Can I activate windows 10 with a windows 7 key?

[KearneyMC]

I am upgrading my motherboard and cpu. Right now I am running windows 10, Can I activate windows 10 with a windows 7 key?

 

AND

I have a secondary HDD with all my games on it. Do I have to reformat it when reinstalling or will windows recognize it whenever the installation is complete (Only asking this because I have lots of games on it and I dont want to be redownloading all of them) 

[Flavortown2k16]

6 minutes ago, KearneyMC said:

I am upgrading my motherboard and cpu. Right now I am running windows 10, Can I activate windows 10 with a windows 7 key?

 

AND

I have a secondary HDD with all my games on it. Do I have to reformat it when reinstalling or will windows recognize it whenever the installation is complete (Only asking this because I have lots of games on it and I dont want to be redownloading all of them) 

After switching both mobo and cpu multiple times, i can say that yes you can use w7 key on w10, but is not quarenteed. It popped up for me again and it sayed my code was on someother pc.

[KearneyMC]

1 hour ago, Flavortown2k16 said:

After switching both mobo and cpu multiple times, i can say that yes you can use w7 key on w10, but is not quarenteed. It popped up for me again and it sayed my code was on someother pc.

IF i Reinstall my OS But dont touch my HDD with all my games on it will it work/ be recognized when I boot into the OS?

[manikyath]

4 minutes ago, Flavortown2k16 said:

After switching both mobo and cpu multiple times, i can say that yes you can use w7 key on w10, but is not quarenteed. It popped up for me again and it sayed my code was on someother pc.

in theory it should work, and in theory you can just give MS a phone call to release the key if it shows as "in use".

 

i've had less than pleasant experiences with that last bit, which may or may not be related to me trying to get them to reactivate a windows server key...

2 minutes ago, KearneyMC said:

IF i Reinstall my OS But dont touch my HDD with all my games on it will it work/ be recognized when I boot into the OS?

that's actually pretty much exactly what i did last time i reinstalled, i was surprised to find out that double clicking the steam executable will launch steam fine, with an error about some system files, and it basicly from then on fixes itself ending with dumping you in your steam library with everything working.

 

you may -for specific games- have to reinstall the DX, C++ and VS redistributables manually, which are located within the game's folder within steam.

[Flavortown2k16]

7 minutes ago, KearneyMC said:

IF i Reinstall my OS But dont touch my HDD with all my games on it will it work/ be recognized when I boot into the OS?

It wont do anything to that, but if you want to be 100% sure then just plug it off from the mobo while you reinstall the os

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Flavortown2k16 said:

It wont do anything to that, but if you want to be 100% sure then just plug it off from the mobo while you reinstall the os

that's common practisce with windows installs: unplug every drive you dont want the install to touch.

 

windows has this reputation of putting its bootloader in stupid places.