Windows 10 SSD upgrade from broken HDD

[AceMemphis]

Hello Tom's Community!

I have an old laptop with a broken HDD.
I thought I could simply buy a new SSD, purchase a new Win 10 license, and simply install using the Win 10 install guide via usb with the new SSD installed in place of the old HDD.
Everything installed correctly, but a short while after windows loaded up it told me my license key was invalid.

The laptop in question is an older Toshiba Satellite L300.
The original HDD was running vista (ew) and came prebuilt from bestbuy (ew).

Any suggestions? What did I do wrong? Can anyone link a similar problem?
I thought that you could upgrade your hard drive with relative ease but maybe also adding a new OS * something up?

Thanks for your time.

 

[velocityg4]

You didn't need to buy another Windows 10 license. You just install whatever version of Windows 10 you had. When it gets to the license key. You leave it blank. Windows 10 will then contact the activation servers and you Motherboard will be matched to its license and activated.

 

[USAFRet]

It originally ran Vista.
You purchased a new Win 10 OS and tried to install it?
And it reports as invalid?

Where did you buy the Win 10 from ?

 

[USAFRet]

You didn't need to buy another Windows 10 license. You just install whatever version of Windows 10 you had. When it gets to the license key. You leave it blank. Windows 10 will then contact the activation servers and you Motherboard will be matched to its license and activated.

From the description, he had no previous Win 10. It came with Vista originally.

 

[AceMemphis]

USAFRet, you are correct.
The laptop was previously installed with windows vista before the HDD died.
I bought the windows 10 license from Kinguin.net (i know, i know!) but here's the thing. I've used them before and their keys worked like a charm on my rig I built from scratch.

Now Velocityg4, you bring up a good point. Does windows register prebuilt mobo's installed with windows vista? Or is that a newer, win 7,8, 10 kinda thing?

Does anyone have experience installing a brand new hard drive into an older laptop before?

Thanks again for your time.

 

[USAFRet]

USAFRet, you are correct.
The laptop was previously installed with windows vista before the HDD died.
I bought the windows 10 license from Kinguin.net (i know, i know!) but here's the thing. I've used them before and their keys worked like a charm on my rig I built from scratch.

Now Velocityg4, you bring up a good point. Does windows register prebuilt mobo's installed with windows vista? Or is that a newer, win 7,8, 10 kinda thing?

Does anyone have experience installing a brand new hard drive into an older laptop before?

Thanks again for your time.

"I bought the windows 10 license from Kinguin.net"
"it told me my license key was invalid."

That's the problem.

 

[velocityg4]

USAFRet, you are correct.
The laptop was previously installed with windows vista before the HDD died.
I bought the windows 10 license from Kinguin.net (i know, i know!) but here's the thing. I've used them before and their keys worked like a charm on my rig I built from scratch.

Now Velocityg4, you bring up a good point. Does windows register prebuilt mobo's installed with windows vista? Or is that a newer, win 7,8, 10 kinda thing?

Does anyone have experience installing a brand new hard drive into an older laptop before?

Thanks again for your time.

Just Windows 10 registers that way. I missed the part about you having Vista. When you said a new Windows 10 license. My mind got stuck in the idea that was in lieu to an old Windows 10 license.

As for Kinguin. I hope you paid for the guarantee.

As for Windows 10. Microsoft will allow you to run Windows 10 as long as you want without activation. You just have to live with a little watermark in the corner of your desktop. Which says Windows is not activated. You also lose the ability to change the wallpaper through Windows Settings, other methods still work.

https://www.howtogeek.com/244678/you-dont-need-a-product-key-to-install-and-use-windows-10/

I don't know why they made this change. I could make guesses. As it stands. It is a legal option, as far as I am aware. I haven't tried it, myself. I'd rather buy the OEM license.

 

[AceMemphis]

Why is Kinguin the problem?
I've used them before. Their key worked for me in the past.

Is there anyway of checking to see if a windows CD key is legitimate? Or to check and see if it is in use?
And yes, buying licenses from microsoft is much safer but... for $200 (win 10 plus new ssd) I'd be better off just buying a new, albeit extremely cheap, laptop with maybe a $50 investment. Just seems like a waste to toss something out because it's a little old.

This may belong in a new thread but... I know guys who refurbish pc's and laptops all the time at extremely low price points with new hardware/win 10 upgrades. How the hell do they make money if they are shoveling out $100+ for win 10 licenses?

 

[velocityg4]

Microsoft Registered Refurbishers get very low license prices.

Kinguin keys fail when MS identifies a group of keys being sold that are not eligible for retail sales. They invalidate the entire group and retroactively deactivate systems previously activated.

 

[AceMemphis]

damn MS you is a cold bitch....
so, at any point, MS could decide to deactivate any microsoft key that I bought from any source other than MS?

... so how does one become a registered refurbisher?

 

[USAFRet]

damn MS you is a cold bitch....
so, at any point, MS could decide to deactivate any microsoft key that I bought from any source other than MS?

No, it's not "from any source other than MS"
Rather, it is how they were obtained originally

Bought with a stolen credit card
or selling the same license 50 times
or selling licenses that are 'Not For Sale' (edu, corporate, etc)


"... so how does one become a registered refurbisher?"
You talk to the MS sales dept.
I'm sure they have some monthly minimum number of licenses you have to go through. A one time purchase isn't going to cut it.