I'll keep going with this, because there is a Gentoo twist at the end! LOL!
On Tuesday, 7 January 2020 16:58:43 GMT Mark Knecht wrote: > After maybe 16 hours it didn't activate but logically I don't know why it > would have. I've installed Win 10 using the M$ install tool writing to a > USB flash drive but I'm not given any product IDs/Keys. M$ would have had > to determine on their own with no help from me this was a reinstall and > generously activated it which I think is asking too much. The (re)activation process does not work like you assume. Your MS Product key would have been provided with the original (Windows 7) installation media, a sticker under the laptop, your laptop's OEM box/activation card, or the MSWindows Online Shop. If you do not possess this key you cannot readily (re)activate the installation. You could call Microsoft Support to ask for your key since this is a legit installation, but as the key is still in the original disk, boot into the old disk and use some of the methods mentioned here to extract it: https://www.howtogeek.com/206329/how-to-find-your-lost-windows-or-office-product-keys/ > Owing that I'm not 100% sure the previous install was actually Win 10 Pro, > having updated from Win 7 with their free conversion to Win 10, I'm going > to put the old drive back in, double check what version of Win 10 I was > using and then try again if I installed the wrong version this time. Yes, the Product key or Digital License can only be reused on the same Windows 10 edition as the original. If not you'll get some error pointing to the fact your key is not suitable for the edition of the OS you are trying to activate. > On a more Linux note I'll build a bootable USB drive with clonezilla and > see about cloning the old drive to the new SDD that way. that sort of > solution is why I posted here in the first place. Trying the Win 10 install > and hoping it worked was just an easy 1-day experiment. That could be the easiest way without having to fight your way through the Windows Activation Process. On the other hand, if you manage to re-activate it, you'll know how to go about it next time you reinstall - this is MSWindows after all! ;-) > P.S. - I'd love to get back to running Gentoo one of these days. For those > of us that wanted a stable machine with just a couple of testing packages, > especially as the machines become older and the software becomes larger, it > just became too many hours building code, especially on these older > laptops. Kubuntu has worked well enough for me be there's no better > community that you here at gentoo-user for straight forward technical > discussion and I want to thank everyone here for years and years of good > times and good information. Have a search for 'chroot' and 'cross-compiling' on Gentoo wiki & forums. There should be a few articles explaining how to cross-compile binary packages within a chrooted directory on a faster/bigger/better PC and then rsync and emerge these packages with '--usepkg y', or '--usepkgonly y' on the slower laptop. As far as the laptop is concerned, this last part ought to be almost as fast as updating/installing binary packages on Kubuntu. This is probably the only way to install really large compiled applications like Chromium, LibreOffice, etc. on old PCs with very low RAM. -- Regards, Mick
