quote:

Originally posted by }BuLL:

I upgraded a Win7 laptop to Win10 during the free upgrade period. The hard drive has since crashed, and a Microsoft rep said I would need to purchase a Win10 license to reinstall that OS. So are you saying I can just key in the Win7 code on a new Win10 installation and it will authorize?

I upgraded my Windows 7 system to Windows 10 during the free upgrade as well. Win 10 has a "Digital License" that is tied to the hardware. I reinstalled Windows 10 a year later when I upgraded some components, including the hard drive (replaced with an SSD). After the installation, the install was automatically activated with the same "Digital License". Unless you change something major, like a motherboard, you should be able to clean install Windows 10 and have it automatically reactivate, since you aquired the digital license when you first upgraded to win 10.

Thanks guys, dropped in the samsung SSD and reloaded windows, it runs great. $60 and it's back up and running.

Thanks for the good news update, Gator! Glad it's up and running and I'll bet it's a bit faster now, too.