Robert in CA wrote:
I put #3 hd in the 8500 and restarted it to insert the Rescue CD
but it would not read the CD and I tried several times. It just goes
straight to the login and then I got this.

https://postimg.cc/8fJxW3wz

Then after pressing enter/escape it finally went to the desktop. We
need to resolved this invalid install issue. As you saw for yourself'
the 8500 is licensed so I don't know why I'm getting this or why the
external HD are messing up when it was fine or why the Rescue CD
doesn't load.

The external hd case had no issues on the 780 but I replaced everything
including the hd and it still won't fucntion yet the Mrimg hd and flask key
do?

At present #3 is on the 8500 and I'll leave it here for the time being until
I hear back from you.

Robert

I discussed one obscure reason for Not Genuine, and that is
if the time clock is off by large amounts, from the correct time.

There is a second thing that might be playing a part.

You changed the BIOS CMOS battery, the CR2032.

The SATA port could have been set to AHCI or RAID, in the BIOS,
before the battery change.

Maybe the XPS 8500 shipped with the setting at RAID, the 1TB
drive was set up as a "RAID Ready" volume by Dell. I don't
know if RAID is a build-to-order option for your machine or not.
If it was, the 1TB drive could have RAID metadata loaded in the
last track of the drive. This is a special area, that is
inaccessible to Macrium.

This requires a lot of explaining, with not a lot accomplished
by the write up.

I don't even know of an "easy" utility that can present the
status of the 1TB drive in plain english. I've worked before
with RAID, to help people out, using my own systems here, and
to "unbugger" my disk drives later after the experience, I use
the JMicron port on this machine.

I'm on my way out the door right now. My attempts to write a
coherent answer, have failed me at the moment. so I erased
that section for now.

Paul