recently,my computer got bricked,and as my emachine with windows 7 pre installed,i had to use my dads disk.i typed in my product key and W7 reinstalled back to my computer.this had been fine for about a month until i started GETTING that popup,claiming that your windows 7 key is invalid-however,it was rather ANNOYING but everything ran smothly,and i was still getting updates,right up until today,when at about 8:40 or so,windows notified me one last time that i had to activate,then the desktop backround went BLACK,and well,it is now officialy not geniune.is there some way that i can get the old data from the currupt version of w7 so i can get the new one genuine again?
-note the c:/ drive- name was branded by emachine,the makers of my model,however since the installation of the new w7, it has been renamed with the company its hired by,ACER.
-not sure if this has to do with anything but thought it might help

computer model-emachine-E640G series
btw,i forgot to mention its 64 bit,and currantly stuck at build 7601note also seemed to have no properties that defined its id as an emachine computer,i even had to install the broadcom internet drives by usbThe only reason this would occur is if the version you re-installed did NOT match the original installed version...
That or your network connection dropped when it was being verified.
MS has an 800# for authentication issues.

P.S. Your old data is gone as you re-installed...sorry.hey,thanks for the help i guess l can try and explain my situation to microsoft....it shouldent be that hard
The 800# people are very quick and thorough...as i do repairs/updates on Home/small business PC's i've had to use the service quite often over the years...
MS are not the OGRES they are made out to be...
After all they want as many Users legit as possible.

Which of the 2 scenarios apply to to you ? ?alright,thanks to your info i finaly fixed it thanks for the help:)You're welcome...good news.