Windows 10: Installing fresh Windows 11 on a new SSD, old Windows 10 product key not activating new...

Hi all, I've installed a new SDD Call it "B" on my machine and have installed Windows 11 Using the media creation tool, all successfully. The original SDD Call it "A" is still in the machine Where my Activated Windows 11 is originally installed to During the Windows 11 Installation on SDD-B, I was asked to enter my Product Key, which I did, with the result "This Key works!" however, once finally in windows, I have the "Windows is not Activated, please activate windows" prompt. In the Activation settings window, I re-enter my Product Key and get an error code. A bit of background - My O

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Installing Windows 10 using Windows 7 key

Once your key is registered with your motherboard you can always exchange the hdd for an ssd, just install it on the new ssd, after successful activation on your old hdd, windows will be activated on the new ssd.

Also a clean install with a windows 7 key will work, just skip the serial and afterwards go to change productkey and fill in the w7 key.

 

Activation of Windows 11 on a new SSD is failing.

I wonder if anyone can help with a strange issue I'm having with Windows 11.

For some background as I feel it may be relevant, my license dates back to Windows 7 OEM System Builder. I upgraded to Windows 10 during the free upgrade period and later to Windows 11. I typically reinstall Windows twice a year and have never had any issues with activation until now.

I purchased a new NVMe SSD this past weekend, installed it in place of my current NVMe SSD and attempted to perform a fresh Windows 11 installation with a newly created USB installer. However, it refuses to activate. I've tried "Trouble Shooting", "Replaced Hardware" and many other things. Nothing allows it to activate after a fresh install. The error is 0xC004F213 "Windows reported that no product key was found on your device".

So I plugged my old SSD back in and performed a fresh installation on that using the same USB stick. This activated immediately without any problems. I also tried cloning the old SSD onto the new SSD and this also successfully activates. I've repeated this behaviour a number of times.

So my question is: Why am I able to activate a fresh Windows 11 installation on one SSD but not another? Am I being restricted in some way? Is this related to the recent Windows 7 activation changes?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Need help with transferring Windows 10 to new PC

*Nevermind I figured it out. I just bought a license key for $29.00. Thx though.
So my friend asked me to build him a new computer for work. The last one I built him was during the windows 7-10 upgrade grace period. I used to load windows 7, use windows loader to put in a product key, activate it, then upgrade to windows 10. Now that the grace period is over, and I'm working with new hardware, I was wondering if it is possible to install windows 10 from an already functioning computer that operated on a sata SSD to a new computer with an m.2 nvme SSD, using just the product key from the current windows 10 off of his computer. I use a program that grabs the product key called ProduKey.
Should I do a fresh install of windows 10 using his key after deactivating it from his current PC , instead of cloning drives correct? It would be nice not to have to pay microsoft $200 for windows 10 if he already has it and plans on not using his old pc anymore.