Windows 8 Reinstall of windows impossible

ronc0011

Well-Known Member
I’m on my 2nd day trying to reinstall windows 8.1 pro and frankly at this point I’d settle for Just 8.1. I’ve even considered coughing up the cash for a new copy of Windows but then Good sense gets the best of me and I ask myself Why would I give these people another $129 for a product I can’t access or use? Ok and BTW I have a listing in my Microsoft account for the copy of Windows 8.1 that I purchased for $129. And the bottom line is I really want and expect to be able to use the copy of windows that I shelled out the $129 for.)

I’ve all but given up on support I’ve lost count of how many time I’ve had to log back in to my Microsoft account and chased the support links to dead end pages or pages that don’t appear to run
 
trying to reinstall windows 8.1 pro

Is this perhaps on a laptop that came with windows pre-installed and now you just want to upgrade it to pro?
If so;
1. install windows 8 or 8.1 (which ever one it came pre-set with) and the bios key will kick in durring the setup with out you needing to do any thing.
2. then go to your control panel, find "add features to windows"... say I have a key and enter it in.

Screenshot (311).png


Note that; doing this unlockes your old key from the bios which may be useful if you then want a dual boot as that key can be used on the other side.
 
What is happening when you try to reinstall windodows 8.1 pro?


OK I finally ran the setup.exe I had saved from when I bought 8.1 Pro which actually ran without asking for a Product key however after it finished installing it needed to activate and rejected the key I had received when I bought the Pro upgrade in fact it actually gave me the last 5 characters of the product key I was using and which was in fact the key I had saved with the exe when I bought my Pro upgrade. However it wouldn’t activate claiming the key was wrong. However this time it did offer a phone # to get help activating Windows which is how I finally ended up with a running installation Of Windows in spite of Microsoft’s best efforts to make sure that didn’t happen.


I’m hoping windows 10 resolves a lot of the issues Windows 8 has come to epitomize.
 
I’m hoping windows 10 resolves a lot of the issues Windows 8 has come to epitomize.
It'll be interesting to see. IF you are running a Windows 8.1 machine and take advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10 when it becomes available, how you may or may not be able to recover your system to Windows 10 should something catastrophic occur. If you'll need to revert back to Windows 8.1 and upgrade again or what.

You may want to consider employing a good system image third party software. Something like Acronis or Time Machine by AX64, or even Macrium Reflect.
Personally I use Acronis and keep an image of my primary system disk for both Win8.1 as well as Win10 so I can go from one to the other with relative ease.
 
You may want to consider employing a good system image third party software. Something like Acronis or Time Machine by AX64, or even Macrium Reflect.
Personally I use Acronis and keep an image of my primary system disk for both Win8.1 as well as Win10 so I can go from one to the other with relative ease.

Always good advice.
 
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