A while back, I bought a used Dell 64-bit Optiplex without a hard drive. It was a former business machine, and the seller told me the hard disk had been removed and destroyed. I installed a hard drive of my own and then installed 32-bit XP from a full-install disk, used the product key from the disk's package to activate it, and all was well.
Then Microsoft ended support for XP. Recently I decided to upgrade to Windows 7.1. I bought a Dell recovery/reinstall disk for 64-bit 7.1, and installation went without a hitch. However, when I repeatedly tried to enter the product key to activate the new OS, the activation site kept telling me that I have an invalid key. It's now past the deadline for activation, and I'm pretty annoyed that I no longer have full functionality for this machine.
Is this because I'm not using the original hard disk?
Is there any way to work around this, or will I simply have to get a full install 64-bit disk for 7.1?
Then Microsoft ended support for XP. Recently I decided to upgrade to Windows 7.1. I bought a Dell recovery/reinstall disk for 64-bit 7.1, and installation went without a hitch. However, when I repeatedly tried to enter the product key to activate the new OS, the activation site kept telling me that I have an invalid key. It's now past the deadline for activation, and I'm pretty annoyed that I no longer have full functionality for this machine.
Is this because I'm not using the original hard disk?
Is there any way to work around this, or will I simply have to get a full install 64-bit disk for 7.1?