How to repair Win 7 pro disabled by Win 10 Pro

goodgenie4u

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Mar 29, 2012
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10,510
I made a mistake,not understanding the technical restrictions the Windows 10 upgrade imposes.
My 2 drive Desktop had one drive with Win 7 Pro.The other drive once had Vista OEM when the computer was new. It was formatted for storage. I have no disks or product keys. (My daughter in-law's brother installed the win 7 when my Vista drive started running very slowly. At that time he created a dual boot for me to allow me to save the files on the Vista drive on an external HDD. I did that and formatted the Vista drive.

When the free upgrade icon for Win 10 came along,I mistakenly thought that my computer (MOB) was qualified not the Win 7 HDD. During the upgrade wizard process a clean install was an option.So I installed it on the blank drive. Result was that the Win 7 Pro 32 bit drive was no longer bootable and the Win 10 Pro drive wanted activation.

I can only use this computer for browsing using Win 10.When the activation period is over, I assume I will not be able to use it.

Can I buy an OEM Windows 7 Pro 32 bit disc from Ebay and use it to repair my HDD with un bootable Win 7 Pro 32 bit? That will save my apps on that drive.Right?

I do not want Windows 10. I will be 77 years old in 2022 when Win 7 is not supported. Things will have changed, specially if I am still around and kicking!

I saw such a drive "Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 32 Bit Full Version with COA Key + 160GB Drive" If it does the job, I would like to consider this option as it is cost effective.

Thanks
 

goodgenie4u

Honorable
Mar 29, 2012
14
0
10,510


Thanks.I did unplug the Win 10 drive. The Win 7 drive was un-bootable. When both drives are attached just Win 10 boots

I have tried all sorts of repair disk solutions but the OS is not recognized. I think a key boot folder was disabled when Win 10 was installed, as if Win 10 was meant to do just that, to be a free upgrade.The implication is that 7 and 10 cannot co-exist on the same system.

I still would appreciate your advice as to whether Ebay.ca "Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 32 Bit Full Version with COA Key + 160GB Drive" has any merits in repairing or making the Win 7 drive boot andif i unhooked the Win 10 do a fresh install of Win 7 as a passive back up.

Thanks
 
go to the control panel, system, advanced system settings, advanced, startup and recovery, and you may be able to make it give you the choice.

the way you are meant to install win10 is over the top of win7/8/8.1 it'll then use the win7/8/8.1 key, and give you a new key, you can then do a fresh install if you wish. Buy doing a fresh install initially you have no key. You might be able to do a second install over the top of 7 again (I think it looks for key files rather than a bootable OS) but this is last resort territory.

I do not think your idea is a good one, it'll be an oem installation, and it will therefore see your system as a new install and need authorising.