Activation Key Invalid

Okay here's the situation. My original internal harddrive crashed but I had Windows 7 installed on it before. So I went out and bought a new internal hard drive and installed Windows 7 on it and since it's a clean and 1st time fresh install, immediately after installation it asks for the key code and which I entered but it says key invalid. I guess the old windows 7 key code was activate with my old hard drive but since I got a new hard drive is there anything I can do to make that same key valid for this new hard drive I just got? Thanks in advance

 

This is what sometimes happens to me: After I enter the key I click Activate and it won't activate. So I put the key in again, and click the next button instead of activate, and it works. IDK why, but its worth a try.

 

Thanks, I just found out the reason that the key/copy of windows 7 i bought is for upgrading only, I didn't have a OS running when I installed it so now that's another battle I gotta deal with Microsoft

 

I had that happen too. There are some tricks that you can google that apparently help some people, but the only thing that worked for me was to install the OS twice. Upgrade from 7 to 7 is still considered to be an upgrade, so your key should work after the second installation.

 

Yep (as 'tdf' said), just install the upgrade over itself and you will be good to go. The key will work the second time.

 

Paul Thurrott to the rescue! This is a link to the article by Paul Thurrott that I read back when 7 was released: Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media

The relevant bit that you need is under "Method 2." It's a pretty simple registry hack, so I'll summarize it here:

- Install Windows 7 as you normally would
- Go to Start -> Run -> Type "regedit.exe" and press enter
- Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
- Find "MediaBootInstall" and change it from "1" to "0"
- Back in the Start Menu, type "cmd". Right-click on the icon that shows up and click "Run as administrator".
- When it opens, type "slmgr /rearm" and press enter
- Click "ok" on the message that appears
- Restart Windows 7, and try activating it with your key; it should work now

Those steps have worked perfectly for me multiple times, so hopefully they'll help you was well. It's a heck of a lot faster than doing a double install.