Can Windows 8 Upgrade Disk Recover / Re-install Broken Windows
Feb 6, 2013
Once you have upgraded Win XP, Vista or 7 to Win 8, you need to be able to start, recover or re-install Win 8 with a recovery disk or original installation disk, preferably a disk that will boot the computer despite the fact that the Windows operating system has been knocked out. (I'm thinking of a situation where even Windows Safe Mode won't provide relief.) If you made a Win 8 Upgrade disk from the ISO provided on purchasing Win 8 online, you will have only that. Can the Win 8 Upgrade disk recover/re-install Windows 8 when it breaks down? If so, how can the Win 8 Upgrade disk be modified to boot the computer in order to start recovery or re-installation of Windows?
View 9 Replies
ADVERTISEMENT
Nov 12, 2013
I've been driven to post by an issue with the Refresh Windows option since the update to 8.1 I cannot find a viable solution.
It appears to me that the Refresh Windows function is broken for those of us who upgraded from 8 to 8.1 for free via the start screen Windows Store.
When I tried to run Refresh on two of my 8.1 machines it failed, responding with the error message "files are missing, insert your recovery drive or installation media" or similar.
However, if you have upgraded via the Store, neither your original Windows 8 installation disk NOR a newly created recovery drive will work. If you try to use either, windows will tell you the media is invalid.
Research and fault finding indicates that the refresh function won't work because of a product key conflict.
From what I can tell this is because:
When you upgrade from 8 to 8.1 through the store you don't create an ISO or receive an updated product key.
If you have upgraded via the store, Refresh will tell you files are missing, as above. If you use your original 8 installation media as windows directs you to, it will fail because the product key is no longer valid.
If you create a new recovery drive on your updated 8.1 machine, again this will not work - Refresh will say the disk is invalid. Again I suspect this is a product key issue.
Trying to find and use a Windows product key on my machines since the upgrade is also a dead end. Control Panel/System and Security/System no longer displays a product key. Using a third party product key finder app may find another product key, however again this will be invalid.
Refresh was such a handy feature of 8!
View 9 Replies
View Related
Oct 18, 2013
I called microsoft activation center and the only suggestion they have is clean install of windows 8 and redo the upgrade because the media center activation key was expired (after the promotion period). It wasted me an hour to make the call and talk with the manger (employee id 2814). They sound like it is none of their business.
View 6 Replies
View Related
Mar 29, 2014
After suffering a Windows 8.1 boot failure, and despite manyattempts at recovery, I finally had to reinstall my WIN 8 Boot disk, then usethe free update download to reinstall WIN 8.1.Since getting the PC up and running again. I have connectedthe original disk via a USB port, and tested it with cHkdsk and anti virus software, which both give it a clear bill ofhealth. And I can see all the original folders.Unfortunately due to the change of boot disk, I have lost mypast two months Windows Live emails. Is there any way I can recover them fromthe original Disk ?
View 7 Replies
View Related
Aug 25, 2014
I got a new Toshiba Satellite L50-B notebook with Windows 8.1 64-bit installed. As I need to go a special place, I passed the notebook to a IT guy and have the whole disk encrypted using DiskCryptor. The guy told me that he cannot boot the OS, even he entered the correct password. And one more nice thing. The guy did NOT make recovery discs first!
Since the hard disk is encrypted I cannot boot it. Also I cannot do a system recovery. I booted the notebook into Linux and copied all the content in the recovery partition to a USB drive.
Now, I would like to know if I can get my machine up and running again. I don't mind all my content will be lost as it is a new machine.
How to make a set of custom recovery disc out of the content in the recovery partition? Do I need to format my hard disk in UEFI mode? if so, how?
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jul 26, 2014
I used four drives in my hard-disk. I needed to extend volume for my C drive. So using the Disk management utility I was trying to shrink the drive F (as it was very next to C, as in Disk management). But something happen accidental here. I found that two of my drives E & F went missing after the operation. Also my laptop suddenly restarted (after perform a checking task). I am not sure how this happened and looking for a way to recover the lost partitions as they are seen still exist, including the data.
I was only trying to shrink around 283 mb of volume from a drive with 138 gb, as an experiment basis, to see it work. On that process the drives were lost and those are not shown into my windows now. Using a software EaseUS Partition Master, I could still see the drives still exist as they contain the data as used spaces, and also show the unallocated space of 283 mb but I am not finding a way how could I recover my partition without affecting the data.
View 3 Replies
View Related
Sep 14, 2013
Went from an Intel MB and CPU to an AMD setup before realizing that wouldn't just be able to boot into my existing windows installation when I first plug everything in. From what I've seen on the forums I've decided to reinstall Windows 8 on the machine. The problem is that I need to recover the files on the old Windows installation. I have 2 HDDs to play with.
What should I do? Make a LiveCD of some kind and install Windows on a new partition? Make an Ubuntu LiveCD and transfer the files to the other HDD then install Windows?
View 5 Replies
View Related
Oct 19, 2013
I have legal retail keys for W8 Pro and W8 WMC, however now I use W8 Enterprise (KMS, because Win2Go).
I have downloaded two v8-1 Upgrade Assistants (1st asks for key, 2nd starts compatibility test). When I compare those two EXEs binaries in TCommander 1st MS calls "LATE" version 2nd MS calls "MAIN" version.
Of course on Enterprise there is no Windows Store Upgrade option.
MAIN version:
[URL]
LATE version:
[URL]
However the system drive is Truecrypted, so my question is:
When will I start upgrade via one of those assistants (BTW: which one?) inside W8 Enterprise, will update keep loaded TrueCrypt driver? (So in other words, will I survive system restart?)
Or do these Upgrade Assistants building of installation boot drive only? In that case I had to do temporary decrypt...
View 1 Replies
View Related
Sep 15, 2014
Recently I bought a new hard drive to replace my old one because it failed and just stopped working, I have a Sony vaio laptop that was pre- installed with windows 8 and assuming the activation key is in bios because I have only a windows 8 sticker at the back. With that out of the way the real issue is how i install windows 8 without a disk since I never got one with the laptop when I bought it. I got a spare computer I can use to create a disk or a Installing through an USB, but at this moment I don't have any empty disk available I heard its possible through USB so am planning on using this method. So how would I create an USB that I can use to install windows 8. Lastly, if I did make a USB would i have to enter an activation code or will the one in the bios work.
View 5 Replies
View Related
Feb 3, 2014
windows 8.1 pro cant seem to add media center although windows 8.1 is activated is says "you cant add features to this edition of windows"
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jun 13, 2013
I currently have Windows 7 installed on my HDD and I have a Windows 8 Upgrade key. I bought a brand new SSD that I wish to install Windows 8. Am I correct in understanding that the SSD requires an existing OS on it before it can install the Win 8 Upgrade properly? I have tried installing the Upgrade on it alone but the installation hangs at 87% of "preparing files for installation".
If I am required to install Windows 7 onto the SSD first, am I able to install it as a dummy so that I can go through with the Win 8 Upgrade without it affecting my Windows 7 activation on the HDD? I plan to format my HDD to use as a secondary drive at a later date but not right now.
View 6 Replies
View Related
May 17, 2014
I installed Windows 8 Pro on my now defunct computer way back when it was first released by downloading the files and saving them to hard disk before upgrading from Windows 7 Pro. I then upgraded to 8.1 and now 8.1 Upgrade, but that computer crashed badly. I have removed the hard discs and disposed of the computer. I am in the process of buying a new computer and want to install Windows 8.1 upgrade onto it, on a Solid State Drive. I can copy or clone the original "C" drive from the defunct computer onto the SSD, but, of course, none of the other specs would be the same. (I am taking advantage of the disaster to upgrade my specification. - A better CPU, and a better motherboard with more SATA and USB3 connections and, above all, a greater memory capacity of 8MB RAM, - the defunct computer only had SATA and USB2 connections with only 3MB Ram). Will a clone of the "C" drive work to give me Windows 8.1 upgrade on the new computer? If not, how can I transfer the licence from the defunct computer (I cannot get into it now, although I can get into the "C" Hard Drive)? I have the original download of Windows 8 from Microsoft available on the hard drive, although I do not think in a bootable format, just as a file on the harddrive. I can, however, install Windows 7 as I have my Windows 7 CD. how I can transfer my licence and install Windows 8.1 Pro Upgrade
View 7 Replies
View Related
Jan 30, 2013
I got the Win 8 pro upgrade and since I am getting a nice refund for taxes I am buying an new motherboard cpu and ram.
What I would like to know is am I still going to be able to use the Upgrade on the new hardware? I can install win 7 first then do an upgrade if need be. Will I have to do something with the activation or what?
I am unsure of what is going to be required of me. Am I still legal with the upgrade install or will I have to buy an oem or retail?
View 5 Replies
View Related
Dec 9, 2012
I installed W8 successfully about a month ago and all went well. The only recent change I have made is to install Startmenu8 to get a more normal Windows look. Last weekend my computer screen went dark blue and the mouse seemed not to function. I changed batteries and rebooted. However all I got was my desktop with no task bar and no icons. The programmes showed up along the bottom but would not open maximised so I couldn't use them. I have run the diagnostics on F12 at start up. All was ok according to that. I wanted to restore to a previous point so I managed to boot from my CD drive with the recovery disk (W8 version) but it said that both my restore point and image wouldn't work. I therefore tried to do a clean install of W8 but that wouldn't work. It just hung after several hours. I tried the same with W7 but with the same result.
My machine came with Vista so I installed that from the Dell recovery disk. This worked. I then tried to upgrade to W7 SP1 (an upgrade which would never install back in the day) from a CD I downloaded off the Windows website. That went on all night with the machine interminably rebooting. Still hung this morning. So I reinstalled Vista as above (clean) and tried to install W7 from the original upgrade CD. This hung also. The reason I haven't gone straight to W8 is that I think I have an image from a few months ago before I upgraded to 8.
I've just started restoring from a reasonably W7 image in Vista. Cross fingers but it seems to be working. However, I wanted to do a clean install and wonder why neither W7 nor 8 would complete.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Aug 28, 2014
Today I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1. For some reason, after upgrading, my hard disk usage is always hovering at around 60% usage and my CPU usage is always hovering at around 50%. This is when the PC is idle. When I was using 7, the disk would rarely jump over 30% usage and the CPU would never go above 7% when idle. The sound of the hard disk constantly working away is doing my head in, not to mention it's at around 50 degrees as opposed to 45 degrees previously.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Nov 16, 2012
A week ago I did a completely fresh install of Windows 8 64 bit and everything was working great. When I booted up my laptop on Wednesday I noticed it was running terribly slow. When I opened task manager I saw that disk usage was at 100% despite the combined total of data transfer being 0.8MB/s.
The problem occurs constantly if I set my laptop power mode to balanced but only occurs intermittently at high performance. I've run a chkdsk and everything is showing up fine and bizarrely there is no slowdown whatsoever on safe mode.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Dec 8, 2013
I have a Toshiba Laptop System Model: Satellite L875D-S7332 Part Number: PSKFQU-008003 Pre Installed with Windows 8 x64. I want to create a Windows 8 x64 Install Disk.
View 9 Replies
View Related
May 22, 2014
is it possible to manipulate windows setup to install on a ReFS system disk ?
I get during setup an warning that windows only can be installed on a NTFS file system !!
Installing windows enterprise 8.1 with update ...
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jan 10, 2014
I have a copy of Windows 8.1pro 64 bit which I run on my main computer, I have an old laptop which is about 7-8 years old, I'd like to install a copy of Win 8 for test purposes and mess around with for a few months.
The laptop is so old it won't let me install 64 bit, is there a 32 bit version on the disk hidden away I could install or are they totally separate disks?
Is it possible to download a copy which would work for 30 days without entering a serial number or even an old beta copy.
View 2 Replies
View Related
Sep 7, 2013
I previously had Windows 8 installed on my desktop - I've just booted to Windows 8.1 Pro Setup so I can install it on my desktop - I've formatted my hard drive from within the setup but when I try to install Windows 8.1 Pro on the partition, I get the following error message:-
'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI Systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT Disks'
What can I do now as I don't have a version of windows installed anymore...
View 9 Replies
View Related
Sep 15, 2014
I have a Dell Inspiron 15R SE 7520 laptop that came with Windows 8 Core edition pre-installed. This laptop has never worked properly for some reason. It won't shutdown the normal way (it'll just stay on the shutdown screen forever) and it never comes back from sleep without a BSOD along with other troubles that haven't been solved by updating drivers,etc.
I decided I want to do a clean Windows 8.1 re-install and upgrade on my laptop to get rid of these problems, but it's been ages since I last did this (back in Win2K times, I used to dual boot Slackware Linux) and I've bee reading about all this UEFI, Secure Boot,etc and quite frankly it's making me quite nervous. I was even planning on taking this chance to dual boot some linux distro, but it looks sooo difficult. Things are much more complicated these days for the tinkerer!
I need to make sure I can get back to a running system quickly.
For starters, here is how the hard drive is partitioned: [URL] ....
And this is the Diskpart output : [URL] ....
Why do I have 5 partitions? I understand the recovery partition, the OS partition and (after lots of reading) the ESP partition, but I'm not sure about the others. What do I need to keep? I've been reading around and I see some people recommend wiping the whole drive and starting from scratch. Is this a good ide?
I'll create the installation media from a windows 8.1 MSDN ISO using a USB drive. When I start the installation process it will ask me where I want to reinstall it to. Do I just choose the OS partition? Won't the recovery partition be based on a Windows 8 image and be useless from now on?
What's the best way I can get back to a fully working system in case I screw up somehow? I've made an image of my drive using Macrium Reflect free edition. But I read here that I cannot make an image of a GPT disk. Will this image I made work for getting back to a working system quickly in case I screw up?
As a last resort, I've made a Recovery USB using the Dell Backup and Recovery Method. In the extreme case that I screw up real bad, will this work to get back a factory-state system even if I've wiped my hard drive clean? I'm assuming this tool is for users recovering after a dead hard drive so it should work , right?
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jul 20, 2013
I tried to install 32 bit Windows 8 in my friends laptop through bootable usb. It has win7 preloaded. I tried for the dual boot. But when I select the partition drive it said that windows cannot be install in that drive because the selected drive is GPT partition style. How to install Windows 8 os in that GPT partition style hard drive.
Laptop has Hard disk-500 gb,64 bit win7.
View 3 Replies
View Related
Sep 15, 2014
i noticed this bug long time ago, but now i decided to try to solve it, because i will be using this os for long time now. When i try to delete files or something, and when i get a windows to confirm my actions, there is a big icon on the left side, and that icon has a black line on it, how to remove it ? It doesnt matter which icon will be there, it will have this black like on its left side.
Intel haswell graphics, core i7 cpu, everything works good, no files corruption or anything else. For many reasons i have installed windows 8/8.1 over 10 times, and all the time i get this broken icon bug...
View 2 Replies
View Related
Nov 17, 2013
Recently, my metro search hasn't been working. I usually go to the metro GUI and search for defrag, and click the "Defragment and optimise your drives". But, for some reason, when I click it, nothing happens, this also happens with many other system related programs like device manager, sound etc. I always have to use control panel now to use these programs. Other programs seem to work fine.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Apr 28, 2014
Lots of my apps deleted themselves without me doing anything, and some other (the Microsoft ones: weather, bing news etc, plus Flipboard) are just broken. When I try to open them, there's a page of the color of the app (red for news, light blue for weather......) without the app's logo and then it comes back to start screen.
I also tried to download them again from the store, and this is what happen. Under the "instal" button there's a message: "You already have this app. You can download to this computer", which it's ok, but if I click on Install, notification appears on the top right; tapping on it doesn't do anything, and the app isn't in the app folder. When I uninstalled and re-installed Weather (which wasn't disappeared, but broken) the app worked again.
The only "weird" thing that I remember I have done is to empty the bin, as I had memory full and wanted to gain some space.
Do you think this can be a malware? I already tried to open a new account, and it works just fine.
View 1 Replies
View Related
May 7, 2014
I got this Gateway this last year, and in the "store" it says to upgrade to 8.1, and I have tried and tried and it says that the download has failed, and cannot install. I have called microsoft support, and was on the phone with them for a couple of hours, and he escalated support to the engineers, they also called, and I allowed them remote access, to come to the conclusion, that my connection is too slow to upgrade to 8.1. So, I went to an open network and tried it, to no avail.
View 14 Replies
View Related
Nov 1, 2012
I tried using this method:
-After installation disconect from internet
-change in registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE -> Change "MediaBootInstall" from "1" to "0"
-type "slmgr /rearm" into a command prompt, waited for confirmation, restart
-after restart, connect to internet, activate
This works fine until rebooting and then asks for activation again.
I have tried three more times without reinstalling and the MediaBootInstall stays at 0 so it doesn't need changing. I type the slmgr /rearm and on reboot when I go to activation menu it says activated, but when I reboot agian it says needs activation.
Not sure what's going on. I thought it was a windows update at first messing with it, but it still does it even without any updates being installed.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Nov 16, 2013
I've had a problem with the app switcher since upgrading to 8.1 ...
When I hover the cursor in the top left corner when two or more apps are happen, I get small white outlines instead of the small preview images that I used to get on Windows 8 (screenshot attached to this thread, with settings), making it impossible to see what application I'm switching to!
PC:
Dell Latitude E6220
Windows 8.1 Pro
i7-2640M @ 2.8GHz
4GB RAM
View 2 Replies
View Related
Apr 22, 2014
After too many hours of reading and trying various things. It appears that Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) from USB 3G Modems has been broken in Windows 8.1.
On my Desktop PC, which uses Windows 2000 Server, I am able to share a Huawei E156B USB 3G Modem to 1 of the Ethernet ports to which is connected a Netgear Router with 4 LAN ports and a Wireless Antenna which broadcasts a signal that can be used by my smartphone.
On my recently acquired Lenovo B590 Laptop, I use the same SIM chip in a Huawei E3131 USB 3G Modem but have not been able to share the connection with the Ethernet port. I get the dreaded Unidentified Network and Limited connection statuses.
I tried the older modem but it doesn't appear to be compatible and I couldn't find any drivers for it for Windows 8.1.
I also tried sharing to an Ad Hoc Connection as the Laptop also has a Wireless NIC (Network Interface Card). The phone can see the signal broadcast by the Wireless NIC but is not able to communicate with the Internet.
I have tested the E3131 USB modem with the Netgear router with a friend's Dell Inspiron 1545 that has Windows Vista installed and I was able to establish the sharing of the Internet Connection to the Router and hence could also access the Internet with the smartphone.
As soon as I am able I will perform the same test on the Laptop, of another friend, which has Windows 7 installed.
Given that adding an Ad Hoc connection was removed from the GUI interface of Windows 8.1, I am wondering if Microsoft have made a huge "faux pas" in overlooking the need for, or eliminating without consultation, this functionality which has worked fine in previous versions of the Operating System. The following web page may also be related to this topic.
About the Wireless Ad Hoc API (Windows)
However, maybe there is a possibility that this problem is being caused by the modems needing updated firmware or "Connection Management Software", provided by the Internet Service Provider, to be fully compatible with API changes in Windows 8.1.
It appears that Connectify allows the sharing of an Internet service between a USB 3G Modem and an Ethernet port. If so, what API would they be using to achieve this and could the same thing be achieved through the Command Prompt (with Administrator Privileges) using "netsh" (Network Shell) commands?
Does Virtual Router Manager is compatible with Windows 8.1 and is a viable solution to this problem?
Instead of an Ad Hoc connection being created, using the wireless NIC, can a secure Access Point be created to which the Modems connection could be shared? Can "netsh" commands be used to achieve this?
I have also seen articles about creating an Access Point but they are using the same "netsh" commands that I have seen mentioned for the creation of an Ad Hoc Network connection.
Therefore, any reliable and accurate resource for the creation of an Access Point using "netsh" commands?
If there is no reliable/convenient software solution to this problem, are there hardware related solutions?
Are there Routers with Wireless Output Antennas that can receive an inbound connection from a USB 3G Modem and then pass that connection to the PC/Laptop via the Ethernet port of the PC/Laptop as well as re-broadcast the signal via the output antenna?
If so, how do you manage activating the connection to the service provider of the USB Modem?
Can the connection software, that was installed when the USB Modem was connected to a USB port of the PC/Laptop, recognise that it is connected to the external router?
Even if it could, maybe the sharing of a connection would again be thwarted due to changes in the APIs of Windows 8.1.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jul 26, 2014
I migrated from from hdd to ssd on my Samsung series 7 laptop today and everything has gone very well with the exception of windows updates which are now non functioning. I have tried both the DISM and sfc/scannow procedures as well as numerous other possible solutions I have come across during the day.
the error code coming up is 80070490.
View 2 Replies
View Related
Apr 8, 2013
I've been having an issue trying to delete a broken icon from an uninstalled game of mines in the Games folder. Whenever I open up the folder it gives me an option to uninstall it and takes me to the Uninstaller in the Control Panel but I've already uninstalled the game so that's no dice.
Other than that option there is nothing else I can do to the broken icon. Clicking on it does nothing.
View 3 Replies
View Related
