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Possible Duplicate:
Windows activation with planned reinstall

I have a windows 7 intallation that I got from MSDN. The thing is that I want to format my PC and reinstall windows 7.

At first I thought I just have to write the current key somewhere, reinstall windows 7 normally and then activate it with my old key, but a friend did this and on the last step the activation wouldn't work because it said that the key was in use.

What can I do?

Community
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Adrian Matteo
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2 Answers2

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It may work just fine but if not, you simply need to call the Microsoft number the activation tool will give you and explain the format and reinstall. Takes a few minutes.

Dave M
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In this situation under Windows XP, I would just go ahead and re-install from scratch using the original key. When activation fails, there is an option to activate over the phone. You call the number, tell them that this is a re-install on the same computer and the license is not in use anywhere else, and then they'll tell you 50-digit code. Put that code in and you're good to go.

I think this still applies to Windows 7, but I'm not sure, as I haven't had to do it (yet) myself on a Windows 7 machine.

TheLQ
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Joel Coehoorn
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