Problems with W10 iso install with keycodes

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This is a win10 question just like the previous one that I posted and some moderator moved to win 7. I’ve tried to be clearer on the problem this time.

I have upgraded several of my systems to Win 10 , but I tried to perform a win 10 upgrade my Win7 home laptop by replacing the HD with an SSD and an ISO image and have problems. I thought I would upgrade to the Win 10 Pro version using a Win 7 Ultimate keycode that I own and is not installed. The SSD is new and never been used. Install went fine, but the system will not take my keycode. Also tried a keycode from a Win 7 Pro that I own and that is not installed. Now what? Does MS somehow know that I was running Win7 home on this laptop before. I have read that some systems keep some info in the firmware. Do I need to format the SSD and install the Win 7 Ultimate or Pro first and then do the upgrade or am I stuck with the home version on this system? If I have to stick with the Home version I will have to start over since I used a Pro version ISO image to do the install. I can live with the Home version, I have been using the Win 7 Home for 3 years on this machine, just thought I would upgrade.

As to the response on the previous thread before it got moved. Both keycodes are valid and being entered right from MS packaging.

Jim Nealand
Kennesaw, GA

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If you had Win 7 Home on your laptop when you upgraded to W10 then you will get W10. If you have Win 7 Pro or Ultimate on your laptop when you upgrade to W10 then you will get W10 Pro upgrade.
It upgrades by determining what you have during the upgrade. If you want W10 Pro then you will have to have Win 7 Pro or Ultimate on your laptop to get it.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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This is a new hard drive (SSD) so there is nothing on the hard drive. that is the reason for using an ISO install which is a clean install. The install works fine, but the keycodes I used do not. I tried cloning the old hard drive which is 1 TB to the new SSD which is only 500 GB but that resulted in too many problems. I know I can always do the upgrade on my Win 7 home disk and get Win 10 home, I’ve already done that on 3 other machines. But I want to go to the SSD so I am trying to get there as stated above.

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This is a new hard drive (SSD) so there is nothing on the hard drive. that is the reason for using an ISO install which is a clean install

If there is nothing on the hard drive then how would you “Upgrade” to the free W10? The hard drive would have to have a pre-existing legally licensed win 7/8 OS on it to upgrade it.
You would have to either install a legal copy of win 7/8 first or buy a W10 disc. W10 isn’t a free OS handout, it’s a free upgrade from win 7/8.
Hopefully I understand your question correctly and I hope this helps.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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You have not been reading Fred Langa’s columns or others if you think that you must have an OS on the disk. You are allowed to install to a new disk as long as you have a valid keycode to enter at the appropriate time. That is the path that I am following. It will be an upgrade, but what is called a clean install.

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If you’ve installed W10 on a clean hard drive (SSD or not) then it’s not actually an upgrade… ‘cos there’s no previous eligible version of Windows installed on the hard drive to validate against. The W10 upgrade installer checks the previous version for 2 pre-requisites – 1) it’s an eligible version of Windows (W7 or W8.1) and 2) it’s activated (although rumour has it that the latter may be ignored). Your ‘upgrade’ install falls foul of one or both pre-requisites.

If you still have the previous hard drive that Win 7 was installed on then pop it back it and upgrade that to Win 10 first then migrate it to the SSD (although you’ll still not be able to use the W10 upgrade installer to move from a Home version to a Pro version). Once the upgrade has taken place a record of the W10 validation is stored on an MS server… allowing you to carry out a subsequent clean install and have it activated automatically.

Fred Langa’s How to clean-install a Windows 10 upgrade article on September 10th made this clear:

There are numerous details to a clean Win10 install, but the process has only two major parts.

First, you must — at least temporarily — upgrade your current Win7/8 system to Win10, the standard way. During this initial upgrade, Microsoft’s activation servers create and store a unique and permanent machine ID that’s based on your old Windows key plus the system’s hardware.

During the upgrade, Microsoft will also automatically issue you a new, generic Win10 product key. But it works only after your PC has been successfully upgraded to Win10 and activated. (This is how Microsoft intends to prevent piracy of the free Win10 upgrade.)

I’m also aware of another method of generating a validation file on the previous eligible Windows version but you haven’t mentioned you’ve used this.

(Yes, you’re right that pre-installed [i.e. OEM] versions of Windows 8/8.1 had the Windows product key embedded in the BIOS rather than having the product key printed on a COA sticker.)

Hope this helps…

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Once the upgrade has taken place a record of the W10 validation is stored on an MS server… allowing you to carry out a subsequent clean install and have it activated automatically.

Fred Langa’s How to clean-install a Windows 10 upgrade article on September 10th made this clear:

That was before the November update. The upgrade step is no longer necessary:

Update, November 2015: Microsoft has finally fixed this convoluted process, and you no longer need to upgrade a computer to Windows 10 before doing a clean install. If you’re installing the latest build of Windows 10, you can skip this step and follow the below instructions to do a clean install. When prompted for a key, enter your Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 key to activate Windows 10.
How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 10

Note: Starting with the November update, Windows 10 (Version 1511) can be activated using some Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 product keys. For more info, see the section Activating Windows 10 (Version 1511 or higher) using a Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 product key in this topic.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/activation-in-windows-10

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That was before the November update. The upgrade step is no longer necessary:

My apologies to jnealand – I was wrong.

Thanks Bruce. It’ll probably just confuse matters if I delete or amend post #6 so I’ll leave it there as is.

I looked at the two articles Bruce referenced in post #7 and the Microsoft article doesn’t mention devices supplied with Windows 7 under the MAR scheme (Microsoft Approved Refurbisher) so I’ll be finding out later today or tomorrow how well a clean install goes on a laptop with just a (MAR) product key. (I understand a MAR install invalidates the original product ID so I won’t be able to use the product ID on the original COA sticker. Instead, there should be a new product ID, possibly on a new COA sticker.)

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My apologies also, Thanks Bruce.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Well I wimped out. Went back and installed Win 7 ultimate on the SSD and then did the usual Win 10 update from the web. Win 10 likes my win7 ultimate keycode doing it this way so I’m not sure why the process did not work as I originally tried it. At any rate. I have now almost completed reinstalling the key apps that I use frequently and this system is really speedy now with the SSD. If I had known it would be this fast, I would have installed the SSD a long time ago. Trouble was I have carried around a lot of stuff on the hard drive and going from 1 TB to 256 GB was daunting. But being retired now I am slowly deleting all the junk stuff I carried around while working at clients and find I can function just fine with a nicely slimmed down system. This process got rid of all the excess stuff. I still have a copy on an external drive, but don’t think I will have much call for it anymore. Thanks for all the thoughts.

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