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General discussion

Unable to reload win 7 after hardware failure during inital

Jul 14, 2010 3:27AM PDT

I have an Acer, Aspire, T-136 previously running xp. Purchased new win 7 64 bit OEM program. I tried to do a clean install on a formatted HDD. Win 7 loaded up to the point of entering the product key when the system shut down from a hardware failure. After repairing the hardware there was no operating system on the pc. I attempted to install the win 7 program again and the install fails with a message that the program was installed once and will not install again?
Help!! I spent hours trying to contact Microsoft with no luck. All their help lines are automatted and their menus irrelevant to my problem.

Discussion is locked

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A few notes...
Jul 14, 2010 9:44AM PDT

1.) The latest revision of the Windows OEM licensing terms prohibit the purchase for and installation on your own personal computer. The OEM license is now limited to purchase by a system builder for installation on a newly built computer being sold to a this party.

2.) You may need to completely wipe the hard drive with a program such as DBAN if the issue is related to system files remaining from the failed installation. (The exact error message is preferred.)

John

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Win 7 install problem
Jul 15, 2010 5:41AM PDT

John,
I installed a wiped, formatted HDD and did a custom install and the program worked. I now have win 7 on the new HDD and it took my key registration. Thank you for your reply.
Wayne