[SOLVED] Windows Will Not Activate After DBAN

[raidtech]

Hello, I work for a company and we are working on refurbishing some older PCs and selling them. Before I started working here they were DBANd and it became my project earlier this week to get them ready to sell. After re-installing Windows 10 on them 90% of them are not activating. We do not have the activation keys as most of these were upgrades from W7. They do not seem to notice their digital licenses. Motherboard has never been replaced and it is the same version as before the DBAN. Any thoughts?

 

[USAFRet]

Hello, I work for a company and we are working on refurbishing some older PCs and selling them. Before I started working here they were DBANd and it became my project earlier this week to get them ready to sell. After re-installing Windows 10 on them 90% of them are not activating. We do not have the activation keys as most of these were upgrades from W7. They do not seem to notice their digital licenses. Motherboard has never been replaced and it is the same version as before the DBAN. Any thoughts?

A previously fully activated, valid Win 10, should not have any issues with a full wipe and reinstall.
DBAN is not the culprit here.

Solution - Sell them without a license. Just the hardware.
Let the new owner figure out his own license.

 

[raidtech]

A previously fully activated, valid Win 10, should not have any issues with a full wipe and reinstall.
DBAN is not the culprit here.

Solution - Sell them without a license. Just the hardware.
Let the new owner figure out his own license.

Yeah that is looking like what we are going to have to do.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah that is looking like what we are going to have to do.

Its all in the marketing...

"This system is preinstalled with LinuxMint. As such, we're selling it at a discount! If you want Windows 10, go to www.microsoft.com."

 

[raidtech]

Its all in the marketing...

"This system is preinstalled with LinuxMint. As such, we're selling it at a discount! If you want Windows 10, go to www.microsoft.com."

Yeah, this one is for a veteran whos laptop I could not fix (dead motherboard). So was just wanting to help him out by having everything ready and him not have to worry about buying a key.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, this one is for a veteran whos laptop I could not fix (dead motherboard). So was just wanting to help him out by having everything ready and him not have to worry about buying a key.

So then purchase one, isntall, and include it in the final price.

 

[Cj-tech]

Yeah, this one is for a veteran whos laptop I could not fix (dead motherboard). So was just wanting to help him out by having everything ready and him not have to worry about buying a key.

As a hobby, I like to fix broken computers and occasionally I’ll sell some on eBay or give them away. Any expenses that I have to put into repairs are added onto the price.

 

[punkncat]

I have found that with older equipment things Linux flavored such as Ubuntu LTS are becoming easier and easier to sell on the older Dell Optiplex builds I refurbish from time to time. I started investigating it a couple of years ago and they were slow to move, but as of late, and in particular in reference to EOL, the Linux stuff is becoming more and more attractive to people that want a capable computer without having to pay the Microsoft tax.

 

[raidtech]

My fix for this was since they are Dell, you can use Dell OS Recovery Tool, which has stored the original OS with the activation key. So what I did was I downgraded it back to Windows 7 using the tool and then upgraded it back to Windows 10. Took a bit to accomplish but it works and put the Digital License on the computer again.