I've read the instructions on various websites.
I had Windows 8.1 Home activated and updated.
Upgraded to Windows 10 Home. It activated and updated.
Did a clean install of Windows 10 Home and it won't activate. I skipped both key input screens and it says my key is blocked.
I have a laptop that was originally on Windows 8.1. I upgraded it to Windows 10 recently, however there were a variety of deeply embedded issues. I tried every troubleshooting method I could find, tried to revert back to 8.1, and tried to repair and reset Windows 10. Nothing was working, so I had to use installation media from doing a clean install on my PC to install a fresh version of Windows 10 on my laptop.
I was forced to format the hard drive, and delete all the partitions to even get the clean install to work (the upgrade did a real number on my initial system), and because of this I'm now unable to activate Windows 10. The upgrade was the Home edition, and I clean installed the Home N edition (as far as I'm aware there's little to no difference). I made a note of the product key that was listed in the upgraded 10 before the clean install, which I assume was my product key from 8.1 that carried over, as it is 20 characters long and not 25.
Is there any way I can activate my clean installed Windows 10 Home N in this situation?
I cleaned installed Win10 Pro using the Media Creation Tool and how come I only got 3 updates? I am assuming I would get more updates than these.
Running version 1511 build 10586
Is it because Win10 is too new ???
And I kept pressing the Check for Updates button and it said no more new updates.
I have a new rig and made a clean install with Win 8.1 Pro.
After that I directly upgraded to Win 10 Pro within running system.
Are there any advantages to do now a clean Windows 10 installation?
I think I ccleaned something important. Under ccleaner I clicked Clear: Windows event logs,Wipe Free Space, Tray Notification Cache, Menu Order Cache, Old Prefetch Data, Environmental Path. Along with the basics such as brower cache.
After a restart, entire screen was black, however I had a mouse that could move. I did alt tab, there were processes running but very few.
Out of panic I restarted everything. I restarted the computer and went into the system repair. After no mistake was found by it, I ended up after some other attempts of finding out the problem I reinstalled windows 10 completely. Keep in mind this is through the Windows Repair.
Windows 10 installs after a few hours.
Now currently: Windows 10 runs up to the point where I select my language, location (time area) and the other settings. After clicking the final step, "use express settings", i click next, when I do this it goes to the loading screen. (I think it said please wait).
After a few seconds of loading, it restarts.
After the restart it takes me back to the beginning of the installation, (the part about choosing the language, location, etc) and I do it again, and it happens again, like a loop.
things attempted:
Sfc/scannow, says no corrupt files
Starting up in safe mode (safe mode regular (4) and safe mode with command prompt), doesn't start up in safe mode/it goes back to the regular installation loop.
If I understood this : clearly, then does it mean that Windows will activate itself from some Windows activation servers that are somehow written into my hardware even if I do a clean install deleting everything in my Windows partition?
Also, since the built-in "Create a Recovery Drive" will take forever or display an error when ''Backup system files to the recovery drive' is checked", I'm trying to create an Installation media. But I'm stuck with which ISO I should download. Now, there's Windows 10, Windows 10 Single Language, Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Home N. I'm running Windows 10 Home at the moment. Which was upgraded from Windows 8.1(I think there was ''Single Language'' written after "8.1", not sure though). Which Version should I download. And if I install the wrong version by chance, will Windows still activate after I find out and install the right version? Please clarify these.... I'm really looking forward to do a clean-install to get rid of all the errors and bugs with drivers and just start over.
*DETAILS: Windows 10 Home Build 10240 [Upgraded via free upgrade, had an OEM version of Windows 8.1 when first bought]
A friend's Asus 8.1 laptop was stuck in an automatic repair loop so I suggested that he upgrade to Windows 10.
Because he was unable to access his system, I opted for a clean install and I created a bootable Win 10 usb on another pc. I used this usb to insall Win 10 on his machine, skipping any requests to activate.
I was under the impression that Win 10 would automatically activate on installation. I'm not sure he ever signed up for the free upgrade offer before Win 8 on his machine decided to implode.
I upgraded my Windows 7 to Windows 10 using the windows updater. After windows 10 was installed, I decided to download this Windows 10 and chose the USB option. I booted into my USB and when selecting the partition, I deleted every partition that was there (even the system). Now I am on windows 10 with no activation. I have the Windows 7 product key but it does not work.
P.S its not pirated Windows 7. I got it from Dream spark (on the hub) students saving.
Ye old Error code: 0xC004C003
I made sure 8.1 Pro to the upgrade to 10 Pro was activated before I did a clean install. This last month the system has been acting weird. Once in windows its fine, but I was getting startup errors that made windows restart while starting dealing with HD audio. Not sure if the realtek or Nvidia.
Anyhow during all this and now my system had been activated, then deactivated, then activated. Etc. Etc. Etc. I think its finally settled on deactivated.
No hardware changes in all this other than driver and windows updates. So yea.. nothing on Google search nor here mentions this exact problem. Again, I need to point out it was activated with the upgrade first from 8.1 to 10. It also showed activated in 10 for awhile.
The system should only deactivate if new base hardware was installed which this isn't the case.
I can not activate my windows 10,I have done all with the genuine file but it won't activate anyway,could it be that I not upgrade it to w 10?,I did a Clean install directly!
View 5 RepliesSo a few months back I upgraded for free from win7 to win10 Pro. Today I got a new CPU, RAM, MBO (also currently using the new MBO onboard GPU, waiting for my new one) and did a clean install of Win10 (from USB created with MediaCreationToolkit). Now I remember reading somewhere about steps to activate Windows 10 after hardware change, but can't seem to find it anywhere, so thought I'd ask here.The error I'm getting: 0x004C003 The activation server determined the specified product key is blocked.The thing is I need to get this PC up to my needs fast, and this doesn't cope well with that..
View 3 RepliesSince the Win10 Upgrade fails on my HP DV6 notebook, I decided to do a clean install.
But now, it won't take the Win7 product key for activation!!
I called MS and they told me that a clean-install will NOT activate using Win7 product keys and that I have to purchase a product key.
I got this same story from two different MS reps.
I thought you COULD activate a clean-install using Win7 key using build 10586.
I'm having issues with deploying out-of the box windows 10 on a Lenovo B50-80EW preinstalled win 7 pro and upgradable to win 8.1 Pro however since the new windows 10 update build 1511 ISO I download I thought it would go through OK . without have to do first upgrade install to windows 10
Secure BOOT on UEFI ON
From putting the windows 10 ISO in drive it doesn't prompt for activation key. As soon as network settings prompts I press shift/ Contro / F3
Now in administrator Mode I check windows is activated however I have the same model of laptop and I want to mass deploy an image but want to use the OEM key embedded in BIOS to each laptop of this model is this possible to be done as I deployed on another machine and got message saying this key is already in use is there an issue with the new ISO available from Microsoft .
I also tried fresh install with out no ethernet or wireless connected and still get on same machine windows is activated in audit mode on fresh setup.
I had a licensed windows 7 PC and did the in-place upgrade to windows 10. However my main hard drive (an SSD) is too small and I want to upgrade it. I understand that if I do a clean install (from an ISO/USB) then windows 10 should still recognise my PC as it was activated.
However, if I change the hard drive (or add memory, add a graphics card etc) does windows still recognise my PC or do I have to go through the stupidty of installing windows 7, installing the service pack, waiting for the inplace upgrade to windows 10, activating, and then wiping everything in order to do a clean install!?!?!
i did the win 10 free upgrade i had to before i could do a clean install. im not having any problems with the upgrade so far but i have always did a clean install of windows before this.
View 1 RepliesI upgraded from Win 7 pro about a month ago hoping that would cure some problems I had with Win 7. It did not and Win 10 is working poorly too. I would like to do a clean install of Win 10 but not sure if I can get the correct Win 10 install file just from my Win 7 pro product key. Is there a download source for that since I have already upgraded to Win 10?
View 9 RepliesI got a legit copy of windows 7 and i did the update to windows 10, but my PC seems slow and it seems like there is a lot of junk and left over files... idk, i want to do a clean install, but i dont want to loose my genuine copy of windows. also, i have about 1tb of games installed on a seperate drive off steam. if i clean install and leave that drive as is, will the games still work or will i have to redownload them all?
View 9 RepliesI'm finally thinking to upgrade from W7 to W10.
Here's the situation at the moment:
1) 256GB System SSD
2) 1TB data HDD
3) 3TB Raid 1 HDD for backup
I want to mount a new 500GB SSD as primary system drive, so I was thinking to use this occasion to put W10 into my machine.
So my question is: Can I update to W10 as it is and then do a clean install changing the primary system drive while keeping the license?
I upgraded from 8.1 (genuine Sony Vaio ) using the media creation upgrade option, it installed and activated to windows 10 pro.
I then used the same media creation tool to download the iso and used Rufus to put it onto a usb so that I could do a clean install.
I installed it and skipped the parts prompting for a product key, however once it loads up when I try to activate it states 0xC004C003 details section says the key has been blocked?
Have I missed something?
There is a lot of questioning about making a clean install of windows 10 once you upgraded from Windows 8.1 retail version.
So there it is :
-If you have NEW hardware : So if you want to make a clean install of win 10 on you're new computer (actually it all depend on you're motherboard). You will need to re install windows 8.1 with you're licence that came with (Of course install it on you're new comp). Then you have to make the free upgrade again. In other words you have to restart from 0. And yes you're license is still good for windows 8.1. After the free upgrade win to 10, it will save you're new motherboard with you're microsoft account to the microsoft activation server. Well, its good as long as the upgrades are free (One year from the launch)!
--So for later re install, as long as you don't change you're MotherBoard,you can start from the Win 10 installer and you will not need to enter any license key. You just skip these steps and when you get on the internet and log on to you're microsoft account it will auto detect you're account with you're mobo and activate automatically. In other words, there is no key from free upgraded windows 10
-If you don't have new hardware : Well its very simple, you mobo is already saved with you're microsoft account so you can just install you're win10 from the installer. You do not enter any license keys and it should activate by itself when you connect to internet.
I think its always good to have a retail version for the actual system that we use with a good license key.
Received a MSI laptop with pre-installed W8.1. Planning to install a new SSD on m.2 slot. I have several options to update to W10.
p.s: I am keeping both SSD and HDD in my laptop
1) Clone from old HDD to new SSD using MSI burn recovery. Then update to W10
2) Upgrade to W10 on my old HDD. Get W10 activated. Perform a clean install on SSD. Lastly, format my old HDD as secondary drive
I recently upgraded to windows 10, and decided to do a clean install. So I made a image of my system (when it was windows 8.1), wiped my Hard drive (which still had the original windows 8 install,), and stuck a ios file on a usb stick. However during the install to my SSD (Which is different from my hardrive) the computer asked for a product code, something I do not have, and did not think I needed (my understanding was that windows 10 registered your hardware). If I skip it, it goes though the prossess of installing, but then restarts after finishing moving the files. I dont want to have to attempt to go though the effort of putting windows 8 back on the laptop, moving it over to the ssd, upgrading to windows 10, getting a product key that may or may not work, and trying it again.
View 1 RepliesSo I have an upgrade reserved from Windows 7.
I want to know if I can use the free upgrade to perform a clean install on another SSD.
I have a feeling this is bios/uefi related
Got a sabertooth z77 with two ssd on raid 0 (intel) another hard drive for backups (Regular sata) and another storage card (pciexpress sas highpoint 2720, with raid 5)
Windows 10 doesnt seem to like this.
Even booting the dvd itself its a drag and hr wont recognize the raid 0 not even with drivers (driver load will cause a watchdog blue screen)
Windows 7 and 8 dont mind. At all.
I feel like the csm thingy might have something to do.
Bios is latest. Sas raid is for storage only. Ill search for the manual of the board as the printed one doesnt have the options i got on the screen
I did the upgrade on my Laptop from 8.1 to 10, went smoothly everything works so far. Now i have to decide do a reset and do a clean install since i always worry if later there will e a problem, should i safely think if no problems now that if i reformat a clean install that all drivers will be there and everything will be ok. Tomorrow i do my Alienware Aurora R4 desktop and prey it goes well. Then since i have 30 Hard Drives that i will be able to do a network share and be able to see it on my living room TV, will pray.
View 9 RepliesSo I've been using Windows 10 for the past two weeks now. I really dig it, however the hard drive I'm on is slightly slower than my 7200rpm drive which could boot Windows 7 up a lot faster.
I upgraded my Windows 7 installation to this current Windows 10 install and since I want to
1. Sell this current hard drive
and
2. Move to the other hard drive,
I'm in a bit of a dilemma here. I have a large amount of software and important documents installed on this pc.
In the event where I want to clean install to the other hard drive, I don't really want to be tasked with having to reinstall all of this software again, mostly because I don't have installers available for them.
So I guess I want to know what are the benefits to clean installing over upgrading on an already fast hard drive and what would be most convenient in my case if this option is more viable?
I've read differing opinions online over upgrade vs clean install and I want to know what I should do.