I am unable to activate Windows Server 2012 R2 installed from scratch on the same computer previously running that version of WS with the same activation key. Is the same computer with the same hardware, but the storage media, previously a RAID 0 configuration and now with a single drive without any RAID configuration.
Things I have tried so far with no avail:
- Installing from scratch and use the provided key to activate both connected and disconnected from Internet
- Restoring a backup. Unfortunately the backup is not bootable due the complex partitioning in the previous installation (see more details at the end).
- Extract tokens.dat file and other relevant files from the backup to restore the activation status.
Things I am yet to test (I would thank if you can suggest what you will try first):
- Phone activation
- Set up a RAID drive to mimic previous configuration bit by bit
- Any other suggestions?
The complex partitioning mentioned at the beginning consisted of 4 2TB SSD drives in RAID 0 (8 TB, hence a GPT partition) in a computer with a non UEFI BIOS and that can only boot from the RAID controller or an USB drive. I moved the boot system (bootmgr.exe and other files) with bcdboot.exe to an SD card and managed to boot Windows. However after an update (I do not remember exactly what KB), it refused to boot. I suppose that at Microsoft they forgot about this boot scenario where the boot files and de Windows folder are not located in the same drive.