Every "windows not genuine" flag I've seen came from one of three situations:
Trying to do a repair install with an upgrade disk
Restoring from a system image after HDD failure or repartitioning
Upgrading a HDD on a computer that came from the factory with windows 7
27 false flags in the last 6 months .. which puts WAT at 0% accuracy in my experience
I don't know why it came up. It validated Windows when I had logged on, but Microsoft Security Essentials said it needed validated, so I clicked the link and everything froze.
You didn't install IE9 beta by any chance, did you? Windows can't be validated with IE9
As I recommended before, try using diskpart to prep your hdd before you reinstall windows... don't activate windows automatically, do it by phone and you should avoid the WAT minefield. good luck
Everyone, thank you so much for your help. My laptop is running great now, and it is booting up normally.
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