Replaced hard drive on pc now windows does not authenticate

[trip1980]

So i replaced the hard drive in my pc. Installed windows utilizing the disk on the new hard drive, and windows will not authenticate. I contacted Microsoft and they said I would have to purchase a new key. Is that correct? Or do I have to call again and hopefully someone can get the key authenticated.

 

[Thineswar]

usually, you could explain the situation to them and they would help you to authenticate windows without having to buy a new product key. i'm not sure what's happening here, but is windows still running on that old hdd?

 

[USAFRet]

So i replaced the hard drive in my pc. Installed windows utilizing the disk on the new hard drive, and windows will not authenticate. I contacted Microsoft and they said I would have to purchase a new key. Is that correct? Or do I have to call again and hopefully someone can get the key authenticated.

Just changing the drive should not require a new OS license.

Did you change anything else?

 

[Thineswar]

bro, by changing the boot drive, you'd need to reinstall windows, which means you have to activate it again

 

[USAFRet]

bro, by changing the boot drive, you'd need to reinstall windows, which means you have to activate it again

Reinstall and activation, yes.
New license, no.

 

[Thineswar]

i'm sorry, i misunderstood

 

[USAFRet]

trip1980 - What OS is this? Where did it come from?

 

[trip1980]

Basically this is completely newly built pc with the exception of the video card. I purchased new tower, hard drive, and mobo. Same cpu. Mainly because I was having a lot of issues with my pc. So after I put everything together and configured, I installed the windows OS from my old pc utilizing windows disk that came with it. The windows disk is windows 8 but it has been upgraded to windows 10 since the installation on the new pc. Windows does work on my currently built pc but it is not authenticated so i would be missing some features and the Activate Windows message is on the lower right hand corner of screen. The OS came with my old PC.

 

[USAFRet]

Basically this is completely newly built pc with the exception of the video card. I purchased new tower, hard drive, and mobo. Same cpu. Mainly because I was having a lot of issues with my pc. So after I put everything together and configured, I installed the windows OS from my old pc utilizing windows disk that came with it. The windows disk is windows 8 but it has been upgraded to windows 10 since the installation on the new pc. Windows does work on my currently built pc but it is not authenticated so i would be missing some features and the Activate Windows message is on the lower right hand corner of screen. The OS came with my old PC.

Ahhh...so you built a whole new PC, and not just swapped hard drives.
The MS rep you talked to was correct. You need to purchase a whole new OS.