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Repairing Windows 7 from the recovery console
Vurbal:
Just for reference, here are the basics for the 2 models. I couldn't find a service manual for the HP, or in fact much of anything concrete about the specific model. I'm 99.99% sure the hardware listed is correct after putting together the limited information from the product page with a sales brochure and review I located. If not
Dell Inspiron 1545
CPU: Pentium Dual-Core Mobile T4200 (Socket P)
RAM: 4GB
Chipset: Intel GM45 Express (GM45/ICH9-M)
Video: Chipset
Audio: Chipset
LAN: Marvell 88E80XX (probably)
WLAN: Dell (Atheros) Wireless 1515
HP dv5 1099nr
CPU: Core 2 Duo T5800 (Socket P)
RAM: 4GB
Chipset: Intel PM45 Express (GM45/ICH9-M)
Video: Nvidia 9600M GT
Audio: Chipset
LAN: Realtek 81xx
WLAN: Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100
I'm actually starting to think this should go pretty smoothly. I'm thinking the easiest route is probably to get Win7 installed on the Dell and then move the hard drive to the HP. I'm sure it will require me to reactivate but probably won't give me any problems. After thinking about it some more I seem to recall certain components on the Southbridge, the hard drive (or maybe just the system volume?), and the amount of RAM are the most important factors for reactivating Windows. I'm guessing the video and network controller changing drastically at the same time will trigger it, but I'm guessing I won't have to call Microsoft.
As for the HP hard drive, the damage is internal. When it spins up you can hear the distinctive clicking of a crashed head. Unfortunately, being a HP, it didn't come with restore media and he can't find the media he burned after he first bought it. Of course that was about 5 years ago so unless he used high quality discs and kept them in a carefully controlled environment there's probably a 50/50 chance they would work.
Oh, and on top of that it appears he really does put the computer on his lap most of the time based on how the Windows key is literally worn off the COA. The sticker is positioned on the right side, right about where the keys would be in his pocket when he's sitting down. Other than the remnants of a couple vertical lines at the end, the key is completely gone. Fortunately it seems like installing Win7 on the Dell is probably smarter anyway so it's no big deal.
4wd:
After thinking about it some more I seem to recall certain components on the Southbridge, the hard drive (or maybe just the system volume?), and the amount of RAM are the most important factors for reactivating Windows. I'm guessing the video and network controller changing drastically at the same time will trigger it, but I'm guessing I won't have to call Microsoft.-Vurbal (March 29, 2014, 02:47 AM)
--- End quote ---
From How-Windows-7-hardware-upgrades-affect-licensing:
The actual algorithm that Microsoft uses is not disclosed, but we do know the weighting of components is as follows, from highest to lowest:
1. Motherboard (and CPU)
2. Hard drive
3. Network interface card (NIC)
4. Graphics card
5. RAM
--- End quote ---
A more in depth table is here: Managing Windows Licensing and Activation : Managing Volume License Activation (part 2) - Leveraging MAK activation, Comparing KMS and MAK activation
Referring to the table they have:
If the total weight of changed components reaches 25, then the computer must be reactivated.
--- End quote ---
Vurbal:
That's surprisingly reasonable. It seems most likely to affect people who move their OEM Windows to a different computer. Mostly it would be limited to replacing the hard drive and motherboard following a freak power event. Or, of course, a power user who's more likely to make major changes on that scale all at once. I'm also a little surprised that my instincts were pretty much spot on about which hardware to look at. I just missed the BIOS ID.
That does bring up another question though. Is the criteria the same the first time you activate after reinstalling? In other words is the threshold for the activation server the same or maybe lower, perhaps significantly so? I'm guessing the latter but obviously a guess is all it is. If WinXP and Win8 are any indication I would also expect the number of "new" activations for a given key to become a factor. I really haven't had to repeatedly activate a single Win7 or Vista license that I can remember.
If any or all of that is true, or simply barring evidence to the contrary, that would seem to be yet another argument in favor of installing and initially activating everything on the Dell so all the hardware matches perfectly.
Assuming SATA adapters are weighted the same as IDE, and I can't imagine why they wouldn't be, that seems to put me at 21 points moving from the Dell to the HP.
BIOS Identifier9Processor (x2)6MAC Address (x2)4Display Adapter1CD/DVD Drive1Total21
The HDD serial won't change, SATA and audio adapters are provided by (theoretically) identical Southbridge chips. Just to be safe, both for the activation metric and driver installation, I'll probably have the basic motherboard and display drivers on a USB stick beforehand and turn off the network and audio adapters until I'm satisfied the system is stable. That brings the total down to 17 for the first boot.
And now another thought occurs to me. Does the count reset each time Windows checks or is it cumulative? And that's why I make myself so miserable working in IT. I'm an expert at asking questions and obsessive about finding answers for all of them, no matter how wasteful it ends up being.
Stoic Joker:
OEM's Self activate based on the (oversimplified short explanation) default install key matching the BIOS ID. If you use the Dell disk to install on an HP, activation will initially fail because the above won't match. However if the HP has a legible COA, or you can recover the system hive and read the key from that. Then you can enter that key and the machine will activate just fine (assuming the editions match of course).
If you move the installed and activated (on a Dell) HDD to an HP (or anything else for that matter), it will blow the activation ... So that exorcise is a bit pointless (baring time and curiosity).
Vurbal:
OEM's Self activate based on the (oversimplified short explanation) default install key matching the BIOS ID. If you use the Dell disk to install on an HP, activation will initially fail because the above won't match. However if the HP has a legible COA, or you can recover the system hive and read the key from that. Then you can enter that key and the machine will activate just fine (assuming the editions match of course).
If you move the installed and activated (on a Dell) HDD to an HP (or anything else for that matter), it will blow the activation ... So that exorcise is a bit pointless (baring time and curiosity).
-Stoic Joker (March 29, 2014, 09:00 AM)
--- End quote ---
I'm actually not worried about the OEM part. As you say, that has to be installed on the Dell no matter what but that's just Vista.
What I was asking initially was verification for the instructions I found for using retail Win7 upgrade media to do a clean install afterwards. Basically it would go like this.
1. After Vista has been installed and activated I would boot from the Win7 upgrade media. The first thing it's going to do is check to see if there's a previous version of Windows installed and presumably activated as well for XP or Vista.
2. That information is saved for later and setup proceeds normally.
3. At the partitioning step I would select a custom install and blow away the existing partitions. Setup doesn't care if they're still there when installation starts. When the installer checks later it will rely on the verification from when the upgrade media booted.
4. If the initial verification succeeded, Windows setup already knows the upgrade is valid and there are no problems. If it failed the Windows install it would be configured incorrectly. Windows will still be installed but activation will fail.
As long as Vista was never never be booted on the second laptop, its activation should remain intact. The Win7 installer is only checking to make sure there's an existing version of Windows installed already and neither knows nor cares about the OEM restrictions. Since the Windows was installed to a completely clean hard drive it doesn't retain Vista's OEM restrictions.
The clean install part I'm pretty confident in, having found pretty much identical instructions all over the web. However the question of whether Windows setup looks at OEM restrictions was never addressed. I found nothing suggesting Windows setup did look at it, but also nothing saying it didn't. Unless you're trying to do what I am now there's no reason to even consider the question.
I guess I'll know soon enough.
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