windows 10 wont activate because windows 7 was original os. cant install 7 to activate

[tdited]

I have a dell pos laptop that originally came with windows 7. It was upgraded to 10 with the free upgrade. Since then, it has been scrambled and requires a reinstall of the OS.

When I fresh install windows 10, it says it cannot activate because the original copy of windows is not activated.

I try to fresh install 7 to activate it, with the intention of installing 10 over the top again, but the windows 7 installer cant find the hdd .

I have run diskpart from the 10 installer and cleaned and formatted the drive for ntfs, but the 7 installer still cant see it. Diskpart from windows 7 installer cant see the drive.

I tried installing 10 and do a slui 4 to use phone activation, but it wont open the phone activation window. It just keeps telling me that i need to buy a new key.

Any suggestions?

Ideally, I would like to find a way to get to the windows 10 phone activation utility.

or

Get to where windows 7 can see the drive so that I can reinstall 7.

Any tips for either of those are welcome. I have been reading through the forum and I notice alot of comments are about pirated OS software. Please note that this is not the case here. The original installation OS windows 7 was done by the manufacturer, Dell, and is legit, and the upgrade to windows 10 was done by Microsoft when it was free. No pirating happening here.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Barty1884]

Are you sure you're installing the correct version of Windows 10? Home/Pro etc?

Once the upgrade happened (assuming you're 'upgraded' Windows 10 showed as activated), it should reactivate without issue - provided you use the same 'tier' of OS. So if it was Home x64, would could install Home x86 without issue.

There's a "troubleshooter" and a "contact us" option within Windows 10 itself, I'd suggest going that route opposed to reinstalling Windows 7


If you want to go the W7 route, you likely need to load a SATA driver. You can download it from Dell's site, drag/drop it to your USB installer (or onto another USB, I guess) and when the W7 installer doesn't detect the drive, select "load drive" and find it on the USB. Let it load in, then refresh the drive page.... should find it then..... assuming the HDD is healthy.

 

[BadAsAl]

When you go into settings and look at System > About what do you see under Windows Activation? Are you able to click through there to try to activate and then when it fails it should give you the option to phone activate. Is that what you are referring to by slui 4?

 

[Barty1884]

YEah, slui 4 should open the "telephone activation" Window - at least in prior versions, it did.

The fact W10 has the online "chat" functionality though, may have made the need obsolete....

 

[tdited]

Are you sure you're installing the correct version of Windows 10? Home/Pro etc?

Once the upgrade happened (assuming you're 'upgraded' Windows 10 showed as activated), it should reactivate without issue - provided you use the same 'tier' of OS. So if it was Home x64, would could install Home x86 without issue.

There's a "troubleshooter" and a "contact us" option within Windows 10 itself, I'd suggest going that route opposed to reinstalling Windows 7


If you want to go the W7 route, you likely need to load a SATA driver. You can download it from Dell's site, drag/drop it to your USB installer (or onto another USB, I guess) and when the W7 installer doesn't detect the drive, select "load drive" and find it on the USB. Let it load in, then refresh the drive page.... should find it then..... assuming the HDD is healthy.

I am not completely certain of the version. It was pretty hosed when I got it. I am assuming home because its too cheap of a laptop to be pro. I am also guessing 64bit. I tried the troubleshooter link. it just takes me to the same place as the slui. I will try the driver from dells site.

Thank you.

 

[tdited]

When you go into settings and look at System > About what do you see under Windows Activation? Are you able to click through there to try to activate and then when it fails it should give you the option to phone activate. Is that what you are referring to by slui 4?

There is a long message about being unable to activate 10 because the original OS was not activated. It ends by telling me to buy another key for 10. The troubleshooter does nothing different. Yes, slui 4 is supposed to open the phone activation window. I have used it before successfully. I am dumbfounded as to why it wont come up on this one.

Thanks for the response

 

[BadAsAl]

I think the only thing you can do at this point is get in contact with Microsoft and let them know the situation. If the laptop allowed an upgrade to Windows 10 then the Microsoft servers should show that. They might be able to activate you.