Solved Down grading to home premium from professional

[spinksy]

Hi, since purchasing my laptop i have upgraded to windows 7 Professional from Home premium which came with it.
My question is how do i remove professional to get back to home premium (OEM)? i want to use the professional key for a new desktop i am building. My thoughts are a clean install (and i dont mind doing that) but are there any easier ways to do it?

 

[Zomby88]

Reinstall windows using the key on your COA.

 

[spinksy]

thanks, where do i find the COA?

never mind i found the key (on bottom), but how do i install it,

 

[JaidynM]

The key required can be found using a program such as Belarc Advisor. Download and install it from the link below and give it a try.
Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit

 

[spinksy]

belarc advisor only found the current key not the key for home premium.

And i dont have any installation cd's or anything because home premium came pre-installed

 

[richnrockville]

belarc advisor only found the current key not the key for home premium.

And i dont have any installation cd's or anything because home premium came pre-installed

Spinksy, Can we assume that you made your recovery disks when you first received your laptop? If not then you might be able to talk toshiba into sending you a set of recovery disks. If you plead a sad story then they might do it for a real cheap price.

Other than that, Can we also assume that you installed your windows 7 pro version and activated it? If so then you might have to activate it by phone (if it is a full commercial version) as the activation over the internet most likely won't work. If it is a oem copy of windows 7 pro. That is supposed to be a one time activation and can not be moved to another machine.
Full box copies in most cases can be transfered to another machine as long as it is removed from the last machine.

Also, All the toshiba's that I have owned came with the product activation codes on the bottom of the laptop.

Rich

 

[spinksy]

1: no i didnt make any recovery disk when bought didnt no about that
2: yes ive installed and activated professional over the internet, professional was not oem(i dont think) i obtained the installation file and key from my uni

and there is a product key on the bottom of my laptop for Windows 7 Home Premium OA

also i just found this from google
"Toshiba laptops from mid 2007 onwards dont have a recovery disc supplied with a purchase of a laptop. Instead, Toshiba has added a hidden partion on the hard drive which contains the same files on a recovery cd / dvd. "
so i assume i dont need a recovery disc to get to original state

 

[richnrockville]

1: no i didnt make any recovery disk when bought didnt no about that
2: yes ive installed and activated professional over the internet, professional was not oem(i dont think) i obtained the installation file and key from my uni

and there is a product key on the bottom of my laptop for Windows 7 Home Premium OA

also i just found this from google
"Toshiba laptops from mid 2007 onwards dont have a recovery disc supplied with a purchase of a laptop. Instead, Toshiba has added a hidden partion on the hard drive which contains the same files on a recovery cd / dvd. "
so i assume i dont need a recovery disc to get to original state

Spinksy, normally the first thing to do is to make your recovery disks as toshiba usually nags the heck out of you with pop ups. But that aside. Are you sure that there is not a key combination that allows you to do a system recovery when initially booting. I have never done that as I always make the recovery disk.

from my toshiba doc file

To recover the original factory image using the utilities on your
computer’s internal storage drive:​

1​

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Make sure the computer is turned off.​

2​

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Press and hold the 0 (zero) key on your keyboard while​

powering on the computer.

Give it a shot..

Rich

 

[seavixen32]

If you clean-installed Windows 7 Professional chances are the Toshiba recovery partition has been wiped.

You could:

1. Borrow a set of recovery discs if you have a friend or work colleague that has a set.
2. Contact Tosbiba to see if they can send you a set - don't tell them you installed Windows 7 Pro, just mention that your recovery partition is corrupted.

 

[fireberd]

To add, as you have installed a "different" OS (from the OEM supplied version) on the machine, the recovery partition may still be there but because a different OS has been installed the recovery partition may not work (reinstall). I've seen this happen on Dell's.

 

[spinksy]

@seavixen32 no i didnt clean install i did a system repair method (found through seven forums) and they are still there

@firebird i have read about that method and will try it, but before i do i will create recovery discs from the recovery partition in case they are lost/broken in installation (have read about it happening), so i will do that asap.

btw i did create a system image when i installed professional as instructed to do by a seven forum member, but for some reason i have deleted it, dumb mistake..

 

[gregrocker]

Try running Toshiba Factory Recovery now as it may still run if only C was overwritten. Toshiba HDD Recovery Utility

Be aware that you can simply insert a higher-version Product key in Anytime Upgrade to unlock the extra features in minutes.

If Toshiba Recovery does not run, post back a screenshot of your maximized DIsk Management drive map using Snipping Tool in Start Menu. There's a possibility if it still exists the Recovery partition can be made to run by marking it Active then rebooting: Partition - Mark as Active.
Note that you'd use Method Two to mark the current System Reserved (preferred) or 7 partition Active again if necessary. Take note of which is marked Active now.

If this fails, you'll need to order your Recovery Disks from Toshiba Tech Support, or find a Win7 retail installation DVD to clean reinstall Home Premium following these steps to get a perfect Reinstall: Reinstalling Windows 7

There is also a workaround to change between versions by changing the Registry key shown below to HOMEPREMIUM for the EditionID and Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM for the ProductName., then run an in-place Upgrade with the Home Premium installer. Back up your files and set a System Restore point:

 

[spinksy]

thanks i will do the factory reset in two weeks when i can get my Microsoft Office installation disc,
also @gregrocker that last method you mentioned is how i upgraded to professional but i dont think it can be used to go back to an OEM installation.

 

[Zomby88]

belarc advisor only found the current key not the key for home premium.

And i dont have any installation cd's or anything because home premium came pre-installed

What do you mean you don`t have the install dvd ?

How then, did you install Pro ?

If you have the dvd you can make a universal ( all versions ) installer.

 

[spinksy]

i have an installer for professional, a .iso atm but have disc back home, can this be used with home premium OEM?

 

[Zomby88]

I believe there is a tutorial on how to make it.

 

[spinksy]

thanks,
i think i saw that somewhere, but do you know if it is a clean install or an upgrade/repair as i did before?

 

[gregrocker]

i have an installer for professional, a .iso atm but have disc back home, can this be used with home premium OEM?

Yes you can unlock all versions in any retail installer using eicfg removal tool on the ISO. Explore ISO to make sure it has removed the ei.cfg file from Sources folder, then burn the ISO to DVD using ImgBurn at 4x speed or write to flash stick using Universal USB Installer with WIn7 in the dropdown menu.

also @gregrocker that last method you mentioned is how i upgraded to professional but i dont think it can be used to go back to an OEM installation.

I would not have posted it if it cannot be used to go in either direction upper<>lesser version.

A clean reinstall is alway a superior install and fresh start. Follow these steps to get a perfect clean reinstall: Reinstalling Windows 7

 

[spinksy]

thanks i think i will do a clean install just to get a lot of 'stuff' off of the computer

 

[Zomby88]

Do a clean install but DO NOT wipe out your recovery partition. Only delete your C: partition.