Dell :: XPS430 - Windows 8 Upgrade Hanging On Clean Install
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.
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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?
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Jan 11, 2014
I have a Dell Studio XPS 9000 running Windows 7 home premium 64bit and a USB 3 card installed. I want to upgrade it to Windows 8.1. I also have an HP laptop Envy dv6 running Windows 8.1 USB 3 compatible. I also have an Intel SSD 335 Series 240 GB, on which I want the upgrade to be installed, and a USB 3 NexStar caddy.
I imagine the most elegant approach would be to load Windows 8.1 on the SSD via the caddy connected to the HP laptop which is connected to the Internet, and then install the SSD into the Dell Studio XPS 9000.
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May 13, 2014
Can't Install Windows 8.1 in my Dell Inspiron N5110. After completing the installation a black screen will come and system will hang.
I've tried several times reinstalling but, same result.
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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"
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Jan 15, 2014
I read about how to upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit with clean install. I have a 32bit win7 on my desktop and a 64 bit Windows 8.1 on my laptop.
My question is can I use the Windows 8.1 laptop do download the upgrade assistant and get Windows 8 64 bit? I don't want to screw up my laptop especially cause it has an OEM Windows 8 that how to reinstall in case of OS breakdown.
In case this is not possible, is there any way to get a 64 bit Windows 8 upgrade downloaded without another 64 bit os already installed?
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Mar 21, 2014
I have bought a Dell Inspiron 15R which arrived this week. I have already decided that I am going to install my own copy of Windows 8.1 Professional on to my system.
I have tried this several times now and I keep failing. I am booting from my DVD and the install goes fine. However during install I am normally prompted to enter my Serial for 8.1 and it does not do this. It progresses as though everything is ok, I can format the Hard drive and then it proceeds to install Windows 8.1.
Once fully installed I then go to see if it is activated and to my surprise it is. It has activated with the same Serial as the OEM that came with the laptop.
I have also noticed that this copy of 8.1 cannot join the laptop to my own domain (the options to do this are greyed out) which I am also wanting to do. So this copy of 8.1 is not the copy I am trying to install.
How can I install my own copy of 8.1. I think this is something to do with Dells bios configuration but not sure where to start.
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Jan 20, 2013
I just got a new laptop, a Lenovo X230, for which I paid extra to have the OS on it as Windows 8 Pro.
So--now I have it, and Win 8 Pro 64 is installed and activated on it. I am a legal owner of Win 8 Pro.
However, I would like to do a clean install of Win 8 on the computer, to have it free of bloatware, etc. (In fact, I would like to set up a multi-boot with Win 7, and perhaps even triple boot with Xp as well. (I have installation media and my product keys for XP and 7 though, so those are not really a problem.)
The computer came with no discs at all. There is a procedure to make recovery disks. I may do that, but I think those will be to restore the computer to how it came from the factory, and therefore not usable for a clean install.
I don't see my product key for Win 8 anywhere. Not on the computer, not on any kind of card that came with it, etc.
I looked at the tutorial here for clean install of Windows 8, but it requires an install disc and product key. I have neither, although I am a legal owner of Windows 8.
Is there a way I can create (from my installed Windows 8) a win 8 install disk, that can be used for a clean install? Or a link to download one? Is there a way I can get my product key?
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Sep 7, 2013
i have recently brought Inspiron 14 3421, it came with per-installed Windows 8 and Wave Max Audio 4 software. The product i brought had issue so i handed over to Dell Authorized Service Center here, so for service purpose DASC guys uninstalled OS and re-installed but after re-installation i could not find out Wave Max Audio 4 software. how to reinstall Max Audio 4 software?
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Feb 27, 2013
My Dell XPS One 2710 was delivered with Windows 8 with wrong language. Dell therefore sent me a Windows 8 MUI Recovery Media-DVD, and told me to follow the instructions on this link: [URL] .....
At the first installation attempt I got to a point where a pop up asked for drivers. I didn't know which drivers, and I thought everything was included on the DVD (but even the DVD-ROM wasn't recognized, only "Boot (X:)"). I read a tip in the Dell forum to change the boot setup to legacy. So I did and I got a few steps further to the point where you shall choose the partition(s) under the custom menu. But no partitions were found. Perhaps the reason was the 32 GB mSATA with Intel rapid storage technology.
So I did exactly the following:
1. I downloaded the newest version of the IRST-driver and extracted the files to a USB device.
2. I booted from the recovery DVD (UEFI, safety mode: ON).
3. When it asked for the driver I installed the IRST-driver from the USB device (AHCI, 64 bit, located in the driver-folder - the only words I recognized from the forums... 0:).
4. A total of six partitions were shown: Partition 1 ("ESP", System), partition 2 ("DIAGS", OEM (reserved)), partition 3 (MSR (reserved)), partition 4 ("WINRETOOLS", recovery), partition 5 ("OS", primary), and partition 6 ("PBR Image", recovery).
5. I followed the instructions in the link (above) and deleted all of the partitions.
6. I installed Windows 8 on the new partition, without further complications.
7. I ran Windows Update.
8. I installed the Dell drivers for this service tag, in the order specified by Dell, starting with chipset, card reader, IRST, audio, video, network and everything else, and with a reboot between every single driver installation. The system, including the IRST, seems to work fine so far (no exclamation marks in the Device Manager).
9. I replaced some of the software, including Dell Backup and Recovery.
I started Dell Backup and Recovery and the program initially told me that it couldn't find a recovery partition, and therefore couldn't backup the system. Other programs in the Control Panel, like File History and Storage Spaces, can't find available drives.
The Disk Management tells me the following about my 1 TB HDD:
EFI System Partition 100 MB - Recovery Partition 898 MB - Primary partition (NTFS, boot, page file, crash dump) 930.11 MB - Recovery OEM partiton 300 MB - Recovery OEM partiton NTFS 300 MB
So finally to my questions: Should I have kept one or more of the recovery partitions during the Windows 8 installation? Could this affect Windows' System Restore (I guess not since Windows creates its own recovery partitions)?
And finally: Is Dell Backup and Recovery any useful? I already have the recovery DVD in case I need a factory reset. For backup purposes I will use a cloud service, and maybe a NAS in the future. Do I even need a recovery partition?
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Oct 19, 2013
I have an upgrade key to Windows 8 that I bought to upgrade from 7. Now that Windows 8.1 is out, I would like to upgrade to Windows 8.1, but I want to do a CLEAN, REFORMATTED install.
How can I do this when I only possess the upgrade key to Windows 8.1.
I am sure many other people are interested in doing this as well.
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Jul 28, 2014
OEM keys pre-installed in the my laptop as i too want to clean install windows 8.1 also my os was windows 8 Single Language and i have a 8.1 Pro ISO
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Mar 1, 2013
I tried to install Windows 8 Pro on my Dell PC, but I didnt know the clean install was the best way to go and now my computer will not boot to the OS. It boots then goes black.
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May 6, 2014
How windows 8 works now without the sticker key on new laptops. I've searched all over the internet and all I can find are dumb articles telling users to use the manufacturers recovery image. How to do a CLEAN install of Windows 8.
My new windows 8 has NO sticker key on the bottom so my understanding is that it's stored on the bios? Is this correct? So my question is, is if I get an ISO of windows 8 and install it, will it automatically recognize the key or is the key only set up to be recognized by the PC manufacturers crapware filled image?
ALSO, if thats the case, can I use a 3rd party product to pull my key and then use that with the clean ISO? Lastly, where can I download a clean ISO of windows 8? I know you can download official windows 7 ISO's, but i cannot seem to find an official windows 8 iso. I have no desire to download a torrent or from some shady website, I just want an official ISO.
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Jul 11, 2013
It says I cannot install windows 8.1 because ubuntu doesn't use ntfs partition but ext4. How can I do a clean install of windows 8.1?
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Mar 2, 2012
This video tutorial demonstrates how to clean install the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which was released to the public on February 29, 2012 and expires on January 15, 2013. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is an open beta test presentation of Microsoft Windows 8, the successor to Windows 7 and next-generation client operating system from Microsoft Corporation.
In this demonstration, you will be shown how to free, legitimate copy of the Microsoft Windows 8 Consumer Preview, with product key, and install the operating system in a clean environment. In this video, the installation of the 64-bit version is demonstrated.
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Apr 10, 2014
so my windows install got borked so i formatted drive and did a clean win 8 install (not win 8.1). everything seems to be happy except the entire c: is "protected." can't even make a new folder without a pop up saying I need administrator approval (I am the only user and i am the admin).
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Apr 6, 2014
I can't do clean install for win 8.1 update 1 retail pro version,due to product key problem.i tried many keys still the same problem,key isn't valid,the key that i bought is working only when upgrading from windows 7 only?
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Apr 11, 2014
I only have a Windows 8 Single Language key purchased. They mostly sell that version in my country. But I need to perform a clean install of Windows 8.1. How can I do this? How to get the ISO? I can't install 8.1 PRO ISO with a generic key and they use the SL key to activate right?
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Jun 10, 2013
We bought some DELL Optiplex 3010 with Win8Pro OEM licenses.
But we only have WinXP or Win7Pro computers on our company. We want to make a Clean installation with Win7Pro DVD on each machine, and use OEM license.
How to do this? Now OEM licenses are not shown outside computer.
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Feb 12, 2013
I have made a clean install of Windows 8 using USB and UEFI. Somehow it seems the instalaltion is not quit right of what I have read... Have attached picture of the Diskmanagement (OS is Norwegian by the way).
Compared to this thread: UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with for me something is missing/wrong.
I have a laptop with one SSD and two internal disks. Both internal disk were removed before the installation, and connected and formatted after finished the installation.
It can me mentioned that I downloaded the OS, saved it as .iso file, then copied onto the USB disk. Then connected into the laptop and booted from USB/UEFI.
I did not follow these steps: UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows
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Dec 31, 2013
I bought an acer 756-2808 netbook last year with windows 7 from Amazon. This netbook came with a "upgrade to Windows 8. SoI did the upgrade when it was released.
Sadly, I probably only used netbook for a month or two because the LED screen cracked. They are pretty fragile.
Then, I upgraded to 8GB ram. This thing flies!
I downloaded 'produkey' from nirisoft.net, because I can't find the product key anywhere for the life of me.
So, now I have the product key for the current windows 8 installed. Will this upgrade product key work for a clean install? Moving on, I ordered a Samsung 840 Pro 128 GB which should be arriving in a few days.
Finally, I want to do a clean install of Windows 8.1 using a Windows 8 Product key. Is this possible? The original HDD on this netbook has nothing on it, so I don't really have to back anything up either (like I said I barely used it for two months before the screen cracked!)
I did some searches and found this link: [URL] .....
So if the above step is correct.
Do I:
1.) Get the ISO on the USB following the steps mentioned in the link above.
2.) Take out old HDD and install new SSD
3.) Reboot computer with USB
4.) ?
5.) ?
6.) ?
etc.
Are these steps incorrect?
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Jul 10, 2014
Windows 8 64bit was taking forever to boot so I did a clean install but that didn't work. I am using an ASUS K56CA laptop. I have tried updating all the drivers I could find and windows too but it didn't work. When trying to put the computer to sleep I did get a DRIVER POWER STATE FAILURE message but I don't know if that's related to the extremely long boot times. I also disabled everything non essential from starting using MSCONFIG. I am out of options.
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Sep 18, 2013
I have problem Windows 8.1 stuck on loading screen (clean install). Windows 8 works perfectly.
1. Clean install.
2. First restart and then stuck on loading screen.
3. No updates, drivers or programs not installed.
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Jul 9, 2014
Any way to do a clean install of Windows 8.1 on a Windows 8 tablet.
Tablet Model is ASUS VivoTab Smart ME400C-C2.
It came originally with Windows 8 32bit. I was wanting to know if there is a possibility of doing this with a Windows 8.1 Disc.
Now I know there is a way to hook up a portable optical drive with a cable called a USB OTG.
I was told by ASUS though i would not be able to boot from the optical drive like a PC or Laptop could and to be able to boot from this OS disc so i can do the install this way.
So is there is a way maybe by making a disc. image and putting it on it's MicroSD or running it directly from the disc, i am not sure how this would work wanting to do a custom install.
Question is there any differences with the Windows 8 OS on the tablet now, compared to the OS on the disc usually used for a PC or Laptop ?
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Jun 23, 2013
I just did a clean install of Windows 8.
I notice that in Task Manager>Startup tab there is an item for Logitech Download Assistant.
Why is it there?
I have yet to install any of my Logitech software.
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Nov 3, 2013
I have performed a clean install of windows 8.1 pro on my desktop with MSDN dreamspark serial and an ISO downloaded from Microsoft site with the serial ... the installation goes OK until I do the first restart, it hangs and the screen freezes at the spinning dots restarting, I left it abot one hour, it never restarts, by pressing the reset button the windows boots then the logo disappear then black screen with no responding, Is that copy is bugged or the windows is not activated.
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Apr 11, 2014
Is it possible to get hold of an ISO or something similar to get a fresh/clean install of Windows 8.1 update 1 on my Surface RT? Via USB i.e.
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Oct 16, 2013
I have a Windows 8 Pro Upgrade, and I know I can activate it after doing a clean install using regedit, but will this "trick" work if I use an ISO with included updates?
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Nov 3, 2013
I have one of the above tablets that came with windows 8.
Id like to do a clean install of windows 8.1 but the widows 8 key that came with it doesn't seem to work with 8.1.
Ive installed windows 8.1 using the generic key but i cant get my key to activate 8.1. when i insert the supplied key into windows it says the key cant be used ( or summit at work atm)
Is the problem that the windows 8 key it came with says ' Windows 8 Small Screen Touch '?
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Sep 10, 2013
My computer came with Windows 8 (non-pro) preinstalled and I would like to do a clean reinstall of 8.1 on a new hard disk.
Since there is no OEM key anymore, what should I do to activate once the OS is installed?
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