sorry for being a damn noob but...
i don't get this >_<
In a simple way...what do you mean?
Sorry to wait so long to post back. I will try to simplify and explain. But MS made activation fairly complicated and I may miss something but here I try again...
Activation can be done in several ways:
- Built into Motherboard is a key for windows (can be win 8 key or win 10 key pends on what manufacturer put in it)
- A physical sticker/paper/email holds the purchased key and you type it in when it is requested
- Microsoft stores information on their online database about your pc when it was upgraded to win 10 and uses that info to reactivate if you reinstall.
Example1: my win 8 tablet has key in mobo. So if I reinstall win 8 on it; it will just activate because it can find the key in the mobo.
Example2: My PC has sticker on it or I bought a key and have it in an email. When I install on PC I put key in and when it goes online it should activate. If I reinstall I better have that sticker or email because I will need to put it in again every time I reinstall.
Example3: win 8 tablet was upgraded to win 10 and activated during upgrade. Now information is now in MS Database. I can wipe the tablet and from a cd reinstall a clean copy of win 10 and it will reactivate once it goes online.
Example3-gone wrong: Same as regular example three upgraded and activated; information should now be in MS Database... I have had a machine not reactivate after wiping and reinstalling I know not why; thus even though it should activate for me... it didn't once. I Called MS about it and all they wanted to do was sell me another key.
Here is MS activation article:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activation
under the: expandable paragraph link near the bottom is a paragraph that explains my example3:
Activating after reinstalling Windows 10
I expanded and now quote:
How you activate Windows 10 after reinstalling it depends on how Windows 10 was originally installed on your device.
If you activated a free upgrade to Windows 10 or bought and activated Windows 10 from the Microsoft Store, you have a digital license for your device. This means you can reinstall the same edition of Windows 10 that your device has a digital license for without entering a product key. During reinstallation, if you’re asked to enter a product key, you can skip this step. Windows 10 will automatically activate online after the installation is complete.
Edit:
2nd Section on Restore Partition/Reinstallation Data:
If you take a HDD that is 100GB, You can section off an amount and put restore/reinstall information/partition on a part of it.
90GB could be Windows as you normally see it
10GB could be reserved by the manufacturer as the restore data to put you PC back to factory defaults.
Hypothetical Example: You start on Windows 7 with a Windows 7 Restore partition/Data Section.
Next you upgrade windows 7 to Windows 10.
What happened to the Windows 7 Restore partition? Nothing it's still there.
If you boot the recovery partition and use it. It should get rid of win10 and put you back at win 7. Typically the recovery partitions have some way to activate or are pre-activated. I never remember needing a key after using them from various manufacturers like dell, gateway, HP, etc.
If you need to reinstall windows 10, don't use the recovery partition. Just do a clean install of Win 10 from CD/Media and it should reactivate upon going online. (see example3 from the activation explanation)
Hypothetical Example 2:
You start on Windows 7 with a Windows 7 Restore partition/Data Section.
Next you upgrade windows 7 to Windows 10.
What happened to the Windows 7 Restore partition? SOMETIMES upgrades break the ability for the recovery partition to boot or be used... So if you need to go back to windows 7 you are stuck looking for CD/Recovery media from the manufacturer... Or sometimes they have let you make the CD/Recover Media yourself when you first got the system... Or you can try the key on the sticker on your system with installation media you got from elsewhere.
If you need to do a clean reinstall of windows 10, don't use the recovery partition. Just do a clean install of Win 10 from CD/Media and it should reactivate upon going online. (see example3 from the activation explanation)
Backup Section:
Make a Image Backup First (this is different than a file backup explained below):
If you can make a backup of the HDD as it is; so you can restore it back to how it is before messing with it. Then if something doesn't work; you have a fallback to try.
Here I am borrowing the the activation example I used before:
Example3-gone wrong: Same as regular example three upgraded and activated; information should now be in MS Database... I have had a machine not reactivate after wiping and reinstalling I know not why; thus even though it should activate for me... it didn't once. I Called MS about it and all they wanted to do was sell me another key.
I don't want to buy another key. I did have a backup. I restored this previous backup and Windows was back "showing correctly activated".
My backups are done on a continual basis and I checked to make sure one was there and was not in the middle of one before trying to clean install and reactivate.
File Backup: is when you only copy your files like out of documents and music and etc.
Image Backup: is when you make a restorable copy of the HDD... It backs up everything, The OS, Program Files, Your documents and Music. Takes up much more space than typical file backups.
