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My grandfathers 2 year old Dell laptop recently suffered a hard drive failure. I purchased a replacement hard drive and installed it for him.

Unfortunately no Windows disc was provided with the laptop. But there is a Windows 7 Home Premium license key printed on the case. I have a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium so I used this disc when reinstalling and it accepted his license key.

A few days later it started giving an error saying the installation is not genuine. I've contacted both Microsoft and Dell support, each is passing the blame to the other.

Was wondering does anyone here have suggestions for how to reinstall and activate OEM copies of Windows 7 without purchasing a new license?

Thanks

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    Microsoft is the only one can help with activation issues. You need to use the phone activation method for the best results. In other words it should have worked.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 24, 2013 at 18:00
  • @Chenmunka I didn't get a disc from Dell. There was a recovery partition but the hard drive has since been replaced.
    – Chris
    Nov 24, 2013 at 19:59
  • It's not a copy it's a genuine windows 7 home premium disc. I used the license key printed on the laptop. It installs but it doesn't activate. Since Dell don't supply a reinstall disc, on replacing the hard drives how are customers supposed to use their windows license?
    – Chris
    Nov 25, 2013 at 0:39
  • I believe there are OEM discs that will take OEM license keys. But at this time, why bother with Windows 7? I have successfully installed Windows 10 using Windows 7 product key. You might as well just do that.
    – some user
    Feb 8, 2020 at 5:21
  • @some user I believe this is over 6 years old. But at this time, why bother with Windows 7 ? Some people today are installing they're Windows 7 again, just to update to Windows 10. I did.
    – vssher
    Feb 8, 2020 at 7:09

1 Answer 1

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As you have a DELL OEM Computer adhering to windows hardware certifications (SLIC 2.1 in BIOS), you only need the DELL .XRM-MS certificate and the DELL OEM:SLP key to activate.

As others have stated, the reason you are not activated is because the fancy hologram non-DELL DVD you used does not have the proper .XRM-MS cert to activate you, even though it is a legit DVD.

Not sure why COA key did not work or why phone activation people did not help you, but if you track down the cert and OEM:SLP key you can fix yourself with some SLMGR.vbs commands. Find the cert buried in your old HDD's system32 folder or google for it.

slmgr.vbs -ilc C:\DELL.XRM-MS
slmgr.vbs -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

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