Fixed an Older Computer by Putting its working hard drive in another computer

jcol87

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Mar 18, 2013
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I am very surprised that this worked. One was a gateway from 2007, it worked fine, was a little slow but still workable. Then the CPU failed and we didn't have money for a new one. My dad found an eMachines and an old dell optiplex in the garbage, I put the PSU from the optiplex in the eMachines and it worked fine, but the eMachines still had the password on it from the older machine. After getting past that, the hard drive failed, but I still had the hard drive from the 2007 computer. I put it in, and then used the recovery partition to reinstall Windows Vista.

It works great, but after a few uses of Windows Update it keeps asking us to Activate it. This screen pops up for 10 seconds, and then lets us click Activate Later. I'm worried that it will eventually block us entirely. I put in the Product Key from the side of the 2007 computer, which is the machine the copy is licensed to, it did not recognize it. The Windows Validation tool says that it's not genuine. I know that you technically are not allowed to take this copy of Windows to other machines, that the OEM license only applies to the original equipment. But it is the original hard drive.

Any advice? Or should I just ignore it? Those OEM licenses are completely ridiculous, I should be able to install that copy of Windows as many times as I want as long as there are no other active copies. Granted, I did buy and use the OEM version for the computer I built, but I am the Original Equipment Manufacturer and I don't need customer service.
 
Solution
there should be a phone number you can call for a phone activation, that's what I did for my OEM copy of windows when I had to switch mobos. It should be an option when it asks you to validate.

Azn Cracker

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you cant just switch hard drives. The OS is tied to the motherboard so if you put the HDD from one computer to another it wont work. You can try calling microsoft but i doubt they will transfer it for you.

If you ignore it, they Windows will pretty much lock you computer up after a while
 

bdiddytampa

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Dec 2, 2012
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As long as your OS is only installed on one PC, they usually won't have a problem with it, that's my experience anyway. You can get copies of Win 7 for 50 bucks nowadays if you hunt for them, so that's always an option too, better OS as well.
 

jcol87

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Mar 18, 2013
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like i said, im surprised it worked, they weren't even the same manufacturer. It did give the option to call, so I guess ill do that
 

jcol87

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Mar 18, 2013
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that is true, when you buy a prebuilt computer they usually only allow one copy (same if you bought a single disc copy), but i put the hard drive in a different computer that is not manufactured by them, i dont think they will allow that, i bought the computer to be sure, the one i am moving it to was a donation

it still works and asks to activate but i guess it knows its not stolen just not able to talk to the compnay website because even with internet it coudlnt do taht