Factory restore does not work

[allanozz]

I have a Compaq Presario CQ56-107TU running windows Home Premium 64 bit since new about a year ago. The first day I got it I greated a set of 4 restore disks using the installed software. The restore disks were checked and tested during creation and passed. Yesterday I lost my system due to a virus.  I started the factory restore process and all was fine untill it asked for disk 5. I have no disk 5 as only 4 were created. We have 5 Compaq notebooks in the house so I know the routine of creating restore disks and have restored several machines without problems. 

As my restore disks are useless I installed a full version of Windows 7 home premium from a set of ugrade disks I purchased to upgrade other machines to windows 7 from Vista.  The problem is the key for the upgrade disks will not work on the full version install so I used the windows key from the bottom of my laptop that came with my computer. That key let me install windows but it will not validate.  Ho do I rectify this problem. 

[DavidPK]

Hi,

If you use an OEM activation key on a retail installation of Windows 7 it will not usually validate automatically, but you should find you are able to activate it using the 'Phone Method' detailed in the link below.

http://www.kodyaz.com/articles/how-to-activate-windows-7-by-phone.aspx

Regards,

DP-K

[erico]

Hi,

Are you certain you have not inadvertently misplaced a disk?

Have you tried using the F11 key on powering up the notebook to access the recovery manager?

I just took a look at the set I created for my loaner HP Pavilion dv7-4180ea notebook. The recovery disk set is five disks. I recommend that you purchase a set of recovery disks from HP or an HP Partner. The price for a set is somewhere in the neighborhod of $20.00.

You cannot use the OEM key on the notebook for the license for an upgrade disk set as you have discovered.  

[allanozz]

Hi. 

Thank you for your reply, I managed to activate it by going to the change product key window and just pressed next without changing the key, it asked if I wanted to activate using the key I allready had I said yes and it did. It looks like you can use the OEM key on the the retail upgrade version. 

Everything is working fine now.

Thank you for your time. 

Allan.