Windows 10: not activated now

Thanks, and I am trying to learn more about "Clean Install" and Windows 10 activation.

When I first upgraded to win 10, and during the first 4 days after updating the win 10 system file said is was "activated"
but then i started saying that is was not activated.... and I am trying to learn more about it. The Acer 4-in-1 i5-5600U desktop was purchased with Windows 7, and upgraded to win 8, and upgraded to Windows 8.1 HOME and all was fine during those years. (then upgraded to win 10) and all appears to be OK, except is not activated now.

So, I am still reading and wondering what I should do next. I do not wish to purchase a Windows 10 Home operating system unless it is absolutely necessary.

Help.... What should I try to do next ?
Thanks,,, Cliff M.

:)

 

Reset Windows Now Not Activated

Try reactivating using chat support:

Activate Your Windows 10 License via Microsoft Chat Support

 

Reset Windows Now Not Activated

Hi David,

Thank you for being part of Microsoft Community.



To fix the problem, you can activate Windows by phone instead.

• Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
  
  (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click
  Search.)
  
• Enter SLUI 04 in the search box, and then tap or click
  SLUI 04.
  
• Follow the instructions on the screen.
  

Please revert if you face any issues with Windows in future.

 

Got an older version's installation media or recovery disk for the laptop? Plan to see a fresh clean install of one of the previous versions to upgrade over and then once activation is verfied plan a clean install. I had to use three installs one being the initial upgrade on more then one system. First the main case had storage drives left plugged preventing 10 from completing the upgrade. The upgrade there was buggy where the next was a second upgrade to repair finally to be replaced by a clean install since the second upgrade over the upgrade never activated!

The next was to first split up the single drive on a second build used remotely to try things out as well as being available if and when needed. Once the clean install of 10 went onto the second drive I had to upgrade the first primary where 7 had been and later the attempt to nuke that and move the second back to the front of the drive left 10 unbootable where building a new BCD failed. So that got replaced by the second clean install there fast while 7 was later restored to the second drive I took out of the main case previously used for storage and backup. The main case had a mix of Sata II with Sata 3 drives when first put together while the S3 drive is doing quite well on the Sata II/EIDE only micro atx board there.

As you can see the second case had an issue not from the upgrade but the partition changes made there while the next and last Big Time fail came when upgrading a 32bit 7 Home Premium laptop with 3gb of memory to the 64bit 10 Home. The Start button was missing, the right click menu appeared as a very narrow vertical line on the screen making things awkward, and the Settings screen was a total blank as well as no access to the Apps portion of the Start menu! CLEAN INSTALL 32bit first followed by the clean install of the 64bit to call it a day! Had a busy month so far! *Biggrin

 

First, I would try calling Microsoft. Second, to summarize what Night Hawk wrote, you might have to re-install a version of Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. It does not need to be updated, just make sure it is activated. Then do another upgrade of that to Windows 10 using the "Upgrade this PC now" option of the Media Creation Tool. Make sure the upgrade is activated. Then if you desire you can do a clean install of Windows 10.

The Microsoft activation servers are very sketchy at keeping activations - but seems like if you get a good solid activation you'll be OK. I've been lucky, I've got 7 computers upgraded (and 3 with clean installs over the upgrades) that have never had an activation problem ....YET.

 

What I just saw here about 10 is encouraging in that area! Upon swapping out the pair of 4gb Mushkin Enhanced DDR3 1600 dimms for a pair of Kingston HyperX "FURY" DDR3 1600 also performance memory dimms as I expected to see the 7 restored to second image was showing "This isn;t a Genuine copy of WIndows" watermark where I simply typed in the product key and this time didn't have to call into MS! as I had to previously when swapping out memory on another build! That was where the Mushkin memory had been taken from when the dimms sat too high.

With 10 it was found to need activation when the "Activate" button was seen upon arriving at the desktop there. But after download of the MS Keyboard software for an MS Keyboard no longer in use(replaced with AZIO blue led lit characters not back lit but see letters in the dark!) gaming model keyboard and had to restart 10 was found activated once again despite the hardware change! While the change was flagged it didn't emphasize that and simply updated the profile information kept on the activation site.

 

Thanks so much.. I did not have time to mess with it last night.. so manybe tonight I will try again to upgrade to Win 10 ,and hopefully this time it will be able to ACTIVATE. All of what I have not still appears to be OK, and I just need to see it be ACTIVATED.... Thanks, and more later.. Cliff M.

 

Which method have you been using to initially try the upgrade with? For the upgrades seen on the two desktops I used a flash drive for the installation media while the laptop won't boot from flash drives since there isn't boot device menu. *Rolleyes*Sad Now besides packing the dvd along with the laptop I have to find a way to burn the Recovery Drive onto a blank disk since the flash drive method won't work.

The second desktop was to see a working upgrade the first time around compared to the initial problems seen on the first which tend to rule out a bad flash drive but still a bad upgrade over the previous failed attempts apparently leaving traces behind. Then the upgrade on the laptop by way of dvd since it lacks any boot device menu to bring up in order to boot from a flash drive(hit esc to get to the HP setup however but no boot menu!) where that upgrade was a mess.

In all three situations the clean install that followed solved all of the problems seen on two out of the three! And if you didn't make any adjustments like a hardware change(swapped out brands of memory) which I saw here deactivate and after a restart for an update found activated again when going to look to see if it needed to be called in.

 

I did the "upgrade this PC now" and it was really quick, and then perm activation in about two days.
all is fine now with this one. tks ......Cliff

 

There you go! Now you can see a clean install take place without any further issue if the upgrade turns out to be buggy in a few days or so! Sometimes the bugs reveal themselves after so many days of use likely when some update goes on or tries to go on and fails.

With the original 7 install I still need to wipe clean for a fresh copy of 7 for the dual boot here I finally the download start when deciding to click on the 10 app still lingering around!





But since I didn't have the two new replacement storage drives unplugged I knew it wasn't going to go well.





Back in July not knowing at first what was preventing the upgrade I had tried the upgrade now option while running the MC tool on 10 and ended up back at the deskktop with a similar error message coming up. So it's always good to hear the upgrade went well for someone else at least! *Biggrin

 

Night Hawk: Thanks so much - as that is really a neat and helpful webpage.. During the early days of the win10 upgrade we really didn't know what was happening - and just hope to hope.

I see all the footer on your page and I still need to learn about doing a save of data of a recovery drive for my Perm Activation of my Win 10.... I just do not know how to do it. Thanks...

Maybe this would be a good time to show you my win10 disk management information (graphic), as it will tell all.,
Here I went to advanced so I could add graphic... and hopefully it will be visible. I have also order a 500 GB SSD EVO Sata III that should arrive soon to replace my drive C: - thanks for any comment by you or anyone.
Attachment 35665
I am learning more everyday. be safe.. Cliff M.

 

Well once you have the new drive in you have the alternative option for seeing a working dual boot if you want by simply keeping the present C drive in! The clean install of 10 would go onto the 500gb SSD while the 1tb OS drive there could be reverted back or simply see a clean install of 7 on that drive for the dual boot of the two versions.

Have a look at the partitioning scheme of things here noting I replaced a pair of Sata 3 1tb storage drives taking a 1tb out of an external enclosure as well as adding in a new 2tb Sata II drive to not only get the 2tb of drive space back but add on another 1tb drive. Since now I have a second OS on being the two versions together increasing the drive space has it's advantages. *Biggrin





It was while booted in 7 that I ran into the failed upgrade due to having those two drives plugged in to prevent the 7 install from being upgraded over until I can get to the scheduled clean install for that version! First I wanted to be sure everything on 10 was set to go while I still have a full image of 7 anyways. That will be replaced later once everything is back on the 7 clean install I need. What was interesting was before the June 2013 clean install of 7 that had replaced the restored image of the original 2010 install of 7 once the new build was all set to go! Six months after the first clean install I restored the image to test the integrity and that lasted the roughtly 2 1/2yrs. of use.

 

Night Hawk and all

First time user of Marium today....

Well yesterday, I download the trial version of Macrium, and today decided to try using it. I have a 1tb backup system that was not being using and it has a 931 mb drive in it. When trying macrium I just wanted to try cloning my Drive C; 931mb ,
so today I used the Macrium software to clone (copy) my Drive C: Windows 10 system to the Drive G: (formatted). I sestup all the parameter as for the cloning and told it OK.

It did all the cloning in 51 minutes, and please see the attached graphic showing. I clones c: to g:

at least now - I know it all works for me, and I looked at all several of the files on G that were cloned.
Attachment 35752

Thanks for all your knowledge ... experience .... time and assistance. best to all.. Cliff M.

trying to do a repost with better info.
I had to change the Drives to C and H
please see below at the clone.
Attachment 35756
.. thanks.. Cliff >

 

Sometimes when I am reading info, and I go to read something else... I can seem to never find the old one again.
Thanks for all posted here.
Cliff M.

 

I first cloned the former 7 host/boot drive here only using the 2010 version of Acronis True Image Home edition in preparation for seeing that upgrade to 10 but wasn't aware of the need to unplug the two Non OS storage drives when first going after the first upgrade. At first assuming the clone while booting normally was at the cause for seeing failures I nuked the drive and put a fresh copy of 7 on and still saw the failed upgrade attempts until reviewing the clean install guide here where that saw the caution about the need to see the extra drives unplugged. Sure enough once they were 10 went right on!

As for Macrium Reflect that's another program that generally sees a good reputation there too. I just happen to see the full retail package for Acronis while in a Circuit City outlet one night and grabbed Acronis which still runs now on 10 as well it first did on 7!

Now as for the drive lettering you have there and that's 931GB = 931Gigabytes not MB for megabytes however most would want the dvd drive set as "D" while it's no longer a necessity unless some older program requires it. At one time most apps had to be D as well as any games that require a disk be in the drive be set as the same letter it was stalled from.

I'm assuming those smaller 300mb and 400mb size partitions are the System Reserved while the two at the back of the drive are OEM recovery if I am correct. Here when going to change the 7 laptops layout and not able to resize the C primary I ended up wiping the entrie drive to see a fresh primary as well as a second smaller back up partition since it won't be seeing any external drive put to use. I still need to grab a system image of that drive before seeing it returned to the owner.