OEM Windows 7 on a new hard drive.

[maxxpower18]

I know that if you replace your motherboard you have to purchase a new Windows 7 license, but I haven't heard/read much about reinstalling Windows 7 if you just replace the hard drive.

Is it similar to when you do a clean install on the same hard drive?(Where you have to call Windows and you get an approval code which you type in to re-authorize your Windows 7 license)

 

[ViRGE]

Honestly it depends, but generally you can activate over the internet with such a small hardware change.

 

[Matt1970]

You should be able to install and activate with no problems.

 

[natto fire]

Thank you for this thread, as I wondered the same thing with my soon to arrive ssd.

Not to hijack, but would I be better off using my digital river download, or the recovery disc that came with my Samsung laptop? It says Win 7 Home Premium SP1, and I haven't found any hidden partitions on existing HDD, so I'm assuming the disc would work stand alone?

 

[maxxpower18]

Thank you for this thread, as I wondered the same thing with my soon to arrive ssd.

Not to hijack, but would I be better off using my digital river download, or the recovery disc that came with my Samsung laptop? It says Win 7 Home Premium SP1, and I haven't found any hidden partitions on existing HDD, so I'm assuming the disc would work stand alone?

I used the My Digital Life Windows 7 iso to install Windows on another one of my laptops and it and it worked perfectly. I would suggest you use that one instead of the recovery disk that came with your laptop because the recovery disk might install the bloatware whereas with the Windows 7 iso you can do a clean install.

 

[uallas5]

I know that if you replace your motherboard you have to purchase a new Windows 7 license

Only if its an OEM license. Retail licenses are not linked to hardware and can be used for as many non-concurrent installs as your heart desires. (or however you want to say only one install at any given time...ughh i need more coffee)

 

[fixbsod]

I wound up having to do this (reactivate) when I accidentally loaded up old bios settings that still had me on AHCI instead of RAID. Didn't have to reinstall windows but I think the back and forth forced the reactivation.