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| Yesterday, the Echolink computer froze mid-net. I tried to restart it, but it kept rebooting into the BIOS. Here's an outline of the steps I took to fix the issue: | |
| |
| ===== Fix / Re-install Windows ===== | |
| * From a working Windows computer, I downloaded Windows 11 from the [[https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows11 |Create Windows 11 Installation Media]] section and created a USB boot drive. | |
| * I booted the Echolink computer using the USB boot drive and tried to "Troubleshoot" the computer (see section 3 of [[https://windowsreport.com/repair-efi-bootloader-windows-11/ |these instructions]]). Unfortunately, that option wasn't available. | |
| * Before trying to re-install Windows, I had to find the Windows Product key. | |
| * If Windows was working, I could have used ''regedit'', navigate to ''Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform'', and lookup ''BackupProductKeyDefault''. (See Method 3 [[https://www.techrepublic.com/article/find-windows-11-product-key/ |from these instructions]] for more details) | |
| * But I couldn't boot into Windows so I used a [[https://www.linuxmint.com/ |Linux Mint]] USB boot drive and tried to <code bash> sudo strings /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM | tail -1</code> but the ''MSDM'' file didn't exist. I tried that command on in my personal computers and it worked so I made notes of these keys. (See [[https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-find-windows-10-oem-product-key-command/ |these instructions]] for more details. | |
| * Finally, I installed ''reglookup'' on the Linux boot drive and ran <code bash> | |
| reglookup -p "/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/SoftwareProtectionPlatform/BackupProductKeyDefault" \ | |
| [MountPoint]/Windows/System32/config/SOFTWARE </code> (See [[https://amedee.be/find-the-windows-11-product-key-using-linux/ |these instructions]] for more details.) | |
| * I rebooted the computer using the Windows boot drive to re-install Windows 11 from scratch on its old partition (leaving the other partitions alone), but it again booted to the BIOS. | |
| * I rebooted back to LinuxMint and used GParted and delete every partition on the Echolink computer. | |
| * I rebooted back using the Windows boot drive and this time Windows re-installed properly. | |
| |
| ===== Load / Configure Windows ===== | |
| * To load Windows without a Microsoft account (see [[https://www.howtogeek.com/836157/how-to-use-windows-11-with-a-local-account/ |these instructions]] for more details): | |
| * At the sign-in page, press <key>Shift + F10</key> to open a command prompt window and type <code> | |
| oobe\bypassnro </code> | |
| |
