Need Help with Activating.. or Rolling back to Win7

[jrdors]

Hi guys,

So I think I may have royally screwed myself. I have an Acer PC which was running an OEM version of Windows 7 SP1. I upgraded to Win10 using the regular upgrade process, and then created a boot disc using the MCT for installing on my new SSD. All went well, I was activated so I wrote down the Product ID (which I thought was my Product Key) and installed my new SSD. Installed Windows again, but in the process accidentally formatted the original HDD, which I wasn't concerned about because I had backed up my personal files and was looking for a clean install regardless.

Now I have 10 installed and running fine on my SSD, but it won't activate. I don't have the original successful install on an HDD anymore, and my OEM Windows 7 copy isn't available to recover to anymore either. I guess if the only option is rolling back to 7 and starting this all from scratch, how do I go about that, assuming I only have a Windows 7 .iso from the internet?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Do you have your product key for the windows 7 operating system? Did you do the clean install using the free Microsoft supplied ISO or media you created from within the operating system?

In some cases, depending on your country, it can take some time for the activation to happen as the activation servers are currently working overtime with millions of people attempting to all upgrade and install various versions this week.



Download the ISO here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

Use this utility to create media in USB or DVD format and perform a clean install: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool


Windows 10 clean install: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html