Windows 10: Change drive at clean install - activation question

I started a separate thread with some questions on clean installation to change from Windows 7 to Windows 10. However I have an additional specific question.

I currently have an ASUS motherboard (p9x79 Pro) and am running my operating system on a spinning drive and using the ASUS cache which uses a 128GB SSD drive to cache the operating system disk.
I would like to dump that arrangement and run the operating system on a larger SSD drive (they are cheaper now). Ideally I would do this at the same time as moving to Windows 10 so that I only have to install once.

My question is - if I go for a clean install to Windows 10 can I put this directly onto a new clean SSD drive - using my old windows 7 key to activate it (it was an OEM key I bought when I built the system) or will I need to clone the Windows 7 system onto the new drive before installing?
The motherboard will not be changed.

Dave

:)

 

DOING A CLEAN INSTALL AFTER UPGRADE

Thanks for the input. but here is the problem. When I changed the boot hard drive to a larger one, on the first computer that was originally activated after upgrade successfully from Windows 7 Ultimate, I attempted to do a clean install, it failed...and
would not activate......then when I contacted the Microsoft activation phone number, they would not activate the clean install as they said the change of hard drive did not match the original activation, and said I had to then reinstall the original OS again,
do all updates again, then do a Windows 10 upgrade again to have it activated with the new hard drive and registered......then do a clean install......Which then was successful and activated, no problem...............The change of hard drive made it fail activation........they
go by hard drive also.

That is why I was wondering if I just remove one of the extra hard drive's on the second machine....(only need two - 3 terabytes).......would that make me do all the above again....what a pain that would be. Microsoft told me if I change anything (motherboard,
hard drive, video card), and I question ram....lol) the clean install would fail and not activate as it did on the first computer.

Any suggestions would be helpful..........I appreciate all.....As I have two more computers to clean install also............darn it!

 

Clean Installation Activation Question

Hi Jon,

If you want to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, you need to use the
Upgrade this PC now option. If you haven't upgraded to Windows 10 yet and perform a clean installation, you'll need to enter a product key or buy a license in order to activate Windows 10.

Refer to the link for more information:

Installing Windows 10 using the media creation tool

Windows 10 herunterladen

Hope it helps.

 

What I would do is do an upgrade of the Windows 7 installed on the old drive and staying on the old drive. Make sure and have a Windows 10 Digital Entitlement Activation showing for Windows 10. Then swap the drives and do the clean install to the SSD and skip entering any product key.

 

Thanks for your quick response - I could try that but was advised against upgrading as my existing set up has was sysprep'd to move Program Data and User data onto a separate partition (same disk). I was told the upgrade would fail with that arrangement. I tried moving them back but that process ended up with some data moved and some not.

I suppose there is nothing to stop me trying - I can always use a system image to go back to where I am now

Dave

Dave

 

In that case, I would use the getosstate.exe and genuineticket.xml method for a clean install. The xml file should to work for installing on either the HDD or SSD.

 

Thank you - I will give that a go

Dave

 

I just don't quite trust entering a Windows 7 product key to activate Windows 10 on a computer that has never had Windows 10 on it before, even though it is supposed to work. The xml file method has worked well for me and only takes a couple minutes.

 

This works perfectly, I've done it with a Windows 7 key and a Windows 8.1 key, both to computers that had never had any version of Windows 10 installed on them. No need to jump through hoops any more.

 

Running one program that takes 10 seconds and saving 1 file doesn't take much effort to jump through that hoop, if entering the Windows 7 product key works - less than 1 minute wasted. If it fails for some reason - at least 1 1/2 hour re-installing saved.

 

You must be from Missouri *Smile

It takes more than 10 seconds. First you have to find getosstate.exe to generate genuineticket.xml and save it somewhere.
Install Win 10 but disconnect from the internet so no activation takes place, copy genuineticket.xml to the new install then connect the internet and activate.

To me that's hoops since it's not necessary any more.

 

You only have to do that part when Windows 10 tells you that your Windows 7 product key is not valid for activation.

 

A quick follow up - I did the clean install onto a new drive. I had run "getsstate" and had the xml ready - but during installation decided to enter the old OEM product key and give it a try. It all installed OK and activated without any problems . Thanks very much for your help

Dave