"Windows 7 7601 not genuine" and OS won't fully boot

[Norrin78]

[SOLVED] "Windows 7 7601 not genuine" and OS won't fully boot

Hello there,

Windows 7 is booting normally until it get stuck on a blue screen (not a BSOD) that says "Windows 7 7601 not genuine" on the bottom right corner.
Problem is Windows won't go anywhere from here. I just can't do anything else (except ctrl-alt-supp which just allows me to reboot). As I can't get into Windows, I can't do anything to solve the problem.

This problem occured after I got rid off my XP partition (from a dual boot XP/seven) to keep only Seven. I had to use windows recovery tool from my Home premium CD to repair start up after that of course as I had lost my boot information (previously on XP).
When I finally got Seven to boot normally (at least I thought) it just hanged there, on this beautiful blue screen, with nothing else than this false statement about my OS not being genuine (This is a genuine one that has been activated fro 2 years and worked perfectly fine).
All I found on forums are people who seem to still get access to Windows and so figure out something with windows or cmd (like slmgr /rearm). But I can't even try all that, as windows doesn't want to load further. I tried in "safe mode" but it didn't change anything, Windows get stuck too.

Am I missing something? Do I have to install it all over again? Isn't there a way to solve this?

Sorry to bother, but I'm really out of ideas :sarc:

Thank you

 

[idrter]

Probably you will have to buy another drive, do a fresh install and retrieve your data via USB cable device. If you have no data you need to retrieve just format your drive and do a reinstall. That takes time, I know but computer owners have lots of time, right? The only dual boot system I have seen that can be easily removed and set up again is with Windows/Linux but even there, if you run any sort of boot modification like Disktrix where pagefile and MFT and other system files are moved, both systems get lost. Dual systems seem to be very sensitive to change. I think that is why many people would rather run a virtual machine than run a dual boot and it's kind of fun too running a system within a system. VMs can be loaded and unloaded at will with no untoward effects and the software is free.

 

[SIW2]

Unusual in this situation, but windows may have decided to change it's drive letter.

You can check that and fix it if needed with the free paragon rescue kit.

Boot it, select Normal Mode>Boot corrector>correct registry drive letters.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/

 

[Norrin78]

Thank you for your answers,

to idrter: I'd rather try a few things before formatting. If I can't solve this that's what I will end doing.
to SIW2: about the rescue kit, do you think it's a boot problem? Because windows seems to boot normally. If there was a wrong letter for the drive, do you think it would go that far before hanging and telling me my copy is not genuine?

Thank you

 

[Bill2]

Have you tried an sfc scan or its big brother the repair install? First run sfc from the win7 dvd like this

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139810-sfc-scannow-run-command-prompt-boot.html

If no joy, run a repair install. Read this tut carefully.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

 

[Norrin78]

Hi,

sfc scan didn't work, and I can't do a repair install since I can't log into windows (as I said I'm stuck on a blank blue screen, nothing else available).

I wanted to try paragon software but I never got the activation email for it (go figure).

I can't believe I'm getting screwed by windows genuine program. Unbelievable

Thanks

 

[theog]

Is your Windows 7 a Upgrade?

 

[Bill2]

Norrin78, please try the solutions in this thread.

http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-...roblem-related-windows-not-genuine-error.html

 

[Norrin78]

@Theog: no this is a complete version.

@Bill2: sounds very promising I'll try that as soon as I get home (funny to see that original post from your link is the exact same problem as mine).

Thanks a lot. Will let you know if it worked. Fingers crossed.

 

[SIW2]

Yes - that is why I suggested you try it.

Thank you for your answers,

to idrter: I'd rather try a few things before formatting. If I can't solve this that's what I will end doing.
to SIW2: about the rescue kit, do you think it's a boot problem? Because windows seems to boot normally. If there was a wrong letter for the drive, do you think it would go that far before hanging and telling me my copy is not genuine?

Thank you

 

[Norrin78]

Thank you all. Problem's solved

I tried paragon's rescue kit but it was soooooo slow (while detecting partitions and OS) that I tried it manually (boot in safe mode > regedit through task manager etc as described in Bill2's thread). Ans it was that simple.

I had XP on C: and Seven on D:
When I formatted XP and merge C: with D:, remaining partition was still declared as D: which explains why Seven was unhappy (but why did it begin to boot then stop? if drive letter was wrong it shouldn't have boot at all?). I swapped D: to C: with regedit and everything came back to normal.

Again, thank you very much for your help

 

[SIW2]

Glad you sorted it out.

Paragon must not like your hardware - usually is pretty quick.

What makes you think a drive letter change would stop it booting at all ?