Win 7 plus Win 7 on 2 partitions?

Marking the G: Windows inactive is not all that necessary since you are going to remove the G: shortly, it is just the best course of action.

You can use this excellent little app to retrieve the activation key from G:, just install it to the G: Windows and it will list the key; actually it can be installed and will run from a USB stick, it's a great, free little app.

SIW - System Information for Windows


After you have retrieved the key from G: and are ready to activate the 'new' Windows 7, in the 'old' Windows from an elevated command window type this command slmgr -upk that will remove the key from that install, you will get a conformation.

The key can then be added to the 'new' Windows 7.

How to Activate Windows 7


Then when you're ready to remove G: Windows, use Partition Wizard to do a partition-specific wipe to that partition, have a look at Option Three of this tutorial for an outline of the wipe process.

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

Do not try to use diskpart as it will not do a single partition, it will do the entire HDD and it is not reversible once run.


Do remember to keep us informed when you have the time.

All that matters is how the SysResv is listed in the "new" Windows 7, if it has a drive letter some programs/apps (or you) may try to write data there, that would cause all sorts of "low disk space" issues. This is what I wanted confirmation of when I asked for the snip of the "new" not the "old" Windows 7.

I wouldn't "simply delete" the old Windows, that will leave all the old Windows code still there to maybe cause future issues and a format removes nothing; do the wipe I suggested above using Partition Wizard, that will leave the partition as "Raw" space that can then be deleted and recovered into the D: Data partition or it can be formatted and again used as a storage partition.


As I stated earlier, you have 120 days to activate the new install.

Activation Trial Period - Extend Up to 120 Days

   Note

Contrary to popular belief, formatting does not remove any data at all, it just checks for sector errors and marks the space to be over-written as needed, all the data is still there including all the code from previous/failed installation attempts.

The number you refer to is the Product ID because it has "OEM" in the string. This tells us it is an OEM copy of Win7 which means it either came pre-installed in factory or is an OEM retail copy of Win7 - both of which are tied to the motherboard they are first installed upon.

If you look at the Belarc report, the Product Key should be the 15 digits with 5 groups of 5 character appearing just beside the Product ID you referred to.

It isn't necessary to uninstall the Product Key if you are going to wipe the partition. You only need to do that if you want to change the key or put a machine in storage and use the key elsewhere.

Hello again Adrian, good to see you're coming along so good.



The activation key should look similar to this one below, 5 groups of 5 digits/letters.

G0BUY-TH3S0-FTWAR-3ATMI-CS0FT



The reason I suggested to remove the activation key from the old install and activate the new install before wiping the old one is so you can make sure you have no issues before you wipe the old.

Hi BFK/Greg. Well I remain confused about the damned Win 7 activation key. Here's what SIW reports in the "Licenses" section. I have changed some of the digits for obvious reasons.

Windows Default Product Key 12345-ABCDE-74XYM-BH4JX-67891

Windows PID 12345-OEM-8702121-67891

Windows Product Key 12345-ABCDE-7B636-WT73F-67891

The Belarc report just shows the last 2 keys. All very confusing.

I can confirm that I bought a full OEM version of Win 7 HP and of course it's being installed on the same laptop/motherboard, so there are no licensing issues.

As an aside I have installed Office 2007 on the new Win 7 and obviously was asked to input the Product Key. When I opened each application I was then asked to activate it - there was no request to enter any key for those, activation happened without that. I just don't remember what happened way back when I installed Win 7. It's something that happens SO infrequently (for me). I am very thankful of that!

Man - I hate this stuff!

Cheers
Adrian