in one folder, there is a tool to read out the Windows 10 licence key from your PC
We tested it on a HP Compaq 8100 Elite Minitower-PC
We have a legal licence for Windows 10, but no installation medium
The hard drive of our HP Compaq 8100 stopped booting, but we could read out the Windows 10 licence key with Hiren’s BootCD
We then downloaded a Windows 10 installation .iso file from Microsoft
We burned it to a DVD
Then, we were able to reinstall Windows 10 on a SSD drive on the HP8100
We could enter our Windows 10 licence key and could reinstall our genuine Windows 10 which we bought together with the the HP8100
We could also read out the Windows 10 licence key from a Windows 10 mini PC stick with Hiren’s BootCD
In theory, it should also be possible to start a Windows 10 mini PC stick from an external usb SSD drive, but Windows 10 sticks often have only usb 2.0, which is too slow for our needs.
The same procedure as discussed above can be done with a LattePanda V1, which is sold with an activated Windows 10 licence.
The LattePanda V1 has an USB 3.0 port, which is almost as fast as a SATA III port.
With the instructions discussed here and on the previous pages, it should be possible to run Windows 10 on an external drive of our LattePanda V1.
