Window 8 professional
snip...
I tried to login with my Microsoft account but when I try to Activate my subscription, I need to enter this:
Benefit Access Number, Subscriber ID, or MPN Technical Contact ID
What is that?
A. Unless you have a very old account with them then the id is an email address that has been linked to that computer i.e. the email you use to talk to Microsoft... note that Asus will also want you to give them an email.
B. lets go back to the basics... If you deleated the computers recovery drive then there is little point in talking to Asus about it... so I'd spend that money on a new laptop harddrive instead. That way the old drive can come out and placed in a desk someplace. This becomes your backup in case something goes shit faced while the new drive will be fast and clean.
Do the normal backups:
1. Run Belarc Advisor to get the keys for any installed software... such as Microsoft office or Adobe... people always tend to overlook these and they are hard to replace once lost.
2.*Don't use “Magical Belly Bean Keyfinder” but get pkeyui (it lives here) instead because there could be up to two keys stored in that computers bios and pkeyui will show you both of them.
Install;
For the install you need a Microsoft Windows 8 iso (usb install) or disc... imo This page is worth a look at.
For usb install, decide if you want 8 and 7 # or just 8 because you need a format tool that can see the new UEFI % file systems... I use Rufus for this because its free and also supports the very lastest ntsf compression.
* You could skip this step and the Windows 8 install disc SHOULD be able to read the key for you at install without asking but I always like to have it on a piece of paper somewhere before I format a system.
% Any drive of 3t or more than 4 operating partitions should be UEFI but a Windows 7 disc used the old MBR file system.
# Windows does not let you install an older copy (eg, 7) over a newer one (eg, 8.1) so if you want them both a dual boot is the only valid options for laptops with a single physical harddrive... always install the lastest one first i.e. 8 before 7.