This copy of Windows is not Genuine after cloning drive. Fix!

Long story... I had a Raid failure last night. After fixing the issue and restoring my Windows 7 Pro from a Ghost 15 Backup my machine boots up and displays a light blue screen with only a small water mark in thre bottom right corner which states "Windows 7, Build 7600, This copy of Windows is not Genuine." There was no start menu or any Icons. I was able to start the Task Manager via Ctrl+Alt+Del, and then Start explorer.exe and cmd. via New Task. I could not however use any installed programs. After 3 hrs on the phone with MS I was told I would have to do a clean install. When I had the commad prompt open I noticed that it said F:/.... My windows should be on C:/??? What had happened is that for some reason Ghost sets the drive letter to something other than C: A bit of Google and I discovered the solution. The Drive letter must match what it was previously or Windows thinks you are trying to install on more than one PC.

This is how you fix it:

1. Boot into Safe Mode
2. Ctrl+Alt+Del
3. Start Task Manager
4. New task> cmd
5. Type in "regedit"

Then follow steps 9-16 of this article from Microsoft

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

1. Locate the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
2. Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:".
3. Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename.
   
   Note You must use Regedit instead of Regedt32 to rename this registry key.
4. Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z:".
   
   This frees up drive letter C.
5. Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D:".
6. Right-click \DosDevices\D:, and then click Rename.
7. Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C:".
8. Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and then name it back to "\DosDevices\D:".
9. Restart computer.

After I restrted I had everything back and functional as it was with my most recent backup.

This is a last dich effort. According to the tech I was on the phone forever with it does not always work and could make things worse. So I would only use it if you are about to do a clean install and loose everything anyway. Hope this helps someone.

KiwiME said:

[FWIW, this is really a fix for an image restoring mistake, not really a generic fix for every instance of the "This copy of Windows is not genuine" message.

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this solution, bxmedic! I'll flag the thread to be marked 'Solved'.

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a similar problem that had been vexing me for hours. I was very afraid I would have to do a clean install, but alas!, your fix worked.

Thanks again,
Genna

i shouldn't say this... but

its hard to believe that after this much-praised flip to Windows 7, we still have to deal with "DOS DEVICES" !!!

Hey thanks guys. And remember without troubleshooting Microsoft OS's, we would be bored.

It's quite common. Often when restoring/copying an o/s to a different Partition from the original.

Windows can get to the login screen , then the registry paths are wrong of course - you may be stuck at preparing desktop forever, or get the Not Genuine message.

You can fix it as above, or do it the easy way with Paragon Boot Corrector:

View attachment 67908

View attachment 67909

View attachment 67910

There is a version of Boot corrector ( not quite as pretty) on FREE Paragon Rescue Kit Express

Excellent Post I a actually learned something today

Very good post. It's good to know this.

Hey guys, I need help. I followed the steps till "restart your computer" and now when I start my computer , the login freezes at "windows is starting". Now I can't access my PC. Can someone help me ?

bxmedic said:

... I noticed that it said F:/.... My windows should be on C:/

Click to expand...

FWIW, this is really a fix for an image restoring mistake, not really a generic fix for every instance of the "This copy of Windows is not genuine" message.

KiwiME said:

FWIW, this is really a fix for an image restoring mistake, not really a generic fix for every instance of the "This copy of Windows is not genuine" message.

Click to expand...

True.

Umaterasy said:

Hey guys, I need help. I followed the steps till "restart your computer" and now when I start my computer , the login freezes at "windows is starting". Now I can't access my PC. Can someone help me ?

Click to expand...

Try and fix the Boot issue with your Windows Disk. If that doesn't work you can try one of 2 things.

1. Try and get into safe mode and repeat the process maybe you missed a step. (no offense, but it happens)

or

2. Try The Program mentioned by SIW2, Paragon Boot Corrector

bxmedic said:

Umaterasy said:

Hey guys, I need help. I followed the steps till "restart your computer" and now when I start my computer , the login freezes at "windows is starting". Now I can't access my PC. Can someone help me ?

Click to expand...

Try and fix the Boot issue with your Windows Disk. If that doesn't work you can try one of 2 things.

1. Try and get into safe mode and repeat the process maybe you missed a step. (no offense, but it happens)

or

2. Try The Program mentioned by SIW2, Paragon Boot Corrector

Click to expand...

Thanks for answering. But unfortunely, i cant even get pass nothing. When I try to go in safe mode... It loads but at one time it freezes :s

Venrat

Thanx so much for that valuable input. I struggled to revive a laptop for 3 harrowing days. With your inputs, it is solved now

Great advice

I didn't have the prob yet and this thread should be a sticky one...it might be lost in the forum!

Thank..

This is an excellent tip. I was able to find NOTHING that helped my issue. For me, it started out that I was dual-booting XP & Windows 7-64. I wasn't able to mark my 7 partition as primary and active, and after much frustration erased the XP partition.

Yadda yadda, it all became unusable. I backed up my Win7 partition with GSS and couldn't get it working thanks to this problem detailed by the OP. After using his trick (and I had tried EVERYTHING else), it all works fine now.

All this just to get rid of XP, and now I'm almost wishing I hadn't given the problems I started having...

Thank you OP, I have been messing with this for an entire week, performing roughly 6 restores on my RAID array. I knew it would be something easy, but could never find the answer. If this thread is not a sticky, please make it so!

Hey guys. I have had this exact problem show up ever since the AVG debacle with Dec1 update. I followed the links I found here to get my laptop up and running again and now I get the "Windows 7, build 7600, This Copy of Windows is not Genuine" message. I have an ASUS UL50v laptop that is only like six months old I think.

I'm not sure where to start looking. Is this fix a good place to start? Thanks

This fix was only used after restoring from a Norton Ghost backup. It is a last resort to avoid a clean install. If you haven't recently done a restore I would try this first>

Free Antivirus | Forum - Fix For Update/Boot Error Vista

If you did get to this point from restoring via backup software it should work for you.

Could this be related?

I had seen this thread previiously but a new problem I'm having triggered a thought: could this be related???

I have a lab mule machine, a little Aopen mini-cube that has a legit copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. Originally as I acquired it, the load was on a 20GB drive. I imaged the system using Paragon B&R Free, and "voila'" moved it over to a 80GB 7200rpm drive. Came up flawlessly, activated and validated and sanctified. No problemo....

Then I got fancy, wanting to lower power consumption and heat buildup since the 80 was a fullsize drive: I bought a 7200rpm 100GB NOTEBOOK drive - Did the same thing again, using Paragon to image the now-80GB copy, restoring it to the 100GB, process-wise just like previous. This time I get the black screen with "THIS COPY OF WINDOWS IS NOT GENUINE".
I was in a hurry at the time, so the short path was to just drop the green idea and return to the 80GB brick. I assumed that the issue was non-Activation due to the hardware change lever being tripped. But maybe not.

Can someone smarter than me tell me which issue I encountered?