Windows 7 activation

Wychwar · 09 Jul 2012

I have an Acer 5338 laptop which was purchased with Vista preinstalled. The deal included a free upgrade to windows 7. The computer was use for some time with Vista. I then partitioned the hard drive and dual booted the machine. I had mislaid the upgrade disks so used an alternative Windows 7 Home Premium disk and a product key which I obtained from Ebay. All worked OK for a time. Having found the upgrade discs I attempted to change the product key to the legitimate one from the Acer upgrade disc packaging. Every time I ckicked the "change product key" I got an error message. A few days ago there appeared a Windows 7 update message. So I performed a download and install of the 20 update items. I was then presented with a black screen and the message that my copy of Windows was illegal. This time the "change product key" option worked and I change the key to the good one. I was still unable to Activate. I rang Microsoft who checked the product key and told me that this was a full retail version key not OEM and I would need to reinstall and start from scratch. I do not wish to do this as I will lose all my installed programmes.
Can anyone suggest an alternative way of activating my legitimate software.

Regards All,

Wychwar

NoelDP · 09 Jul 2012

90% of Keys obtained from eBay are counterfeit.

To properly analyse and solve problems with Activation and Validation, we need to see a full copy of the report produced by the MGADiag tool
(download and save to desktop - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012 )
Once saved, run the tool.
Click on the Continue button, which will produce the report.
To copy the report to your response, click on the Copy button in the tool (ignore any error messages at this point), and then paste (using either r-click/Paste, or Ctrl+V ) into your response.
- **in your own thread**, please
Please also state the Version and Edition of Windows quoted on your COA sticker (if you have one) on the case of your machine (or inside the battery compartment), but do NOT quote the Key on the sticker!
How to Tell

(or use the instructions at the top of the forum index page)

DeaconFrost · 09 Jul 2012

In following with your steps, I would also suggest a clean install to whatever you have a legit key for. They fact that a key is retail or OEM shouldn't change your activation. A full retail version can be moved from machine to machine, so you should have been allowed to activate.

That being said, why would you lose all of your installed programs? Don't you have any discs or installer files to reinstall them? If so, with a little planning, you can do a full, complete reinstall, with drivers and apps, in less than 2 hours.

gregrocker · 09 Jul 2012

You can boot the Win7 Installation DVD included in Upgrade Kit following these same steps to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 .

I would wipe the HD first using Diskpart Clean Command since it appears you had a bootleg copy previously.