Windows 7 Home Premium Activation - Help

[manvswild2]

Well two days a go my operating system got messed up by some virus, I don't really know. So one of my friends said I could reformat my laptop to fix it and I let him do it with one of his Windows 7 Cds. But now I can't Avtivate my computer with the product key that came with my laptop 3 mounths a go. I checked and the product key and the operating system installed are the same but when I try to activate the operating system it says its not genunine. What do I do? Do I need to but a new windows 7 key?... The key only has been used 2 times I guess. When I frist got my laptop from gateway and the second time I needed to replace the hard drive. But why doesn't it work now? Please help.

 

[richc46]

Did he use the same edition
Home Premium etc.

Did your OS come preinstalled?

 

[eldinv]

Try activating by phone option. When it ask how many PC's this copy of Windows have been installed say only 1.

What kind of disc your friend used for installation? Retail/OEM bought or OEM from Gateway?

 

[manvswild2]

The os did come preinstalled the first two times. Than the third time my friend installed it with a windows 7 cd.. Thats what he says, i wasnt around when he did it.

 

[richc46]

The key is tied to an edition Home Premium, Professional etc. He may have installed an edition that is not the same as the key.

 

[DocBrown]

Can you give us a screen snip of Winver ?

Start :ar: Winver :ar:

 

[Solarstarshines]

Do it by phone All they do is ask you a few questions you tell them when and where it was bought etc and if you are using it on more then one system after all that they will release your windows

Soon after that you should get updates when you reinstall windows most of the time this happens cause they assume you are putting it on another system

 

[Solarstarshines]

By the way Doc Brown there playing all three episodes of back to the future Epic classic

 

[manvswild2]

Well found out why my key wasn't working. I gave my friend my vmware key insted of my windows 7 key. Got the two mixed up. The vmware key was in a text doc named windows 7 key. Well i called it in and it says activated in system properities but when i try to run a
the online validation test i get an error [0x80080100] (Genuine Microsoft Software) Does any one know why?

 

[gregrocker]

You need tighter control over the software you let your friend install on your Computer. It may have bad stuff added you don't want that can give you problems.

Ask your friend exactly what DVD he used to install Win7, where he got it from. Using Belarc Advisor audit the Product Key installed (unless you installed it yourself) to make sure it wasn't cracked with some pre-activated torrent copy of Win7.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
These type of tales are always IMO a little bit dubioius --I "borrowed from a friend" etc etc.

When you bought your laptop you must have got a recovery disk even if it's not a Windows OS disk. You should be able to restore your machine to the same state as when you purchased it.

If the restore doesn't work you can take it back to the store and they will fix it in any case or they will send you a new recovery disk which doesn't need any data from a hidden partition which you probably wiped.

Incidentally --another topic but this REALLY IRRITATES ME when computers are sold without a copy of the installed OS whether its a full MS retail copy or an OEM one.

It should be MANDATORY to give an OS image whether on a DVD or even as an ISO file on the computer itself when a computer is sold with windows already installed.

I always "haggle" --if I'm buying a new laptop or even a desktop I try and get a full retail version of the OS thrown in --you'll be surprised how many times this works since the sales people want to shift boxes.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[ttoomm]

jimbo45-

No, unfortunately almost no one send disks with prebuilt systems anymore. Now days they come with a restore partition. If the friend reformated, that is gone.

The story make some sense to me. In the good old days, with minimal software installed, a standard recommendation for getting rid of uglies like a virus was to reformat and reinstall