Monday, July 30, 2018

Reinstalled Windows and entered previous product number



Some time ago I bought a laptop with Windows 7 Home Edition x64 preinstalled. After that I have installed Ubuntu on the second partition. Year later I decided to wipe the whole Windows partition, and reinstall it, so I formated it.



For some reason recovery partition, installed by manufactor, wasn't working, so I downloaded OEM image of Windows 7 Home x64, intalled it, and entered product number, printed on my laptop .




After a few days I received "W7 Home Premium product key you typed is invalid for activation". Can I fix the situation somehow? I don't want to buy Windows once again - I already bought it with my laptop.


Answer



Product Number and License Key are different things, you must have typed the license key or it wouldn't take it. OEM keys can only be activated 3 times, so if this is the 4th installation of Windows on that machine then you'll have to call MS and get your 3 activations reset. They'll have a substantial amount of questions and possibly fees if your hardware is different from the first computer activated with that license key (otherwise it's pretty quick and simple).



TL;DR - call MS Licensing and explain to them. They'll fix.


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