Help With Repair Install Please (Win7 Upgrade issue)!

Hi guys, I experienced a power outage while computer was doing system restore, now there are issues that cannot be resolved via scannow /sfc and I can't revert to an earlier system restore, that refuses to work. I also cannot install any MS updates, those cause BSOD.

My only two options at this point are clean re-install or repair install, I'm extremely hesitant to do this as the last time it took me nearly an entire weekend, well over 8-10 hours, getting the OS back to the way I like it with various tweaks, installing drivers, software, specific settings in software etc. etc. etc.

The problem I am having with Repair Install is that at one point I upgraded Win 7 Home to Pro and now the Pro key and files I have on a thumb-drive will not work. Some digging and it seems that I am in the unfortunate situation where to do a Repair Install I need the original Home disc / thumb-drive and activation key. I don't have the activation key, I threw the disc with key away when I upgrade to Pro as I assumed I wouldn't need it anymore. This has been a persistent issue that MS has failed to address, many of us who've upgraded have found themselves in this very situation.

Now I've read somewhere, but am here to ascertain, that I could simply download a Home .iso, put that on an thumb-drive, and reinstall Home as a trial version and simply "upgrade" back to Pro again as the key doesn't expire (I still have the key for Pro) and avoid having to purchase Home again.

I spent half an hour on hold waiting to speak with Micro$haft customer service and couldn't believe that they refused to give me Home considering I paid them $90 for the upgrade to Pro, they seriously wanted me to buy Home again.

This entire ordeal with MS and their money grubbing BS / refusal to help with this issue has really put a bad taste in my mouth and now I'm absolutely determined to not upgrade to Win 10. I don't like MS. I don't trust MS. The only reason I have this crap on my computer is all of my games are optimized around this fascist operating system otherwise I would've moved to Linux or even Steam OS by now.

So, is the above possible, can I simply Repair Install Home as trial and then use my upgrade key to avoid having to pay for Home?

Thanks in advance.

 

Doesn't the system have the SLIC for home already?

 

Back in the days of Win 7, an upgrade key can be used to do a clean install so do that.

I recommend you backup your drives by booting into some sort of an external Linux CD to a USB HDD though.

Always have 1 partition and 1 HDD while installing otherwise Windows has a nasty habit of placing your boot drives on the 2nd partition or 2nd drive which may lead to such issues to arrise in the future especially if you use an imaging software such as Macrium reflect because when it restores the OS, it doesn't know that your boot files are not on C:

EDIT: dude you have an Alienware it has the SLIC certificate in the BIOS you can do easy SLIC activation without even calling Micro$haft

 

I don't believe there is an SLIC as I purchased and installed the OS while putting my desktop together.

I apologize in advance, the issue is with the desktop in my signature, not my M18x R2.

 

Unfortunately we have little help to offer you with a desktop.

 

Then just do a clean install on the Desktop with the Win 7 Pro upgrade key, I am almost certain it will work.

 

Yeah it's not simply "just" clean install Windows 7. I'm trying to avoid having to reinstall the OS completely, last time I did so it literally took 10 hours or so to get everything back the way I want it. It's not just settings within the OS itself, it's all of the programs and software as well. It's a complete pain in the ass. All Micros$haft had to do was allow Repair Install using Anytime Upgrade key. There is no reason why one should still need the key for the OS they upgraded, say going from Home to Pro. This is completely retarded. And then they want me to re-purchase Home! That makes the most sense, why change something that may make them more money, no matter how many lives they inconvenience?

Ah the prime motive of the Corporation, make money for an extremely limited few no matter which way, whether it's destroying your only home (Planet Earth), creating a Neo-Feudal socio-economic arrangement (Corporate Capitalism), perpetuating outmoded technologies (Big Energy / Big Coal / Big Oil), poisoning everyone (Big Pharma), imprisoning everyone (The Prison Industrial Complex) or perpetuating permanent war (what Eisenhower called the Military Industrial Complex).

Imagine a world without the above, I dare you.

Our actual present reality makes any dystopian film or video game pale in comparison; take Bioshock: Infinite and multiply that by 10 and you have our present reality.

I wish M$, along with Monsanto, Exxon Mobile, Glaxo-Smith Kline and the Military Industrial Complex simply disappeared from the face of the earth. We presently have enough challenges without human greed and avarice (that said aforementioned actors created).