T510 - Imaging & Activation - need advice

My latest snafu....... looking for advice/experience with this so I don't waste my time.

I bought a 500GB encrypted drive to use with my new T510. When the computer arrived, I first imaged the drive that came with it.. all three partitions. I then swapped drives, restored the image, and proceeded to configure. Many hours later with installing, configuring and tweaking, I notice that Windows 7 Pro 64bit is not activated. I try to activate and it says my code cannot be activated this way and to call Lenovo.

So, I call Lenovo. They tell me that the original hidden partition is tied to the activation and that there is no way to activate Windows other than to somehow use that partition. I have to create a recovery disk and use it on my new drive (wiping out all my work).

So I asked about imaging my new drive, put back the original drive, setup windows, create the recovery disk, run it on the new drive, and restoring the image of the windows partition only (not the hidden partition) from the new drive. He went to ask someone and said I could do it with a file copy only, not an image, though he didn't have a rationale for this. Unfortunately, I don't think that would work so well.

So..... I plan to try my idea with imaging, but want to get input from knowledgeable and experienced folks like you!

Can anyone either validate my approach, offer something else, or set me straight?

(I'm really peeved at Lenovo, not to mention Microsoft, for this ridiculous situation).
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It might be that your SLIC is not in the BIOS, what is your BIOS number. Another way to active is to call Microsoft.

 

If they can activate over the phone, calling MS would be the easy solution at this point.

What is "SLIC"?
.................

Nevermind, I did some googling. Seems I am far from the only person with such a problem. The easy answer for now was to simply enter "new product ID" and use the one in the battery compartment. I couldn't activate automatically, but could by automated telephone routine. Unfortunately, it seems I may have to do this every time I reinstall windows or change hardware.

Since, I am now activated, it falls to slightly lower priority, but I will still experiment by backing up my system by image and restoring the original hidden partition and then restoring my working windows partition and see if I'm good. If not, I can hopefully restore my activated image.

Phew!!

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A file copy doesn't take care of the system stuff that needs doing.

" and restoring the image of the windows partition only (not the hidden partition) from the new drive."

You won't be able to do this either.

I would be best if you copied whay you needed,and then wiped the disk clean'
then do a reinstallation of the system followed by "your stuff"

Renee

 

Latest update for those eagerly anticipating the next installment of my drama.

For the record, the solution is.......

Do a sector by sector image backup of the system partition from the factory drive (it's only something like 1.7 GB). Restore that image to the new drive again using sector by sector copy. I was able to do that and it left the Windows (C) partition alone. When I restarted, Control Panel => System gave me "activated status" and listed the original OEM key. Hooray!

Lenovo is no help.

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It might have been easier to just create your recovery disks, install new HDD, restore, instead of going through all that trouble.
I ordered an Intel 80GB SSD myself, and will be following that procedure when my T410 arrives. Seems like less of a headache.

 

This is after the fact. If I had known about the activation glitch, I would have done as you say from the start. In going back, however, my solution was about the quickest possible.
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Of course. The only way to learn is by doing it yourself.

 

Can someone confirm that Lenovo doesn't include the SLIC flag in the BIOS but somehow includes in this system partition?

I've been reloading machines that came pre-installed with Vista/Win7 for years now (various vendors) and have always re-activated by using a Volume Key with the appropriate digital certificate. The Key + Certificate + SLIC Bios flag == Good activation every time.

I've just ordered a T410 and I'm curious if this method of activation doesn't work with new Lenovo machines...

Thanks

 

Lenovo is the same as all other oems in this respect. A valid slic table in the bios and the corresponding cert + oem key in windows will always do the trick.

To re-assure you, the first thing I did to my W510 was ditch all the partitions and re-install the os with a retail disk and re-install the cert + key and it works fine.

 

For anyone else doing this, you should be able to move to a new drive by doing a complete PC backup (built-in to Windows), not using the Recovery Discs. Recovery discs only restore the system to it's factory state. Complete PC backup will save the system as it currently exists (including data). I'm not sure if it gets all partitions though.

 

The recovery discs will restore to a factory state on *any* hard drive, as it's independant of the hard drive. With windows backup and restore, according to microsoft you must restore to an identical sized or larger hard disk. So if you have a 250gb hard drive, and re-image to an 80gb SSD, it will cause problems.