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Hi,
Having an issue with Windows activation after copying a drive.. what is the right way to fix this?
After I installed Windows 8 last year, my ancient 160GB drive started to creak, so I bought a new 2TB one that should do me for the forseable. While I would personally rather do a fresh install, loosing all the installed programs and personalisations would seriously cheese off the missus, so I opted to clone it.
I used Minitool Partion Wizard Home Edition to copy the entire drive from one to the other. It worked seamlessly and after changing the BIOS boot sequence I went straight up onto my new disk. So far so good.
However, I am now getting a Windows activation notice, telling me the product key is already in use.
Can I deactivate my old copy to retrieve the key? How do I do this? What is the proper way to go about an HDD upgrade?
Cheers
Having an issue with Windows activation after copying a drive.. what is the right way to fix this?
After I installed Windows 8 last year, my ancient 160GB drive started to creak, so I bought a new 2TB one that should do me for the forseable. While I would personally rather do a fresh install, loosing all the installed programs and personalisations would seriously cheese off the missus, so I opted to clone it.
I used Minitool Partion Wizard Home Edition to copy the entire drive from one to the other. It worked seamlessly and after changing the BIOS boot sequence I went straight up onto my new disk. So far so good.
However, I am now getting a Windows activation notice, telling me the product key is already in use.
Can I deactivate my old copy to retrieve the key? How do I do this? What is the proper way to go about an HDD upgrade?
Cheers
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Ye Olde Numbercruncher Co.
- CPU
- Gerbil 2.0.1
- Motherboard
- Straw
- Memory
- Linford Christie wining gold in Barcelona
- Graphics Card(s)
- MoonPig is pretty good