Uninstalling Win7 and unactivating the Key

[Reg Ister]

Hi,

I am thinking about changing out my hard drive that currently has Win7 on it.
I want to replace it with a larger drive.

The question is how do I de-activate the license so that when I re-install I can activate it on the new drive?

Thanks

 

[Zen00]

It does it for you automatically. You won't be able to use the install on the old drive though. So wipe it.

I guess I should say that, Windows verifies against the motherboard and other components in your computer. As long as you don't make any major hardware changes, you should never have a problem reinstalling and verifying your copy of Windows on that computer as much as you want.

 

[Reg Ister]

It does it for you automatically. You won't be able to use the install on the old drive though. So wipe it.

t.

Hi, first off, thanks.

Second, I am going to trash that hard drive (I think it is causing problems) so that isn't the issue.

Third, what is then the right procedure to uninstall Win7 on the hard drive so that the license on that hard drive is unactivated?

Thanks again.

 

[Kari]

You don't have to unactivate it. It's done automatically when you activate it after installing on new hard drive.

Kari

 

[SIW2]

Hi Reg Ister,

What kind of product key do you have?

 

[Zen00]

Ooo, good question that.

Yeah, if it's a upgrade, make sure that you copy the old hard drive data onto the new one, or you won't be able to install windows, unless you have a copy of vista lying around.

 

[bobkn]

Hi,

I am thinking about changing out my hard drive that currently has Win7 on it.
I want to replace it with a larger drive.

The question is how do I de-activate the license so that when I re-install I can activate it on the new drive?

Thanks

Microsoft has no explicit de-activation.

Online activation on a new drive may fail, with the message that the key is already in use. You may have to re-activate by telephone. The automated system will probably work. If not, you will have to speak with a Microsoft representative, and explain why you need a new activation code. Total time: about five minutes.

You might consider cloning the installation from the old drive to the new. That may not trigger the need to re-activate Windows, but if you've made enough hardware changes, you may have to re-activate anyway.

 

[DeaconFrost]

If you are certain that the hard drive is causing an issue, and not the files/structure on it, why not just clone it to the new drive? This is, unless you are sure you want to do a fresh install.