Windows activation on Dell

Did you use the serial key from the coa? What did you say to Microsoft when you phoned them? If you mentioned its a Dell computer of course they'd fob you off.
 
It is a retail disc. MS asked about the laptop and the vendor. I expected them to realise it was Dell as soon as I gave them the key. I'll try different media tomorrow and report back.
 
Doh! OEM disc will work. They use different keys so always need the correct media type :)
 
Kinda OT but have any of you found that the new Windows key stickers are really rubbish? The XP license sticker on my netbook has rubbed off completely and the one on my laptop (which is only 7 months old) is already unreadable! Still I luckily have the recovery media stored so they automatically activate but it's still annoying.
 
What age is the disc your trying to use, I managed to re-install windows 7 on my Dell laptop using the retail disc, but when I had my old laptop with Vista I needed to use a newer disc as the the older one did not accept the code.
 
Can you not just get your hands on a Dell Windows 7 disk?
All our Dells haven't needed a key/activation with the standard Dell disk.
Haven't tried with "normal" win7 media, but if it's like XP, it'll moan that it's not a valid key...
 
Aye, I'm trying to get a genuine Dell image. I did find one available which requires a dual layer DVD so haven't burnt it yet. Unless anybody knows how to trigger a network install using an iso? :)

I'm also trying to get an official Dell disc from Dell.
 
Bossk128 said:
Aye, I'm trying to get a genuine Dell image. I did find one available which requires a dual layer DVD so haven't burnt it yet. Unless anybody knows how to trigger a network install using an iso? :)

I'm also trying to get an official Dell disc from Dell.
Click to expand...

You can put it on a USB memory stick. Here is what I do (this is all from memory so there may be a mistake or two but I've done this a lot recently so should be ok :p)

Insert a memory stick with enough space.
Open the run box and enter diskpart. Press OK.
When it loads, type list disk.
Choose the number of your disk that corresponds to your memory stick size e.g select disk 1
Type clean to erase the memory stick.
Type create partition primary to create a new primary partition on the USB memory stick.
Type active to mark the partition as active.
Type format fs=NTFS quick to format the memory stick to NTFS.
Type assign to assign a drive letter to the memory stick.
Close diskpart.

Extract the disk image that you have into a folder.
Load up command prompt and change the directory to the folder of the disk image (e.g cd C:\DELLIMAGE\).
Change the directory to the sources folder within it by typing cd sources
Type BOOTSECT /nt60 X: (X being the drive letter that was assigned to your memory stick with diskpart.)
Close command prompt, and copy all of the files in the disk image folder to the memory stick.

Boot up machine and set it to boot from the memory stick and you should be able to install from it. Sorry if this is badly written but I've only written it quickly :p

(This will work for all Windows Vista/7 install media)
 
Bossk128 said:
OK quick question before home time: can the iso-tool be used on a usb hard drive, or does it have to be a flash drive?
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be a problem as its generic storage. I've even installed it on a HDD and then hidden the partition after using it, keeping it as a backup in case the system needs reinstalling :D
 
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