[SOLVED] Custom Built Showing As A Laptop...

[Turf357]

I recently decided that I wanted to make some changes to my computer, which included replacing an hdd (not what the os is on, thats on an ssd) and adding in a new m.2 drive. Before doing anything, I reset my entire pc so it was completely bare bones besides the os. I also made sure the hdd that I wanted to put in the system to replace the old one was working. Then, I made the upgrades.

Here comes the important part. The m.2 ssd that I was going to put in my system was from a dell laptop, which also had an os on it. I figured I could just wipe the drive once I boot from my ssd. When I went to turn on the pc, it loaded with the windows os from the laptop. No big deal, right? I could just change the boot priorities to select my ssd first. However, when I did this, the windows boot console gave me an error saying that I hadnt selected a valid boot drive something or other. I messed around with it a little more to the point where I got to a blue screen that said something along the lines of “seems like there is something wrong with the operating system” and it gave me a list of options. I navigated to one that would erase all drives and reinstall windows.

This wasn’t a big deal because I figured it would either go on to the ssd, where I intended it to go, or on the m.2, a fast drive for fast boots. However, when I finally launched into windows, something was off. Windows downloaded to the m.2. I was fine with that but there seemed to be some issues. The first issue I noticed was that windows wasnt detecting my 2nd monitor. I figured that a driver update would do the trick. Then I noticed that I had some dell bloatware and applications for a touch screen, webcam, etc on my computer. Delete them and be fine, although I didn’t want to do this. The 3rd issue was, while looking at the computer name, it was a “Dell Inspirion...”

Of course everything is off about this, and this also means that the previous copy of windows on my ssd is no longer there. Does anyone know of a way to get the key back to install windows? Are there any other solutions to this?

Specs:
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-AB350-Gaming 3
RAM - Gskill Ripjaws V 8gb (2x4)
GPU - MSI GTX 1060 Armor 6gb
SSD - Kingston A400 120gb
M.2 - Adata 256gb
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1.5tb

 

[USAFRet]

Forgive me for all the confusion. I do plan on doing this. However, as its been many years since I’ve purchased the lisence, I no longer have the code required. As I’ve asked before, is there any way to find this info?

Ok, now I'm confused.

Please give us a full rundown of what drives, what systems, what licenses are involved here.
What you had, what you did.

 

[Turf357]

Ok, now I'm confused.

Please give us a full rundown of what drives, what systems, what licenses are involved here.
What you had, what you did.

There are 2 OS in play here. One was Windows 10 Education, one was Windows 10 Home. Windows 10 Education was what I got a couple years ago and what I’ve had on my standard SSD. Then I cleared the drive so that it only had Windows 10 Education on it. I added an M.2 SSD with Windows 10 Home on it to my PC from another Laptop that I had laying around. I wanted to completely wipe the M.2 and just use it as a drive for storing games while Windows 10 Education remained on my standard SSD. However through some confusing process, I wiped my standard SSD with Windows 10 Education on it and that left only Windows 10 Home on the M.2 SSD with added Dell bloatware and other laptop-specific applications. At this point, I’ve also tried reinstalling windows again from the recovery settings, and it leaves the same version of Windows 10 Home with the added applications. What I am trying to figure out is if there is a way I can still clear the M.2 and install the Windows 10 Education on my standard SSD or my M.2 SSD.

Does this clear up anything?

 

[USAFRet]

If the Win 10 Edu has been wiped out along the way, there is no way to recover that license info from that drive.

And this series of events is why it is so strongly recommended to have only the one physical drive connected during any OS install or hardware change. Prevents problems like this.

 

[Turf357]

If the Win 10 Edu has been wiped out along the way, there is no way to recover that license info from that drive.

And this series of events is why it is so strongly recommended to have only the one physical drive connected during any OS install or hardware change. Prevents problems like this.

Alright, thanks for you patience and help! If I were to do anything like this again, how would I go about clearing the drive that I dont want the OS on?

 

[USAFRet]

Alright, thanks for you patience and help! If I were to do anything like this again, how would I go about clearing the drive that I dont want the OS on?

After the OS is installed on whatever drive you choose, then connect others.
Then:
Disk Management and delete ALL partitions.
or
Commandline diskpart and the clean command. Wipes the whole drive.

 

[Turf357]

After the OS is installed on whatever drive you choose, then connect others.
Then:
Disk Management and delete ALL partitions.
or
Commandline diskpart and the clean command. Wipes the whole drive.

Alright, I’ll be sure to follow that process and the one given in the link you sent me for installing a fresh windows copy. I also just saw from a link within the tutorial of how to install a fresh windows copy that you can in fact attach a license with your microsoft account. I may have done that so I’ll attempt to put in my username and pw when doing a fresh install.
Again, thanks for your assistance.

 

[Turf357]

Alright, I’ll be sure to follow that process and the one given in the link you sent me for installing a fresh windows copy. I also just saw from a link within the tutorial of how to install a fresh windows copy that you can in fact attach a license with your microsoft account. I may have done that so I’ll attempt to put in my username and pw when doing a fresh install.
Again, thanks for your assistance.

You’ll be happy to hear that everything is fixed now. I installed windows to the m.2, fresh install. I was able to sign into my my ms account into my computer. As soon as it did that, it brought back my previous settings and background.

All is well and I’m hoping it stays this way.