Would this be legal?

[emperor76]

Hi, I bought a broken laptop off someone, it was the hard drive that was at fault, so I changed the hard drive. Unfortunately the copy of Windows 7 home premium that was on the laptop is obviously on the broken hard drive, if I was to download a trial version or something of the sort of home premium and use the key printed on the bottom of the laptop, would be legal? as I don't want to risk putting an illegitimate operating system on my laptop, I do also still have the broken hard drive that windows was installed on

 

[foothead]

The entire PC, however, may be transferred to another end user, along with the software license rights. When transferring the PC to the new end user, the following must be included:

Original software media
Manuals (if applicable)
Certificate of Authenticity (COA)
It is also advisable to include the original purchase invoice or receipt. The original end user cannot keep any copies of the software.

source

Considering that laptops don't even come with a DVD anymore (should be against the license if you ask me) I think you're good. This isn't something that gets enforced anyway. If for some reason it claims that your OS isn't genuine, you can call microsoft and get it cleared up.

 

[emperor76]

source

Considering that laptops don't even come with a DVD anymore (should be against the license if you ask me) I think you're good. This isn't something that gets enforced anyway. If for some reason it claims that your OS isn't genuine, you can call microsoft and get it cleared up.

Thanks for your help, now to the matter of reading the badly worn key, I can read all but about three characters, so I will have to see if I can some how work them out, I always like them on disk so I can install from boot, one thought though, would it matter that I am not the person who bought the laptop new, so obviously I didn't personally buy the license, would they still speak to me regarding the problem?

 

[foothead]

Thanks for your help, now to the matter of reading the badly worn key, I can read all but about three characters, so I will have to see if I can some how work them out, I always like them on disk so I can install from boot, one thought though, would it matter that I am not the person who bought the laptop new, so obviously I didn't personally buy the license, would they still speak to me regarding the problem?

I'd give it a try. You will probably need to give them a photo of the worn key and a proof of purchase.

I don't know why Microsoft is still using these terrible paper licenses. They always wear off on laptops.

 

[Branjo]

The key is actually what you paid for, so as long as that is the one you are using then as foothead said, you should be fine.

 

[BK_123]

I'd give it a try. You will probably need to give them a photo of the worn key and a proof of purchase.

I don't know why Microsoft is still using these terrible paper licenses. They always wear off on laptops.

They wear off no matter what they are on..

 

[setishock]

Yeah that's why you write the key down and put it up somewhere.
If the drive had not been at fault when he got it he could have run Magic Jelly Bean on the OS and retrieved the key.

 

[emperor76]

Thanks all for your help, yeah, I have made a habit now of storing my keys in a notepad document on my main computer, I can't see that going wrong, people have a nasty habit of dropping laptops, I think that must be why I am given so many laptops to look at when they break, it's usually the hard drive that breaks, often with a big giveaway in the cracked hard drive cover

 

[setishock]

Get that printed out. If your system fails you're gonna be in deep poop.

 

[BK_123]

Get that printed out. If your system fails you're gonna be in deep poop.

And store it somewhere safe too.