Windows 8 Problems installing Windows 8.1

[Aristos Miliaressis]

Hello WindowsForums i've been having some trouble installing Windows 8.1 on my ideapad z710 laptop, so here's what i did...

1. i downloaded a Windows 8.1 Enterprise ISO from "microsoft(com)/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-8-1-enterprise"

2. i burnned it to a dvd using the slowest possible speed and than i went to my BIOS switched to UEFI only But my optical drive was not being detected i switch it to legacy support and the optical drive was there but when i tryed to boot from it it skipped straight to my bootloader

3. than i decided to try USB i formatted my USB to FAT32 Flaged it as bootable an installed the ISO with "Unetbootin", than i booted the USB and the setup screen asking me to configure my locales and keyboard started up but when i click Next>Install i get the Message "A media driver your computer needs is missing" inserting a DVD with the drivers won't work as it doesen't get detected (The USB is NOT in a USB 3 port, and i tried changing ports and unplogin every peripheral device like mouse ethernet cable etc..).

4. than i decided to try to upgrade from my currecnt Windows 7 installetion so i inserted the USB run the Setup and than i get the message "we can't tell if your pc is ready to continue installing windows 8.1. try restarting setup"...


i want to upgrade OR clean-install windows 8.1 in place of windows 7, i have tryed everything i can think of and i can't get it to work if you have any suggestions please tell me

A solution to any of this three problems would be much apreciated, thanks in advance...

 

[Trouble]

Try using Rufus from here http://rufus.akeo.ie/
To create a bootable USB Thumb Drive that supports both UEFI and GPT.
A brief "How To" is here http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1...patible-bootable-usb-installer-for-windows-8/
See if that works for you.

 

[Aristos Miliaressis]

Hello 'Trouble' thanks for your answer but it's not unetbootin as i said the USB does boot (and i'm not using a GPT table) but it ask's for drivers and there's no way to provide those drivers as the optical drive simply don't seem to work at all and i don't have a second USB, i also tried copying the drivers that i downloaded from the official website in the install USB but when i try to browse to the USB in the setup it doesen't let me browse it to find the drivers i read that it coul'd be the windows installer having issues with USB...

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

I have yet to see anyone perform a Win7-->Win8.1 from a USB drive. The ISO files available on the Internet generally do not work. It took me 2 years to get a Win7 USB stick to be able to run installs *neither of the programs mentioned here worked for me on Win7. I used something called WinNToBootIC. I've tried both the one you used *unetbootin*, and *rufus*, which trouble mentioned. Neither of those worked. I don't know if this is true for Win8.1 as well, but none of the 3 of these worked with creating a bootable Win8.1 USB stick. Copy protection is improved in Win8.1 over Win7 and I suspect the guys writing these utilities haven't figured out how to work around it yet.

I know for a fact that Microsoft does not have a Win8.1 ISO image file that you can burn onto DVD that works reliably for either an upgrade or a full install.

Why can't you just purchase a legit copy of Microsoft Win8.1 from newegg.com or similar? As here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=WINDOWS8.1+UPGRADE&N=-1&isNodeId=1
The Win8.1 standard full version is $109.99 US; and the Pro version is $189.99. Notice these are Download versions which require a Broadband high-speed internet connection (either DSL or CableModem).

You can also purchase the DVD media versions, but they usually cost more. You also didn't mention in your post if you had a Win8.1 license key (product key or COA) available to you from another computer or 8.1 media. It looks to me like you tried to use an expired link from Microsoft on the Win8.1 trial version without an 8.1 product key. This ISO file was only good for 1 year after Win8.1 came out in 2012; which means it expired 2 years ago! No wonder you can't get it to work! What you really want, is legit Win8.1 media; otherwise you cannot get Microsoft updates via Tuesday patches, and your 8.1 install would be full of security holes. Additionally, it would fail the Windows GAV (Genuine Advantage Validation) test. So, the way you are trying to install it would never work; and even if it did, it wouldn't be a legit install.

If your goal is NOT to have genuine 8.1; but just to fool around with it without actually buying a legit copy, that's fine. You can mess with the Trial 8.1 until the cows come home, but you shouldn't be using it as your "daily driver" computer. I have separate computers for both Win8.1 and Win10. I believe you are trying to do something that at the present time cannot be done, and that's why you're having lots of difficulties.

Hope that saves you some frustration and wasted time.

Best,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>