seagate 300GB drive (the new hard drive that I am retoring the image to).

I have been doing this with Windows XP for years and never had a problem.

A solution to this Re-Activiation problem with Windows 7 Pro would be appreciated. Constantly calling MS to reactivate is not a viable solution for me. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks for posting that I was worried it was true. I guess the only way around it is the to have drives that are the same model and size.

s0me0ne said:

wutzup said:

I have a similar setup as you. Yesterday I installed my Windows 7 Pro Upgrade student copy from Digital River using the Regedit and Command Prompt installation method. Activated my copy with no problem.
Today I used Acronis True Image 2010 to backup an image (Seagate 320GB) of my ACTIVATED installation.
I restored a copy to my Seagate 300GB hard drive. The restore was successful, after booting up , I checked and now my Windows 7 Pro is not ACTIVATED and I have 3 days to activate.
During the bootup process I noticed a message in the lower right hand corner with a message "ST3300620A device installed". That new device they referred to is my Seagate 300GB drive (the new hard drive that I am retoring the image to).

I have been doing this with Windows XP for years and never had a problem.

A solution to this Re-Activiation problem with Windows 7 Pro would be appreciated. Constantly calling MS to reactivate is not a viable solution for me. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks for posting that I was worried it was true. I guess the only way around it is the to have drives that are the same model and size.

I just did another clean install using Windows 7 Pro Student Upgrade from Digital River on a formatted Seagate 300GB. Again, I used the Regedit and Command Prompt method to activate my copy. I checked and confirmed that this copy is activated. I used Acronis True Image 2010 to create a full backup image. So far so good.

Now I inserted another formatted Seagate 300GB (same model as before) and used Acronis to restore the full image to this hard drive.

When the restore was completed, I rebooted and I saw the same message again in the lower right hand corner of the screen "Installing Device Driver ST330062A ATA Drive" I cannot believe this. I am using the same hard drive model. I went into the control panel/system and saw that this copy is not activated and I have 3 days to activate. I am totally confused here. What is MS doing? If anyone can help. I would really appreciate it.

harpua said:

I've been cloning my Win 7 hard drive and swapping disks with no reactivation required. The hard drives are the same except for serial number, however, but I don't think that makes any difference. I don't think a hard drive change is enough to trigger a need to reactivate.

Can you tell me what cloning software you used?
I used Acronis True Image 2010 with XP for years and no problems with Reactivations even with different make and size hard drives.
But with windows 7 Pro Upgrade version, I am having Reactiviation issues even when I am restoring it to the exact make, model and size hard drive. I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. (I posted exactly what I did in one of the post in this thread) Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks.

I am by no means an expert on backups, but have been told that one should use a byte to byte type. I use Snapshot DE , recommended and used by Steve Gibson, and have never been asked to re activate as the backup is identical in every respect to the original.
Now not all back up software works the same way, so I am led to believe.

Nosmo said:

I am by no means an expert on backups, but have been told that one should use a byte to byte type. I use Snapshot DE , recommended and used by Steve Gibson, and have never been asked to re activate as the backup is identical in every respect to the original.
Now not all back up software works the same way, so I am led to believe.

Hi Nosmo, thanks for your reply.
Although I was not able to try Snapshot DE, I did do the following:
1. Formatted my hard drive
2. Restored Acronis image of my Windows XP Pro installation
3. Installed Windows 7 using the "Clean Install" feature in Windows 7 Pro Upgrade version from digital River (Student Copy)
4. Inserted product key and activated copy
5. After all the updates were installed, used Acronis True Image Home 2010 to create a full Image.

To test the Acronis backup image, I did the following on the same computer:
1. Formatted the same hard drive, restored the image, no problem, the copy showed "ACTIVATED".
2. Formatted a harddrive that was the same make and model and the same size, restored the image, the copy was de-activated with instructions to activate in 3 days.


Now I have tried the Regedit/Command Prompt method to install Windows 7 Pro and I have tried the XP Upgrade installation method. It seems that Microsoft have tightened up their Activation methods. It seems the backup images can only be restored back onto the SAME hard drive. When I was using XP over the years, I was able to restore the image onto any type of hard drive as long as it was in the same computer.

Since I am a student of computers, I have been doing some trial and errors on backup and restores with my upgrade copy of Windows 7 Pro, I have called Microsoft 3 times already to activate my copy since I have exhausted my online activation quota. I prefer not to call them if I don't have to.

I read somewhere that "re-activation is needed ONLY if there is more than a hard drive change in the same computer". If anyone is able to restore their backup image of Windows 7 Pro Upgrade Version onto a different hard drive in the same computer, please share how you were able to do it. Really would appreciate any help, guidance, workaround, tips on this issue. Thank you for your time.

Hi there

Actually so far the activation seems much MILDER than on even XP -- on XP I got prompted for an activation when I added 2GB of RAM.

I've CHANGED a motherboard - same manufacturer but different model.
Changed the CPU from a Dual to a Quad
Added another 8Gb RAM to a 4GB RAM system so now 12 GB
Added 3 SATA 1.5TB HDD's.

Not a SQUEAK for reactivation.

Running W7-X64 Enterprise RTM - LEGALLY downloaded from Technet.

Not sure if its because I'm running the Enterprise VL version - I did get asked on the initial install to enter the product number -- maybe that's all it needs ever.

Testing Microsoft Security Essentials it popped up for a Windows validation check before I could download -- but passed that without any problems.

Cheers
jimbo

I've upgraded RAM, Graphics Card, HDDs, PCI Cards and never got reactivation in XP, from what I know XP should only ask if the CPU or Motherboard changes.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

Actually so far the activation seems much MILDER than on even XP -- on XP I got prompted for an activation when I added 2GB of RAM.

I've CHANGED a motherboard - same manufacturer but different model.
Changed the CPU from a Dual to a Quad
Added another 8Gb RAM to a 4GB RAM system so now 12 GB
Added 3 SATA 1.5TB HDD's.

Not a SQUEAK for reactivation.

Running W7-X64 Enterprise RTM - LEGALLY downloaded from Technet.

Not sure if its because I'm running the Enterprise VL version - I did get asked on the initial install to enter the product number -- maybe that's all it needs ever.

Testing Microsoft Security Essentials it popped up for a Windows validation check before I could download -- but passed that without any problems.

Cheers
jimbo

Hi Jimbo:

I believe the Enterprise version of windows 7 is released only to IT Professional, therefore it is reasonable to believe they relaxed the Activation policy.

Perhaps one day in the distant future, I will qualitfy as an IT professional so I too can buy a copy of the Enterprise version. Thanks for your reply and good day.

s0me0ne said:

I've upgraded RAM, Graphics Card, HDDs, PCI Cards and never got reactivation in XP, from what I know XP should only ask if the CPU or Motherboard changes.

Hi Someone:

I too never had any activation issues with Windows XP as long as I was restoring the backup image in the same computer even if I had made some hardware changes. But it seems Windwos 7 is a different story.

Thanks for your reply.