Windows 10: Win10 Install with harddisk mirroring on multiple workstations.

Hi guys,
Currently we run 5 workstations on win7/8 on old hardware. In the near future, we want to migrate to windows 10 - and use the free upgrade offer from ms.

Problem is, we'll get new hardware for all workstations. So the plan is, to build the new hardware. install win7/8 on every new hardware and use the free upgrade on the new hardware. After that, a new clean-install will be made.

the clue is, besides the OS it'll take very much time to install all 3rd party software on the machines.
To skip this work, we would like to duplicate the harddisk after the setup of the whole system is done. This should be possible from driver-side, because the hardware will be identical.

But now comes the win10 licence question I know win10 will recognice the hardware and validate the licence due to the win7 upgrade. but what will happen if i switch the harddisk to the new system?

or i can try to keep the system unlicenced (no network connection. Best way?) until i mirror the harddisk. But this will also a pain in the ass, because no internet to update the other parts of the system *Sad

what do you think is the best way to deal with this?
thanks for your insight

:)

 

windows mirror data volumes - do win7 and win10 see them the same way?

i have win7ult boot ssd

i have two hdd that are mirrored using windows.

i have a second ssd with win10pro installed (from a win8.1pro upgrade).

when i boot win10 ssd i power off all my other drives,

because i'm afraid win10 will see them and screw them up.

my concern is mainly for the two mirrored data drive volume.

can i expose a mirror volume that was created in win7

for use in win10

without win10 ruining it for use when i boot back in win7.

will win10 simply see the mirror volume and use it without a fuss, or

will it run all kinds of checking and rebuilds that screw it up later for win7.

 

Windows 10 Display drivers crashed everyday

I upgraded two workstations from win7 to win10 and on one workstation i have installed fresh win 10 pro but it screwed my computer up kept causing the display drivers to crash and display gone as i'm
using 26" screen on all the workstation and after some time workstation takes restart.

In all the workstation graphic card is installed nvidia quardo 4000 and i have tried all the latest drivers for the same.

please help me out.

 

I'm not seeing the problem. On a clean install you will be prompted for the KEY, and the Key they are looking for is the old key not a new key. THAT step can be safely skipped. Install it, configure it, clone it to an image and you should be good for the others unless I'm missing something major. After that, one can go to each station and input whichever Windows 7/8 key is available. It is is Win8 there are utilities that can fetch from the bios. old or "new" hardware, it shouldn't matter.

 

hm not sure if i miss something since i did my last win10 setup *Smile (free upgrade + following clean install). this was what i've done the last time, worked fine for me back then. but maybe i'm outdated now.

1) install win 7/8 clean with key
2) upgrade to win10 (hardware hash saved to MS)
3) install win 10 clean
4) skip all key input requests
5) win10 will automatically validate the licence

and my problem is step 5 - not sure how there licence system will react

 

Windows 10 will calculate an Installation ID based upon the hardware configuration and version of Windows 10 installed. It sends that installation ID to MS activation servers, and if there is a match for it saved from the upgrade installation then the activation server returns the activation code.

A hard drive replace is not enough of a change in hardware to change the Installation ID.

 

The current RTM build of Windows 10 does not support that. The clean install of Windows 10 is looking for a Windows 10 product key, not a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key. If build 10565 gets pushed to the public - that is the first build that is supposed to accept a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key for a "clean install" upgrade.

 

But i'll replace all the other hardware, not the hard drive. You have an idea how win10 will react to this?
is it just trying to re-activate? (new hardware should already be saved @MS at this point)

 

i did it. on an older hp G4 I input the windows 7 key and off to the races we went. that was around week 2 of rtm public IIRC
If it is calc'ing algorithm from hardware, why is the field even there? there is no Windows 10 key "issued" to the user when one is thinking through the upgrade. are you saying that the current build [like today] is putting into the "clean install" image a Windows 10 key that it is building from both the installed windows 7 key & config data [assuming one creates the media from the target system] ? and, Trynn... are we talking about 7 or 8? or both

 

@cognus, some workstations are currently on Win7, some on Win8.1. But dont think this matters at the end.

 

Motherboard replacement will cancel the activation. At that point either:

A unique, purchased Windows 10 product key will have to be entered,
The system will have to go back to Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, activated with that OS product key and then upgraded again,
or hopefully, starting with build 10565, Windows 10 will allow you to enter the old Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 product key to activate.

 

Highly unlikely since Microsoft did not write that capability into Windows 10.
Microsoft's latest Windows 10 Insider build helps cure a major activation headache | PCWorld

But hey, if you did then you have the "virgin birth" of Windows 10 since that capability wasn't in any version of Windows 10 up to and including build 10558.

The field remains there because people have and will buy retail Product Keys for Windows 10. Upgrades from Windows 7/8/8.1 did get issued Product Keys during online activations of Windows 10 - they are generic product keys and everyone's is the same, depending upon which version of Windows 10 they upgraded to.

The way an upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1 activates is that during the upgrade a program found in the sources folder of Windows 10 install media/ISO called getosstate.exe is run on the old OS. That creates a file called genuineticket.xml. The old Windows 7/8/8.1 product key is carried over in the genuineticket.xml file ONLY for the purpose of reverting back to the old OS during the 30 day revert period. The genuineticket.xml contains the flags that the previous OS was properly activated and licensed and Windows 10 uses that to PUSH the Installation ID created from the combination of the generic Windows 10 Product Key (the same one that all upgrades get) and Hardware ID to the MS activation server which then stores the installation ID and returns an activation code.

When a clean install is done - there is no genuineticket.xml file carried over from an upgrade, and if the user skips the product key then WIndows 10 calculates the Installation ID based upon the Hardware ID calculated from the hardware configuration and the same generic Product Key - that is then provided to MS activation server for a search - and if a match is found, then the activation code is returned.

Starting in build 10565, Microsoft allows the user to enter a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key in Windows 10 to trigger that PUSH of the installation ID onto the MS activation servers - which was NOT written into previous builds of Windows 10.

 

Well, may I suggest something? If your applications can run on both Windows 7 and 10, you can make a "master" disk with Windows 7 that will have all the software installed and configured as required. During the clean installation of Windows 7 skip entering the key and after installation is complete, do not activate yet. Install every single software you will need. Then clone that "master" disk into the rest disks. Boot every computer in Windows 7, change the computer name as appropriate, enter your key for that computer and activate. Then use a DVD-ROM to upgrade to Windows 10 to avoid waiting for the download from Get Windows 10 utility. After you upgrade to Windows 10 it will be automatically activated. Yes, you have to upgrade each computer to Windows 10, but you at least don't have to manually install every single application again. A better option would be to install Windows 10 directly and clone that, but then you would not be able to activate without a Windows 10 key...

Since Windows 7 installation will be fresh, I don't see the reason for a clean install of Windows 10. However, if you insist, you could change the process so you install Windows 7 without key on the "master disk" Then clone that disk to the others. Run Windows 7 in each computer type the key and activate. Upgrade to Windows 10 and activate. The key is stored at Microsoft server for the specific hardware. Then format and clean install Windows 10 to "master" disk without entering a key. Make sure you select the correct version, Home or Pro and that you are disconnected from the internet. Install every single software you will need. If you need to update it, don't, you'll do that later or use an offline update file when possible. When ready, clone the "master" disk to the other disks. Load Windows 10 and connect to the internet to activate. That's it! But it is a lot of work and I don't think is worth the trouble for a clean install. I see no benefit anyway. I would go for the first method.

 

@spapakons, thanks for this produktive input. Will think about it.
Never thought about option #1, but seems like an easy way to go.

Option #2 is the way i thought about myself, but i'm still not sure if this really works
(for example: when the installation-id is generated within the setup, and not when you activate the licence it may fail)

Option #3 may be with

But looks like we have a overview of most possible ways to go.

 

Since the hardware in each computer will be identical, I may be wrong, but I think the installation ID should be the same. Doesn't that depends on hardware? Hardware will be identical in your case, so I see no reason the ID would be different. This shouldn't affect activation as long as you use a different Windows key per computer.