Verify Win10 Upgrade Available On Cloned Win7 Hard Drive

Discussion in 'Software' started by GCWesq, Sep 18, 2016.

  1. GCWesq

    GCWesq MajorGeek

    Hi.
    Wondering if anyone can tell me if there is a way to verify that my Win7 PC has digital entitlement for Win10.
    I have cloned my hard drive onto another hard drive, as the original is making noises, and it might be time to end its life.
    I upgraded to Win10 on the original hard drive, then rolled it back to Win7. That meant that i could upgrade to Win10 again at a later time.
    Then I cloned the hard drive.
    I can see that Win7 is activated on the new HDD, but i want to know if it has the digital entitlement to upgrade to Win10, or whether that would have been lost in the cloning process (or whether the change in hardware will prevent an upgrade - which I doubt).
    Thanks.
     
  2. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    If you had cloned or imaged the drive while it had Win 10 on it then it's probable that you could use that clone or image now and it would activate - see HERE. The only way to know now is by trying it.
     
    GCWesq likes this.
  3. GCWesq

    GCWesq MajorGeek

    Thanks. I thought there most be some way to check, though. There must be something in there that tells MS that a particular PC is registered for Win10.
     
  4. dr.moriarty

    dr.moriarty Malware Super Sleuth Staff Member

    Doesn't that mean that you had until July 29, 2016 to upgrade back to Windows 10, when the free upgrade offer ended?
     
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2016
  5. GCWesq

    GCWesq MajorGeek

    No. If you upgraded before the said date, you could then roll back to Win7, and then still go back to Win10 at any time in the future. Once your computer was registered as a Win10 machine, it stayed (and stays) registered, even if you roll back.
    So my original hard drive should have an entitlement to upgrade back to Win10, and i'm wondering if there is a way to tell if the cloned drive would also have that entitlement.
    BTW, I realise i can only use one drive or the other, but i want to know if there is a way to tell if a computer has that re-upgrade capability, other than by trying it.
     
    dr.moriarty likes this.
  6. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    I would image the drive as it is and then install Win 10. If it activates either stay with it or image it and then restore the Win 7 image. Can't see you have anything to lose. I doubt that having cloned the previous drive will affect any entitlement to use Win 10 as that is held on a MS server, not on your drive.
     
    GCWesq likes this.
  7. GCWesq

    GCWesq MajorGeek

    The only issue is that MS records info about your computer. If it doesn't recognise enough hardware, it won't provide the upgrade. I suspect that a new HDD won't be a problem, but i wanted to check first.
     
  8. the mekanic

    the mekanic Major Mekanical Geek

    When I swapped out my motherboard for the next gen Sabertooth, Win10 deactivated the next day. I placed a call to Microsoft, and they had no qualms about reissuing my license key. They sent a fresh one via e-mail.
     
    GCWesq likes this.

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