Clean install of Windows 10 on a new hard drive without recovery partition.

[Battousai01]

Hi guys,

I have a Lenovo Y580 and planning on upgrading the hard drive to an SSD. The laptop has Windows 8 originally and I have upgraded it to Windows 10. I am planning to do a clean install of Windows 10 on the new SSD using the Media Creation Tool. I understand that this laptop has no product key anymore and that when I do a Windows 10 clean install using the Media Creation Tool all I have to do when asked for a product key is to select “I don’t have a product key”.

Now my question is, if I do a clean install on a new hard drive (which doesn't have any recovery partition anymore) using only the Media Creation Tool, how would I know that my installation is genuine? Is the product key stored in the BIOS and that Windows 10 gets it from the BIOS?

I noticed when I go to the BIOS there is a section there that says: "Windows License: Win8 STD MLT" does the Windows 10 authenticates or activate it by getting the keys from the BIOS?

Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[Anteaus]

Don't worry about the key...if Windows 10 was previously activated you shouldn't be able to skip key entry and it should activate itself. The motherboard should be tied to the key. At least, that has been my experience. I've done exactly what you are describing.

 

[Puffnstuff]

When you clean install 10 will create the necessary partitions, mbr or uefi, and activate itself once it come back up and connects to the net if you previously activated it on your hardware.

 

[nerp]

This is all true. I just replaced a SSD in my Windows 10 machine and it activated automatically after a fresh install after I installed with no key.

 

[LPCTech]

Once you upgrade to windows 10 from 7 or 8.1 for the first time, microsoft stores a "hardware hash" of your machine on their activation servers.

If you remove your HDD and replace it with another HDD or SSD and fresh install windows 10, once its installed it will update itself and contact the activation server. It will see that you have upgraded this PC before and activate itself. Since all the hardware is the same other than the HDD. And it will be activated. If it asks for a key at anytime skip that step.

 

[Battousai01]

Hi guys! Thanks for all the replies, yes you are right I did not encountered any product key entry anymore with the clean install.

 

[vailr]

There are free programs that can retrieve the product key from a functioning Windows installation. Produkey and BelarcAdvisor are two examples.
Built-from-scratch PC's won't have any Windows auto-activation capability.

 

[Ketchup]

There are free programs that can retrieve the product key from a functioning Windows installation. Produkey and BelarcAdvisor are two examples.
Built-from-scratch PC's won't have any Windows auto-activation capability.

Just know that (and this isn't for you specifically vailr) these do not work on Windows 10. Running these on 10 will only give you a generic key. Windows 10 does not active the same way as previous Microsoft OSs, and are only necessary for the installation of a paid-for version of the OS (as opposed to the upgrade).