Solved Activation required after moving hard drive from laptop to desktop

[Prince Hal]

Okay, so two weeks ago someone put their foot through my Acer laptop screen. Rather than had it fixed, I decided to remove the 2.5 inch hard drive, and transplant it into my HP Pavilion Desktop.

The Acer was running Windows 7 and the desktop Windows Vista. I bought a 2.5inch to 3.5inch hard drive bay converter, removed the 3.5inch HD (4 years old with Vista) and replaced it with the 2.5inch HD (6 months old with Win 7 64 bit).

All the drivers were updated and I had a sparkling new desktop running Windows 7. The laptop carcass was then disposed of.

All well until I found a date ticker saying that I needed to activate the O/S. There was a product code already in the form, so I hit the Activate button. The reply came back that it was not valid. I certainly did not change it from when it was in the laptop.

What can I do? I obviously do not want to pay for a new O/S, since I had bought the Acer laptop with Win 7 and it is still only on one computer.

What are my options? Can anyone assist?

Many thanks,

Hal.

 

[Bill2]

The reason its unactivated is that the late Acer laptop had a factory win7 activated via Acer oem activation- this type of activation is a brew of several components one of them being an oem marker in the bios. When you moved the hard disk to the HP, the bios marker and some other components went missing.

Theres no option other than buying a new license. The Acer license was tied to that computer, its not transferrable. However, since you already have vista, you can buy an Upgrade win7 license which is considerably cheaper than the full retail license. FYI, you can also do a clean install of windows using the upgrade disk.

BTW, that product code is not the product key, hence the error.

 

[Prince Hal]

Thought I was "the man" obviosuly not

The reason its unactivated is that the late Acer laptop had a factory win7 activated via Acer oem activation- this type of activation is a brew of several components one of them being an oem marker in the bios. When you moved the hard disk to the HP, the bios marker and some other components went missing.

Theres no option other than buying a new license. The Acer license was tied to that computer, its not transferrable. However, since you already have vista, you can buy an Upgrade win7 license which is considerably cheaper than the full retail license. FYI, you can also do a clean install of windows using the upgrade disk.

BTW, that product code is not the product key, hence the error.

Thanks Bill. Upgrading to Win 7 on the HP desktop: If i buy the upgrade disks, will I need the HP Recovery Disks (lost them and the desktop will not allow me to make new ones and its about $35 to purchase them from a 3rd party - HP no longer supports replacements for my desktop). I do have the Vista product key - it is just visable on the sticker on the PC case.

Thanks for your help,

Hal.

 

[Bill2]

No, you don't need any disks or keys other than the win7 upgrade disk that you'll purchase. Heres how to go about the install process.

To upgrade from vista to win7

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1818-upgrade-install-windows-7-a.html

To clean install win7

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

Read those nice tuts thoroughly and clarify any doubts on this forum before buying and installing.

 

[Prince Hal]

Thanks

Thanks Bill2 - very clear. That was totally helpful and so quick.

Hal.

 

[Barman58]

Just a few points.....

I would recommend that you go for the Fresh install as linked above, although it will involve more work in installing software it will give you a much more stable system for the long term.

You should be able to install both HDD in the desktop providing you with an option to keep your OS and data separate.

Install your new Windows 7 on the fastest of the two drives, as this will provide a better experience. You should be able to move all your data onto the non OS drive prior to installation and will allow you to format the OS drive before install