Win 7 X64 upgrade activation woes

[GregH]

So I got my shiny new system all put together, but can't seem to activate my version of Win 7.
I got the student download update version, and it activated fine when I installed in on my old machine that was running XP.

This new machine was a blank HD and I keep getting the message about it being an invalid key.
Some google-fu found me a couple of workarounds that supposedly work:

1) Double-install: Install Win 7 but leave the CD key fields blank. Install again, but choose the upgrade path rather than clean install & voila it should work. Didn't work for me.

2) Registry hack: Change a setting in the registry from 1 to 0 & run slmgr from a command prompt. Supposedly this works 100% of the time. I guess I'm one of the 0% it doesn't work for, as I had no luck with it. Apparently it doesn't work if you have updates available, but I installed all the updates (even the optional ones) and it still didn't.

I ended up calling Microsoft to try to activate in manually over the phone, but Raj in Bangladesh (or wherever the hell it was) said I had the wrong version and I had to install XP and then reinstall Win 7 after that.

I REALLY don't want to have to wipe all my settings & install XP then Win 7 again, but I guess I'll have to if I can't find anything else that might work.

Anyone have any ideas?

On the bright side, my X2 550 did unlock to a quad on my GA-MA770T-UD3P & stayed stable, so that's nice

[AkG]

You have an "upgrade edition". To be totally legit you need to first install an OS and then upgrade....or "find" an ISO of the version you have and use your legit key on a fresh install.

[GregH]

Originally Posted by AkG

You have an "upgrade edition". To be totally legit you need to first install an OS and then upgrade....or "find" an ISO of the version you have and use your legit key on a fresh install.

That's why I installed Win 7 but left it in "trial mode" then ran the setup from the Win 7 disc from there (I made an ISO from the download files)
Apparently that method is endorsed by Microsoft, but it didn't work for me.

[GregH]

Hmm...after some more google-fu it seems that Win 7 upgrade version is limited to one activation, so when I activated it on my old XP machine it used my one activation up.

Not sure if a format of that old machine will "un-activate" it, thereby allowing me to activate it on my new machine, or if I'll have to give MS a call.
Hope it's not the latter as they haven't been terribly helpful so far (I could have sworn I put CANADA as the country for activation, not India...)

[Spikemaul]

Originally Posted by GregH

That's why I installed Win 7 but left it in "trial mode" then ran the setup from the Win 7 disc from there (I made an ISO from the download files)
Apparently that method is endorsed by Microsoft, but it didn't work for me.

That's the way I installed 7 with no problems at all. Check out sevenforums.com.
They might have an answer for you

[Eldonko]

1 activation! No way I can see that being true. What if your HD dies, or you replace a MOBO or something.

All I did was DL the retail Pro ISO and used my upgrade key. Worked fine. You have me worried now tho lol.

[GregH]

Hmmm...well that's bizarre.

Tried activating automatically & it didn't work, so I went to the phone activation option & my installation code had changed, and when I entered it into the phone it worked!
Now to copy over my old stuff then format the old pc.