Changed Hard drive--Windows 7 RTM Activation

[toneefresh]

I installed Windows 7 RTM last week. I jsut bought a new hard drive and cloned my old drive to this new drive. I now get a message that says the copy is not genuine at boot-up, and a blank screen comes up. I called the Activation toll-free number, but they say they cannot support Windows 7 yet. Any ideas?

I have an MSDN subscription which is where I downloaded the RTM version before you ask

 

[Brink]

Hello Toneefresh, and welcome to Windows Forums.

You could get another key number from MSDN for it, change your key number in Windows 7, then see if it will activate for you.

OR

You might see if it will let you activate with your current number after a repair install.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[toneefresh]

I have another key that I could use, but I'm not given the option to change the key. I can start taskmrg, and that's about it. I thought about the reinstall method, but was going to use that as a last resort.

 

[24c]

I was just about to order a new HD and planned to restore an Acronis True Image backup of my current HD to it. I have Windows 7 - TechNet subscription - installed.

I wonder if there is a difference between a "restored" image and a "cloned" image.

I have restored many backups before w/o any "not genuine" incidents.

Could the issue be NEW hardware??

 

[toneefresh]

Supposedly this happens when a major piece of hardware is changed, including a HDD

 

[Brink]

Toneefresh,

In Task Manager, click on File and New Task. Type cmd and press enter, then type slmgr -rearm and press enter to rearm Windows 7. It will hopefully let you change the key number afterwards.

 

[X360]

i called the toll free number and activated mine that way, the toll number worked for me but i am in ireland.

 

[toneefresh]

Brink, thanks for your responses.

I tried using slmgr, but it will not work. I get a Visual Basic error. There's a lot of services stopped, so I think the VB runtime stuff may be disabled as well.

 

[Zidane24]

Brink, thanks for your responses.

I tried using slmgr, but it will not work. I get a Visual Basic error. There's a lot of services stopped, so I think the VB runtime stuff may be disabled as well.

I would reccomend to do a repair install then

 

[Brink]

I would agree with Zidane to do the repair install then.

 

[darkassain]

try to open a elevated command prompt and

type

cd sysprep

and then

sysprep /generalize /reboot

and see if that helps...
it will make it think its going to be repackaged and force you to reactivate...

The System Preparation tool, Sysprep.exe, is used to prepare an installation of Windows for imaging or delivery to a customer.

How Sysprep Works

 

[chuckr]

try to open a elevated command prompt and

type

cd sysprep

and then

sysprep /generalize /reboot

and see if that helps...
it will make it think its going to be repackaged and force you to reactivate...

How Sysprep Works

Nice...

Does he need the WAIK for that, or is it in everybody's Win 7 RTM ?

The checking algorithm must not like the HDD differentials...
Pretty stringent to me.

 

[darkassain]

Nice...

Does he need the WAIK for that, or is it in everybody's Win 7 RTM ?

The checking algorithm must not like the HDD differentials...
Pretty stringent to me.

yep it has been integrated starting in XP (you had to download a big chunk of data in 2000 though (well at the time its was a big chunk)....)

you would have to do this all the time in XP because of how the HAL worked before...

 

[24c]

FWIW -

I have a Western Digital 74GB Raptor as C:, with Windows 7 Professional Installed - TechNet Subscription. I use Acronis True Image Home to do backups of the drive.

Restored a backup to a Maxtor 640GB HD, which is my 4th HD used for storage. Maxtor was formatted prior to backup restore.

Upon restore completion, rebooted, entered "set up", turned off HDs 1, 2, & 3 and booted to HD4. Windows 7 ran CHKDSK, first time I've ever seen that, booted OK and Windows was activated and "good to go".

I'm not sure how/if this relates to the topic, other than I was able to boot to Windows 7 on a HD other than the one it was installed on originally.

I thank the OP for this topic - now I know how to replace C:\ with a new HD - thanks toneefresh.

 

[toneefresh]

Sorry guys...I went home and did a repair install. I'm good to go now. I'm very curious about the sysprep stuff though. Almost tempted to re-clone from my old drive to repeat the problem

 

[harpua]

I've cloned my entire C drive using Acronis TIH 2009 to another drive and then swapped the clone into the laptop (removing the original drive obviously), and 7 booted up like nothing had changed, activation and all. Also did this numerous times with Vista. Never had any issues with losing activation or having to reactivate.

 

[DJG]

I've also used Paragon Drive Backup to restore Windows including XP and never had a hiccup with Windows having to re-activate. It's probably due the difference between cloning and restoring and how each treats the target disk signature, which (I'm guessing here) is copied for a restore but is re-assigned for a clone.