this copy of windows is not genuine error

[slag]

Been using this legit copy of windows 7 on my media center for a couple years now without problems. Last week, one of my 1 TB drives started getting some bad sectors. During this time, it would sometimes boot up, sometimes not, and the drive failed SMART testing in the bios and was marked as bad. I was able to boot it up using hirens boot cd, boot into windows xp, and move my media files over to my good drive. I then wiped and formatted this disk and it now passes smart testing and shows no bad sectors or anything. I used Hiren's boot cd to check for rootkits, malware, etc, and it found some small things but nothing major.

Weird thing though.. I now get the error that my copy of windows is not legit. I have the black wallpaper with windows build 7061 as not being genuine, but I know its good. I bought the 3 pack/family pack years ago and actually have 2 family packs -- 6 useable installs, and am only using 3 of them.

Under my computer properties, it shows the activation status as "not available". I first noticed this problem following a failed windows update, but it backed out the update and has been able to boot back up fine. Sometimes when I boot up, my windows installation is super slow. It takes forever to do anything. I ran memtest86 on the memory and it passed as do all disk tests for my 3 drives now. Everything looks fine, but something is amiss. Also, SFC came back good. I'm at a loss. I really don't want to blow away my primary disk and reload the OS, but its looking more and more like that's what I'm going to have to do. Any other suggestions or ideas on what I should look at?

Also, I ran slmgr -rearm and the black wallpaper issue went away for one restart, but now it is back.

 

[denis280]

Open CMD.Type in SLMGR – REARM
hit your enter key.a message will be popup.comand completed successfuly.restart system

 

[slag]

already did that.. it went away for one reboot and then came back. It was the last line in my OP

 

[KillerBee]

Have you tried calling MS and asking?
1) Click Start, and in the Search box type: slui.exe 4
2) Next press the 'ENTER' key
3) Select your 'Country' from the list.
4) Choose the 'Phone Activation' option.
5) Stay on the phone and wait for a person to help you with activation.

 

[denis280]

Also, I ran slmgr -rearm and the black wallpaper issue went away for one restart, but now it is back.

OUPS!

already did that.. it went away for one reboot and then came back. It was the last line in my OP

I dont understand why???

 

[slag]

Have you tried calling MS and asking?
1) Click Start, and in the Search box type: slui.exe 4
2) Next press the 'ENTER' key
3) Select your 'Country' from the list.
4) Choose the 'Phone Activation' option.
5) Stay on the phone and wait for a person to help you with activation.

Not yet. Came on here first to see if anyone else had experienced this. Calling MS is my last option, although it would probably be easier and more complete to just reinstall Windows on the disk.

 

[ViRGE]

Not yet. Came on here first to see if anyone else had experienced this. Calling MS is my last option, although it would probably be easier and more complete to just reinstall Windows on the disk.

Given what you're describing and the questionable state of your Windows install, I'd bite the bullet and do a reinstall at this point.

 

[alkemyst]

Not yet. Came on here first to see if anyone else had experienced this. Calling MS is my last option, although it would probably be easier and more complete to just reinstall Windows on the disk.

The only reason not to do a phone activation is due to knowing one has a pirated copy of Windows.

It's fast and automated.

My company has a VLK that requires phone in activation when not on the domain.

I have to go through this process 2-3 times a year usually.