On 2 February 2012 15:34, Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gen...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 7:06 PM, Dale <rdalek1...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Your reply made me think of something. I had a XP reinstall once that >> required a number from MS because of the new mobo and hard drive. They >> said it recognized the change in the serial numbers. When I ran into >> that before tho, it installed fine but gave 30 days to put in the >> number. Does winders 7 have something similar? > > When you install Windows 7, Vista or XP (SP3 or newer), you can > actually skip the product key step and it'll install as a trial > version (30-day? 90-day? something like that). You can then "upgrade" > to the real version by activating it when you're comfortable that > everything is working properly -- or don't activate it at all and > install Gentoo. Trying to keep it on-topic. :)
This problem isn't related to Activation (which a lot of people have been describing). Those errors tend to be pretty explicit. In my experience, Windows 7 is relatively lax at install-time, and will give you 30 days leeway before it demands a key (which may or may not require calling the hotline). I'd say that you've either been hit by; - An incorrect OEM disk that's checking the BIOS for some kind of Manufacturer flag (and not getting what it wants). - A BIOS setting that Win7 doesn't like working with (I think that IDE-compat/AHCI is a good avenue of approach). Mike's link looks good (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2466753) Also, install Linux, jeez :3
