I'm back. I will try to summarize the best I can:
- Level 2 Microsoft tech tried a bunch of stuff and then told me the only way to fix it is to reinstall windows.
- They said we could do the install with the option to leave files and applications in place.
- I had recently done a system backup and synced some critical files, so I decided to go for it
- Tech downloaded Windows 7 Home Premium and a new product key to my PC and attempted to proceed....
- After tech tried to do reinstall 'as upgrade' (leaves files and apps in place) windows gave error that it didn't have enough free space on a partition
- The partition was a small 'system' partition that was like 100MB. I don't remember that being there before, but who knows. Anyway the partition appeared to have no files in it despite it saying that is had space used. It was weird. But windows install wanted more space on it so the tech tried to shrink one of the other partitions and then expand the small one. It wouldn't let her do it.
- The tech then told me that the only way to fix it was to wipe the HD and do a clean install. I told them I want to do some more intense backing up of files and stuff before we proceed with that
- I then took my Acronis bootable media disc and ran disk director. I was able to shrink and expand the partitions as needed, to free up the space that windows installer wanted
- Then I tried doing the install with 'upgrade' option checked. Things were looking really promising and it was doing its thing, and then...
- ERROR:
"Windows setup could not configure to run on this computer's hardware" ME: Sad face
- I spent at least an hour researching this error on various forums and other sites. There seems to be a few possible "fixes" for the error, but what I also found is that people are divided on what the correct fix is, and that some things you might do could make things much worse. I am hesitant to try anything that was listed. The biggest confusion I have is why Win7 couldn't configure to run on this hardware when...Win7 is already running on this hardware
So now I'm wondering if I can solve the hardware configuration issue and get windows reinstalled...and if so, if that will even fix the 'not genuine' popup...
This has not been and is not very fun