Windows 7: Can I reinstall geunine windows 7 home over nongenuine?

I have what I suspect is not a genuine Windows 7 pro copy on my computer and I have a Home Edition that I received from Dell as an upgrade. I want to install the home edition without losing everything I have worked hard to set up. Is there a way to "fix" my installation using the genuine windows 7 home disk without a new clean install?

zero

Zero

What version is the "fake" (ie ultimate pro, home, etc) and what version is the real? are they both 32bit, or both 64 bit?

ken

Run this tool and find out - Genuine Microsoft Software. Where did you get your computer from?

They are both 64 Bit which is correct for my computer. I believe it is Ultimate that is the fakie and home that is the real one.

zero

I ran that tool and that is how I found out it is not genuine. It was not preinstalled. I purchased it for a cutrate price because I didn't want to wait for the Dell upgrade and because I wanted the full version. You get what you pay for I guess

zero

Indeed, so you'd be best of Clean Installing because you don't know what else was included in your disc.

Thank you. You are probably correct but I am not in the position to do a clean install right now and am asking if it is possible not to do it and preserve my data. A clean install may be in my future but I would rather not do it right now. I had a disaster the first time getting my sound drivers working again and am not looking forward to resolving this problem.

zero

The answer is yes, but the problem here is you have a dodgy copy, so wouldn't recommend taking the upgrade route.

for the sake of getting a properly running copy onto my computer for the next week or two until I can devote some time to a clean install, could you at least point me in the direction of the steps I would need to take to preserve my data?

I was thinking of just trying to just pop in the disk and fix via upgrade.

zero

Back it up to an external HD.