Best Buy Repair Support

[WilliamJE]

In late March I brought my desktop into Boynton Beach Florida Best Buy. This is an old machine, the hard drive was nearly full. I bought a new HD and BB transferred everything.

At the end of March I moved. I work mostly off a laptop. My desktop PC has gotten almost no use. I did notice one thing early on-

I was getting a ,message about my version of Windows 7.

Now today I turned the PC on again. On my screen (Which is now blank BTW. Not even a Windows Logo on it) says This copy of Windows is not genuine.

Could Best Buy have downloaded a counterfeit copy of Windows 7 onto the new hard drive I bought. It is going to be interesting tomorrow (I have a 1040 appointment) to hear Geek Squad's explanation for what is going on with this PC.

[nckhammond]

Isn't there a sticker on the tower somewhere with a windows key? Have you attempted to use the numbers on the sticker to license windows?

[Dave-BBY Social Media Specialist]

Hello, WilliamJE,

There are one of two things that can bring about this.

1. If the drive was done using a carbon copy method, while not common, it can bring about some weird issues. These issues can include the activation files being corrupt and the key not being properly recognized.

OR 

2. No key (or the wrong key) was entered if this was done as a wipe of the drive and fresh install of the operating system

For older desktop units a sticker should have been present somewhere on the casing that gives you the product key. If that is not present, I do welcome an update on what the Geek Squad agent informed you to ensure that the service team is following procedures.

Best,

[WilliamJE]

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@Dave-BBY wrote:

2. No key (or the wrong key) was entered if this was done as a wipe of the drive and fresh install of the operating system

For older desktop units a sticker should have been present somewhere on the casing that gives you the product key. If that is not present, I do welcome an update on what the Geek Squad agent informed you to ensure that the service team is following procedures.

The last geek squad person to work on the machine entered a invalid key. Yes the key was faded (It was on the side of my machine's casing as you wrote) due to age  and the GS person last friday tried to scan its bar code without success. He then used some gadget to pull the key off the hard drive. That worked, so my machine is working properly again.

I shouldn't have had to bring the machine back if the first GS person had done his job. 4 times I have brought PC into GS, two of those four times work wasn't done properly. That's not a good percentage.

[Dave-BBY Social Media Specialist]

Hello, WilliamJE,

That is certainly unfortunate and I do apologize for the inconvenience. As an ex-Repair Agent for Geek Squad myself, we should be priding ourselves in our work and ensuring the customers unit is done right the first time. That being said, I am happy to hear that it was resolved. Obtaining the key can be a tricky process and one that doesn't happen all that often. Please feel free to reach out should any further issues arise. We're always here to help!

Best,

[hockeycanuckjc Valued Expert]

That was going to be my guess as I know of a utility that can pull the key off the BIOS or Hard Drive.

In the case of Windows 10 machines you no longer need product keys in order to activate windows if you had 8.1 or 10 on the system.

[Dave-BBY Social Media Specialist]

hockeycanuckjc,

That utility used to be a literal lifesaver when customers came in with very old computers that had missing or damaged Windows genuine stickers.