Windows Activation fail, now what?

Question

I have a Precision 5530 and a few days ago it failed to boot. The message was something about no hard drive found. Tried again, same message. I shut it down, unplugged all USB drives, and started it again; this time it booted normally, but I got a warning that the hard drive was going to fail. Support Assist said that S.M.A.R.T. reported a hard drive failure and I needed to replace it ASAP. I did some online research and indeed that particular S.M.A.R.T. error means the drive hasn't long to live. So I bought a replacement, followed Dell's instructions for re-installing Windows, and now Windows Settings is telling me it can't activate Windows because 'Windows reported that the hardware of your device has changed. Error code: 0xC004F211'  Well, of course the hardware changed, the hard drive failed and was replaced. So how do I get an activation code? I certainly shouldn't need to buy a copy of Windows, but that seems to be my only option.

JOcean · Answer

This WindowReport page has some steps that may help reactivate Windows. And you are correct that if only the HDD was changed, Windows should reactivate.

HedgeFundManager · Answer

Unless you changed the motherboard Windows should find the licence key in the DMI table in the BIOS/UEFI

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