Can't reactivate Windows 10 digital license after motherboard change

[Askingcarpet]

So just yesterday I finished rebuilding my PC (swapped everything but the hard drive and gpu) and added another hdd. I did a fresh install of windows on the new drive and when I tried to activate windows with my MS account it just said that it couldn't reactivate windows on this device. I also tried to boot windows on the old drive but the license seems to be gone there too.

I had upgraded from a retail windows 7 to windows 10 around 2016 and I don't have the win7 key since I bought the computer like 9 years ago. Contacted support twice and all they said was that if I didn't have the key I'd have to buy another one. Any ideas on how to solve this?

[Slottr]

Probably locked to that motherboard you had

You can most likely just talk to MS support and they'll help you

 

Might also be able to see where it is locked to through your ms account

[PopsicleHustler]

Windows license is stored in the motherboard, so if you change it, you have to get new copy of Windows too.

[Askingcarpet]

30 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Probably locked to that motherboard you had

You can most likely just talk to MS support and they'll help you

 

Might also be able to see where it is locked to through your ms account

Both times i contacted the support they just kinda asked for the key, and when i told them i didnt have it since it's been 9 years since i bought it, they just said i'd have to buy a new one

[Askingcarpet]

33 minutes ago, Alexsolo said:

You have to buy another key. Digital licenses (or OEM licenses such as your old Windows 7) are tied to the original motherboard and have a limited number of reactivations allowed.

Once this maximum is reached you need to purchase a new key.

 

I would suggest buying a genuine retail key from the Microsoft website and tying it to your microsoft account. This way it'll always activate your copy of Windows, so long that you log into the account under the profile.

 

Here's Linus running into the same issue:

 

I did have a retail copy, which i upgraded to windows 10 in 2016, then linked to my account and it got transformed into a "digital license" which i could transfer. Except now i can't, and the support guys just told me i 100% need a key to reactivate or buy a new one. If this is seriously how they treat this subject then i'll just either pirate it or buy a $10 key from ebay.

[C2dan88]

You seem to misunderstood the terms of free Win10 upgrade. The free Win7 upgrade to Win10 was for the lifetime of original device (in your case motherboard) you activated the upgrade on when linking your MS account. It is non-transferable to a new PC (switching motherboards is considered as a new PC).

 

Digital Entitlement License works same as OEM key, Your Win7 key remains a retail Win7 key.

[Blai5e]

On 4/16/2019 at 2:49 AM, C2dan88 said:

You seem to misunderstood the terms of free Win10 upgrade. The free Win7 upgrade to Win10 was for the lifetime of original device (in your case motherboard) you activated the upgrade on when linking your MS account. It is non-transferable to a new PC (switching motherboards is considered as a new PC).

 

Digital Entitlement License works same as OEM key, Your Win7 key remains a retail Win7 key.

Are you sure? My understanding is if your earlier license was retail, the free Windows 10 upgrade license is treated as the same (retail) allowing you to perform significant hardware changes (i.e. a motherboard swap). I ran into this problem about 12 months ago and did a fair bit of research before purchasing a retail key (at a sweet price) so I didn't have to experience this again.

 

The fact that the original poster stated Microsoft Support asked for his Windows 7 retail key leads me to believe my statement above is true; it's just a pity that he cannot supply it.

 

PS. I just bought another license (Windows 10 Pro Retail) for $US16.13 from LVOGO.com using the coupon PTL20