Product key after hardware change

[dwin]

motherboard went bad and i can't find the exact one so I put my hard drive in another computer which went much better than i expected. All hardware detected beautifully. the only issue is that windows detected the change and will not activate the oem wndows professional key. this is a valid copy of windows, paid in full. any suggestions? I do not want to lose my hard drive contents so reinstalling is not what I want to do.

Would be willing to purchase a new key from ms but they don't offer that anymore

 

[Hawkeye22]

Have you tried calling MS and explain what happened? Sometimes they will just give you a new activation code.

In the future, get a program like ABR that can save activation information to a backup file. I've used this successfully.

http://directedge.us/content/abr-activation-backup-and-restore

 

[dwin]

i have tried finding a number for ms to call them but can't seem to find a number

 

[Hawkeye22]

I believe one of the options is to call in and it should list a phone number.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Activating-Windows-frequently-asked-questions


You can activate either online or by phone. To activate online you need an Internet connection. Activating by phone requires interacting with an automated phone system.

To activate Windows on this computer, do the following:

Open Windows Activation by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, right-clicking Computer, clicking Properties, and then clicking Activate Windows now.‌ Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

You can then select the method you want to use to activate.