Irritating License Issue

Ease · 19 Apr 2010 at 13:22

Irritating License Issue <Sorted>

So my machine died a fortnight back, and a new motherboard finally arrived today. It tried to boot up, failed at the Windows 7 log in, and went to "Auto-repair". After an hour of failing to do anything it then told me it coudln't auto-repair! So I grabbed my Windows 7 Upgrade disk, and did a clean install on a seperate hard drive. It's now saying my Product Key is invalid because I did a clean install rather than an upgrade!!! What should I do?

pastymuncher · 19 Apr 2010 at 13:49

There was a easy way around this with Vista upgrade versions called the double installation and i use it all the time with mine when i need to re-install. The same thing is possible with W7 too. See here.

linktoinsanity · 20 Apr 2010 at 09:04

If your motherboard died then by my understanding you legally are allowed to reinstall and reactivate OEM copies and of course retail copies on your new motherboard.

To install from scratch using an upgrade disk, follow pasty's link above.

mast3r · 20 Apr 2010 at 09:15

+2 for the link above.

Alt, just load a copy of XP then upgrade

Ease · 20 Apr 2010 at 09:30

I now wish I had read the linky properly. At first glance I saw the word "registry" and it scared me off; I just installed XP and "upgraded" to Windows 7. However, had I actually tried the link I'm pretty certain it would have been a lot quicker and easier! Oh well, lesson learned!