Windows 10: My hard disk failed and I can not reboot it. How to activate Windows 10 in new HD

Hi,

My hard disk failed and now it is not a bootable disk.

I decide to change it for a new HD but after installing Windows 10, I do not know how to activate it.

Is there any chance to use same activation Key than in the old-crashed HD?


My laptop is an ASUS Q505UA

Thank you for your help.

Have a nice day!

:)

 

Windows 10 Enterprise fails to re-activate after hard disk replacement

The system is a laptop where the single hard disk failed and was replaced. Unfortunately, there was no recent, viable backup of the hard disk that could be used to restore it.

A successful clean install was made from en-gb_windows_10_business_edition_version_1803_update_jul_2018_x64_dvd_12613160.iso.

The first login used my Microsoft Work or School account but I was unable to activate it from that account.

I then created a user with my Microsoft Account (which uses the same email address) but was unable to activate it from that account either.

The laptop has a firmware-embedded activation key. It appears in the devices list for my Microsoft Account and also appears in the devices list in the Azure Active Directory which we receive as part of Office 365.

It is a commodity laptop that was supplied with Windows Home installed; upgraded to Windows Pro using Get Genuine; and upgraded to Windows Enterprise with an OS upgrade using a product key. It was regularly updated before the hard disk failure.

I had anticipated that re-activation after the hard disk replacement should have been simple!

Any pointers to where I might be going wrong? Or suggestions as to how to diagnose this? I'm a volunteer systems administrator for a Museum (non-profit / charity) and this is outside my comfort zone.

 

Install Windows 10 on new hard drive.

Hi Arzlo,

Thank you for being a part of Windows 10.

I appreciate you for providing details about the issue and we are happy to help you.

Please be informed that you cannot install the activated Windows 10 on to the new hard disk.

If you are replacing the hard disk then you may get Windows 10 activation errors.

If you are purchasing a new hard disk then, you may have to install genuine Windows 7 (SP1)/8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10 to get Windows 10 activated.

I suggest you to run check disk on the hard drive to see if there are any corruptions.

Follow the below steps:

• Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
• Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press
  ENTER:

chkdsk /f

Disclaimer: While performing check disk on the hard drive, if any bad sectors are found then check disk will try to repair that sector. Any data available on a bad sector might be lost.

Once Check Disk completes, boot the computer and then check.

Reference: Refer to the following Microsoft article on Windows 10 Q&A.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq?ppud=4

Kindly let us know if you need any further assistance with Windows. We are glad to assist you.

Thank you.

 

Windows 10 fails to update


When you finish testing the Avast suggestion, make sure that you restart your machine.

Then if the issue persists, please return to the trouble shooting list in post# 89

I think there are three steps that remain; the WU troubleshooter, reset WU components, and manual WU reset.