W10 Clean Install without key?

[Rodger-Dodger]

I have an HP ZTurbo drive and AHCI SSD on the way to me and will be looking to do a clean install.

My Z420 was originally on W7 Pro Retail Key but I cannot put my hand on the sleeve.

Is there a way I can find my product key on the current install before I wipe it?

I think I once created a Windows 10 clean install with an answer file which contained my product key though I have no idea where that now might be.

Ah yes! It's in that "safeplace" I put it.

I've been doing a bit of reading up and according to my Activation Settings I do have a digital licence linked to my Microsoft Account.  Issue is I cannot remember my Microsoft Account login.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You can install the free Showkey Plus app from the Microsoft Store, but I think all it is going to show you is the W10 digital license.

ShowKeyPlus - Microsoft Store Apps

If your PC's W10 installation is currently activated, you won't need a product key to clean install W10.

When you clean install W10 and you get past the Install Now screen, you will be asked to enter the version of W10 you want to install.  Select W10 Pro, if that is what you are currently running.

Then you will be asked to enter a product key.

Select the 'I don't have a product key option, and W10 will install and automatically activate after you are connected to the internet.

[SDH]

Rodger,

Agree with Paul. Note that if you have previously had W10 activated on that motherboard the activation process will have automatically registered your motherboard's UUID in the Microsoft W10/W11 activation servers. That results in you having what Microsoft calls a "digital license" for W10. Same for W11. If you have not done that upgrade yet, then you don't have a digital license yet, and checking the box Paul refers to won't work. I'd do the upgrade to W10Pro64 first (if needed) with your current W7 build to get it registered properly... use of the free upgrade pathway to my knowledge still works.

I'd also upgrade your BIOS to the latest (some earlier versions did not support the ZTD) and set BIOS to Factory Defaults before the clean install onto your ZTD's M.2 SSD. You don't want any other drives in place at time of the clean install other than your boot USB with the W10 installer on it and your ZTD in the correct slot (slot 4 for you)... you can put other drives back in later, and fine tune BIOS later too. As with any SATA HDD or SSD boot drive target you'd also like to have the ZTD partitioned and formatted, not RAW. I've been sticking to MBR partitioning and then doing the long type of NTFS formatting in prep for a clean install.

This results in an install that continues to work well even after upgrading this generation of workstations from W10 to W11 (using my hybrid method or Paul's Rufus method). DGroves has a lot of experience with the ZTD G1 and G2 hardware run under W7/W10/W11 and has told me that clean installs are a key to success with that.

Regarding finding your HP W7 Product Key... there are lots of ways to do that including from a current W7 install, and also with little utilities I won't go into. The google knows. If your motherboard is "branded" to be licensed for W7Pro64 you can use specific Recovery optical disc(s) kits from HP, but those tend to get lost as did your "safeplace" documentation. The digital license approach is a relief for us needing to deal with such things. Remember, stay legal... but if you are licensed to use the W7Pro64 HP Recovery discs you can borrow those from someone who has them if you need. The same set would work for all similar HP workstations that are firmware-encoded to allow that. Those are listed on the first disc of the set.

[Rodger-Dodger]

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@Paul_Tikkanen wrote:

Hi:

You can install the free Showkey Plus app from the Microsoft Store, but I think all it is going to show you is the W10 digital license.

ShowKeyPlus - Microsoft Store Apps

If your PC's W10 installation is currently activated, you won't need a product key to clean install W10.

When you clean install W10 and you get past the Install Now screen, you will be asked to enter the version of W10 you want to install.  Select W10 Pro, if that is what you are currently running.

Then you will be asked to enter a product key.

Select the 'I don't have a product key option, and W10 will install and automatically activate after you are connected to the internet.

---

OK.  All clear.  I have double checked and I do have a digital license linked to a Microsoft Account.

It's caused no end of issues as OneDrive wasn't sinking today as I seem to have registered two email addresses to the same MS account.  That's all sorted.

Would you happen to have a link for a nice clean install of Windows 10 22H2 please?  I think you appear to be the go to man on these matters.

I have a 21H2 iso and also an iso I created with all my usual programmes on.  I may just end up using that and doing the updates but generally I prefer to keep things as clean and simple as possible.

My next issue is I have forgotten how to update an iso and am not even sure if I can simply drop a 22H2 iso into an existing iso so that my other programmes are unexpected.  More reading up to do.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You can download the latest W10 ISO file from the link below.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

You can also have the media creation tool make you a bootable USB installation flash drive automatically.

[Rodger-Dodger]

Thanks SDH.

Bios is J61 03.96 so the latest I am aware of though we check that to be sure.

Got the drives today so the excitement is mounting.  Just a shame that the AHCI drive wasn't posted despite me saying the guy I needed it asap.

Do you think this is being greedy?

Couldn't look a gift-horse in the mouth. Fell on these for only £16.49 delivered.  SSD screws are worth more than that from what I've seen.

I think these are classed as "G1" because they do not have the heatsink.

I have an opportunity to buy 11 no. G2 cards also.

[Rodger-Dodger]

That's me getting myself mixed up with Windows 7!

OK. For some reason, I thought the iso files had been removed by MS.

Thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome. 

[SDH]

Rodger,

Ah, from across the pond. Nice. A little over 16 pounds for all six of those... great buy. Looks like #5 and #6 are missing their SSD hold down screws, but it is nice to have a couple to experiment with. Those all look like ZTD G1 versions (without the heatsink) but you can only run the cooler-running AHCI-controller M.2 sticks in the ZX20 workstations. It is the stick, not the heatsink, that makes a ZTD a G1 or a G2. The G2 is really just a fancy G1 running a NVMe-controller M.2 form factor SSD stick.

The drive activity cable... you have one total. There is a 2-pin header on the ZX20 workstations that can be plugged onto, but it is not necessary and actually does a relatively poor job of showing the true drive activity in my experience. It underestimates activity vs what goes on if a SATA HDD or SSD is attached. I don't often gaze at that flashing green light so don't feel the need to install that usually.

There are some nice fanatic YouTube videos testing M.2 stick coolers... whether the M.2 stick is plugged into a motherboard or into a ZTD G1 the end benefit would be the same. What I found is that the HP aluminum finned heatsink used on the ZTD G2 was engineered to allow use of only one slot-width of space. Many of the aftermarket M.2 heatsinks will end up with use of a total of 2 single slot-widths of space.

The ZX20 workstations can only, for all practical purposes, use AHCI-controller M.2 sticks. The original M.2 stick that came out was fast, but when HP ran out of those they started using the even faster more expensive Samsung SM951 AHCI-controller M.2 sticks instead in the ZTD G1. Those sticks run quite a bit faster, approaching what a NVMe-controller M.2 stick can do. I've heard they also run hotter, as expected. When I use those in a ZX20 in a ZTD I like to use the HP aluminum ZTD heatsink or a nice aftermarket one to allow it to run without thermal throttling. You can take a ZTD G2 heatsink and shift it over to a ZTD G1... it still will be a ZTD G1 until you place in a NVMe-controller M2 stick.

[Rodger-Dodger]

Yes. Those SSD screws missing on two is no biggie.

I can probably sell the two cards for more money than I paid.

This might be a daft question but here goes.

Is there any perceptible difference in performance between a Lenovo SM951 AHCI and a Samsung branded one please?