Setup Installation :: Cannot Create USB Install Due To 8.1 Product Key
Apr 26, 2014
I already have a Windows 8 Pro USB installer setup but I don't think it can be used to do a repair install for my Windows 8.1 Pro upgrade. So I'm trying to create a new USB installer setup specifically for Win 8.1 Pro. However, the Windows 8.1 setup window is not accepting the 8.1 Product Key that I extracted from Belarc, ProduKey and WPkey. Is there a way to get around that issue so that I can create the Win 8.1 USB installer?
So, I have purchased some computers from Dell and they have Windows 8.0 Professional from the OEM. So, it was very easy for me to use my MSDN media, reinstall Windows 8.0, and it simply detected and used my Windows 8 embedded BIOS key. From there, I would make any adjustments needed, run sysprep, and grab an image. This allowed me to use that image on any of the Dell's that I purchased with Windows 8 and all was great.
Then, along comes the free upgrade to Windows 8.1. I took one of my Dell's, and laid down a clean windows 8.0 image. Then I ran the Store "free" upgrade to Windows 8.1. All was well. I then cleaned up the temporary files and whatnot and tried to run Sysprep only to be greeted with an error that said, "I cannot validate your OS installation". Did some research and found that you aren't supposed to run Sysprep on a machine that you ran an "upgrade". Instead, you are supposed to install from scratch.
Ok, let's do that. Grabbed the 8.1 ISO from MSDN, put it onto an installable USB key, started the install and it now prompts me for a key. It won't detect or use the embedded 8.0 key that is on the box. So, I cannot actually clean install Windows 8.1 with the embedded OEM key, even though I can freely upgrade to 8.1.
I'm not going to take my new Dell computers, lay down the clean 8.0 image and then upgrade each of them manually via the store to Windows 8.1. This takes way too long.
I'm not going to use my MSDN keys to install onto these machines, because I don't want them to activate these keys. They aren't the legit keys for these machines. These machines have legit OEM Windows 8 keys and 8.1 is a free upgrade to 8.0, so it seems like these legit keys would work. I paid dell to have a valid OEM license on the computer, that is what I want to use.
Any way to get 8.1 Pro to install clean, on a machine with an embedded 8.0 Pro key.
When I try to use the tutorial,I get as far as the Product Key entry.
The install was an original 8 I downloaded when it first came out.
I then installed 8.1, probably from the Store.
I recently downloaded and install 8.1 Media Center Pack.
Had a real problem with activation.MS Support finally had me go to where there was a long activation string and then he gave me a new Product Key, which is now on the machine and Activated.
When I get to the "Product Key" page and enter the Media Pack key, "This product key didn't work. ....."
I'm trying to get my existing installation of windows to boot as an external hard drive. I had it installed on an internal drive, then removed the hard drive and put it in an external enclosure. Then trying to boot off the drive results in windows loading the recovery screen and giving me a bunch of options. The only thing I can do is restart the computer with all the other options (refresh, reinstall) saying that the drive is locked. Putting the drive back into the computer will allow me to boot normally from it, but I want to be able to boot from it via USB 3.
What can I do to either create a fresh install of windows on this drive that can be booted by usb or migrate/modify my existing installation to work.
I bought 8 Toshiba Laptops for my company on 3rd Feb 2013 from Dubai . The laptops details as follows
Model: Thoshiba Laptop SC850 B560 i3 OS: Windows 8 single language
No DVD's and product key given at the time of purchase so how to get windows 8 single language software to re-install and the key for the same. As the OS were pre installed. This is to avoid future issues that may come up like software failure etc.
[ I need to download Windows 8 single language OS, product key for the same OS which is preinstalled- I can provide serial number if needed]
My company gave me a Windows 8 Enterprise product key, which I'm trying to use to upgrade a version of Windows I'm running. I visited this link -- Upgrade Windows with only a product key - Microsoft Windows Support, clicked the "Install Windows 8" button, ran the setup file that downloaded, and when prompted for the product key, entered it, only to see the message.
The product key cannot be used to install a retail version of Windows 8.
Is there another ISO I should be using? Ultimately I'm trying to get an ISO for use with my VMWare Fusion 6 install running on my Mac (10.9.1). I'm confident the product key given to me by my company is legit, but it obviously isn't a retail product key, probably some kind of corporate key or the equivalent.
I've bought Windows 8 when it was first released, but reinstalled Windows 7 again. Now I want to install Windows 8.1, but I get an error saying my product key is invalid. I've tried multiple product keys (We own multiple computers, two of which have Windows 8 installed), but I get the same error with all of them.
Edit: Because none of my product keys don't work, I can't install Windows 8 to further install Windows 8.1.
At the beginning, when I have started to setup windows 8 ,everything goes okay until the product key, I get an error message saying 'We couldn't verify the product key. Check the installation media'
And I had tried to install windows 8 on another PC with having same product key then I have noticed the product key has worked on that Pc! and not working on my PC.
So I have tried several times to enter lots of keys. why my PC is not verify any product keys?
Ive used pirated bootables with preinstalled product keys in the past but am now on the straight and narrow, wanting to add my product key to my legitimate copy of windows 8. This way I wont have to worry about having it written down, losing it or entering it incorrectly, since it will be automatically entered for me. How I can add the product key to my bootable image?
I' am currently using a custom made laptop which I had to repair due to an hardware failure. After I got the PC back I reinstalled Windows but the product key I had wasn't working properly any more. Knowing that after an hardware change this is not an uncommon problem, I just used the option "Activate by phone" and everything went fine.
Unfortunately the last day I got the blue screen with the error 0xc0000021a, which I know is caused by misconfigured system files in the computer. Moreover this error is really similar to the error I got prior the hardware failure (0xc00000e). So I figured that maybe the Windows 8 installation I have (I purchased before Windows 8.1) has some problems, and maybe I can solve them by reinstalling directly Windows 8.1, instead of reinstalling Windows 8 and then upgrading it from the store.
The problem is that when I launch the Windows 8.1 set-up program to create a media for recovery, when asked for the product key mine doesn't work. I think this has something to do with the hardware change and with the fact that I used the "activate by phone" option, but my Windows version is legit and I paid for it, and therefore I want to be able to reset my computer if I need to (like now).
I tried to reinstall windows on a second hard drive, but it won't accept my product key, assumedly because I am already using it for the current windows installation on the first hard drive.
How do I transfer my license to allow a reinstallation on the second hard drive? That's the best option, so I can go back to the first drive if I want to.
Second option: If I wipe the current windows partition clean, will that enable me to reinstall on the second hard drive?
I'm using DISM to create a custom image, we use a vlk licence key to install but this isn't being accepted on the answer file. Its definatly a valid key and being entered correctly). I'm just getting the error 'The unattended answer file contains an invalid product key' Is there anything i can do to get around this?
I recently purchased a MSI GT70 laptop that came preinstalled with Windows 8. Rather than try and uninstall all the bloatware, I was planning on just doing a clean install. Little did I know that Microsoft had changed the game when it comes to authentication on Windows 8 with the bios linked product keys.
The Windows 8 usb drive that I used previously to install Windows 8 on other computers does not work, I believe that is due to it recognizing it as a RETAIL version trying to be installed on an OEM system. Searching around, it seemed other people had success with using an .ISO from TechNet or MSDN and the installation automatically pulling the product key information. The .iso I used was sourced from the Microsoft store download.
After booting to the disk, I received this error: The product key entered does not match any of the Windows images available for installation. Enter a different product key.
I tried manually adding the PID.txt file with the product key I pulled from pkeyui (cross checked with showkey.vbs and RWEverything) but that resulted in the same error. For this notebook, the product key and MSDM are identical, whereas I read other people were finding two different product keys. One nestled deep in the bios and the other being what you see when you run Belarc Advisor etc.
Burning the .iso to a DVD and then starting the setup inside a session of Windows 8 resulted in a different error: this product key cannot be used to install a retail version
So once again back to the issue of using a retail .iso with an OEM product key to try and do a clean install. As far as I know you can't download an "oem .iso" but I'm not sure how to get the retail .iso to play nicely with the product key I have.
So exactly how does one do a clean install of an OEM windows 8 build on a laptop that comes preinstalled with windows 8? If I can't sort this out, I may be stuck with rooting out the bloatware.
I'm trying to recreate win 8.1 pro system reserved partition on my ssd. Initially I installed windows on my ssd (c: ) and windows created the sysres partition on my unformatted hd (without telling me anything). After some trouble I managed to be able to boot from ssd directly without going through the sysres partition on the hd. Now if possible I'd like to recreate the sysres on the ssd (by disconnecting my hd so that windows has no other options than creating this on the ssd). If a try a system refresh it tells me it would wipe away all my user installed apps.
Trying to create an ISO of the windows 8.1 dvd. I want to make a bootable USB stick when I go to install it to speed things up and make a backup copy. I can create the ISO using Alcohol 120 but when I use the Windows 7 USB/DVD tool to open the ISO it says it is not a valid ISO file.
Every other bit of software can read it okay so it is an ISO file as far as I can tell.
I have a Windows 8 pro oem copy and I want to create a bootable Windows 8.1 pro Usb stick in uefi format to do a clean install.
Now I built my machine myself so I am sure there is no embedded windows key in the bios? But I cant seem to download anything that will create the media, it says it my key wont work in a retail copy of windows 8.
I recently picked up an Asus laptop, a SDD to replace the the laptop's HDD, and a HDD caddy to hold the HDD in place of the CD/DVD drive. After a fresh Win 8.1 install on the SDD, I made system images of both the SDD and the HDD with the Win 8 OEM install (both stored on external drive). I also created a USB recovery drive and then formatted the HDD.
Fast forward a few weeks... It's last Friday. I'm about to leave for a business trip. I boot up my laptop and a screen comes up telling me to "reboot and select proper boot device". I pull the SDD out, hook it up to my desktop, and see that the drive shows up, but it's blank. A little googling turned up a few reviews from other people with the same issue. On rare occasion, it will wipe itself. Using the USB recovery drive and the Win 8.1 system image, I got things up and running again.
Now for my question, instead of constantly carrying around the 2 USB drives holding the recovery and system image, can I create a recovery partition on my HDD that I can boot too if my SDD wipes again? (Could I copy or clone my Recovery USB to a partition on my HDD?) Then I could just keep the SSD system image on the HDD in case I need to restore it, right?
Disk 0: SDD disk that wiped itself Disk 1: HDD that I'd like to have a recovery partition and system image on
I also have: Win 8 OEM system imageWin 8.1 system imageRecovery USB drive (8.1)Win 8.1 USB Install drive
Why windows 7 and windows 8 introduced a limitation when using Disk Management, and is NOT possible to create more than 3 Primary Partitions? However, using DiskPart from command line it is VERY possible, no warnings or notices.
Code: C:Windowssystem32>diskpartMicrosoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: PAINKILLERDISKPART> listMicrosoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600DISK [code]....
As far as I know, there is a maximum of 4 Primary partitions on a hardisk, or 3 primary and one extended, and IN the extended partitions more that 4 logical drivers.However, from any disk utility like the old, deprecated, and buggy Partition Magic, acronis disk partition utility, gparted Linux, parted, cfdisk, fdisk, or even on the older Windows like Xp, nt, 2000, 98, me, ms-dos, freedos, I WAS ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO CREATE 4 PRIMARY PARTITIONS, but with the new WINDOWS 7 and the new WINDOWS 8, it appears this limitation of only 3 PRIMARY PARTITIONS instead of 4. Don't know about Vista as I have skipped that version of windows on every PC that I have build or worked.
Or is working like this because of some hidden reason which I can't figure out by myself what could It be, and the only thing that I can observe is that while technology is evolving (hardware and software), we have limitations like this, to create only 3 primary instead of 4 primary while using Disk Management from administrative tools or right clicking on the computer and "manage" console.
Personally I am a little irritated/annoyed that now the disk management is having "handicap" and I can NOT find a serious reason for this idiocratic limitation. As we are "evolving" the normal path It would be more normal to be able to use more that 4 primary on a hardisk, from my point of view, not limiting to ONLY 3 Primary.
I have sony vpceh3aen laptop with windows 7 home basic. I have IOS file of embedded windows 8.1 industry pro with update via dreamspark.com. just now I run windows 8.1 upgrade assistance and its says "your pc's firmware doesn't support secure boot so you won't be able to use it in windows 8.1". Some persons says that not a problem. I not like to upgrade my OS but I want create dual boot with windows 7 home basic and embedded windows 8.1 industry pro. my questions:
1. can I possible to dual boot? if possible how to create it and what are changes(in BIOS and windows 7 settings) needs to make in my laptop?
2. I have pen drive and DVD, which is best for create dual boot with IOS file?
3. I have 100GB free logical partition. that is enough for embedded windows 8? if not how much need to increase?
I don't know what Windows 8.1 has done to my system but after getting rid of it and re-installing Windows 8 ENTERPRISE again I cannot create Windows to GO any more
It doesn't matter if I plug in an SSD, a standard USB stick or a standard external USB HDD - I get No suitable devices found when launching the application from the control panel.
(I can do it manually the old fashioned way but I don't know why the standard method is broken when it was working perfectly before).
Ok so i am trying to install windows 8 X64 onto a different hard drive as windows 7 so i can switch between the two at startup.Ok so my problems started yesterday when trying to install windows 8 onto the Hard Drive i was getting"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."To fix this i converted the disk to a GPT disk in Disk ManagerNow im getting the Error "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the setup log files for more Information." Here is a screenshot of disk manager at the moment.I am trying to install Windows 8 to Disk 2.
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?
2. Install a Windows 8 clean installation 3. Install all drivers 4. Turn-Off Internet 5. Restore the Activation using Advanced Tokens Manager.. Failed 6. Restore the Activation again.. Success 7. Update all O.S. using the Windows Update.. Success
How to install Windows 8 without Product Key and Restore the Activation?
I wanted to remove the hidden recovery parition on my Asus Zenbook UX31A, which is 20GB in size, and I need that space, because the laptop just has a 128GB SSD, and I am permanently on space limit of about 1-2GB and Windows isn't working anymore properly.
when I open the Windows 8 recovery tool, the option for copying the recovery partition is greyed out. I googled for this, and I just could find informations about, that this can happen, but not why, and how to solve it.
I have a new Asus X102BA it has modest performance so as I have a spare OCZ 120GB ssd I thought I would see if it could be improved. I have tried to install win 8 Pro using a powered DVD drive but I get the message in my title. The primary partition is shown on screen and I have nothing but the DVD drive plugged into the computer...
Brand new laptop. HP. 17e UEFI +GPT etc. Upgraded to 8.1 from 8, first thing. Then clicked on the MS, create recovery. (in blind hope of a clean 8.1 restore). Inserted (32gb stick) (later found out is illegal windows 8 version, that is not removable.) SD-extreme, 32gb. list on toms HW, as winner of all, (and is useless for this app).
So I pull out my very old SD cruiser glide, 32gb (old , slow and not win 8 cert (a good thing). Yes all 32gb extremes are mapped as HDD not removable media and is doomed. (known on all forums) but same error.
The cruiser shows up i device manager under removable media....btw i want to find out why the missing files error. I have a HDD and SSD, with latter mirrored. both the orig, HDD fails and SSD fails. same way. I parked the HDD , and run only SSD. but both fail... (my guess is , upgrades 8.0 to windows 8.1 is cause).
now the screen, attached
How can i find the log of these errors, it's not in event viewer.. oddly. sfc/ scannow works. as does chkdsk, and restore (create) works,. and system is Fast a lightning. All HP apps works, cept there version of create disk for same reasons.
My HP create recovery now works on the GLIDE. (old very old 32gb stick i had laying about). So now I am thinking HP? blocks the MS create so you will use theirs? But I'd lilke to know this, what files are missing....
I installed Windows 8/8.1 on a system with a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H MB. When I look at the SSD where Windows is installed I have one partition. I also installed Windows 8/8.1 on an ASRock Z77 OC Formula MB. When I look at the SSD where Windows is installed I have three partitions - 300MB (Recovery Partition), 100MB (EFI System Partition) and 111.27GB (Boot,....Partition). Why did the Windows 8 installer create three partitions on the ASRock system? I think I understand the EFI partition since the ASRock BIOS has a "Load UEFI Defaults" option. The Gigabyte MB does not have this option in the BIOS? Is that because the ASRock MB has truly implemented EFI and uses the EFI System Partition to store boot information?
Why was the Recovery Partition created? I built this system from scratch so there is not any third party involvement. If I reinstall Windows 8 using a new - never used SSD will I get the three partitions? If I format the SSD with one partition prior to Installing Windows 8 what will I get?
I not concerned about the loss of 300MB,why I got different partition configurations on fresh installs of Windows 8 on two different MB's/Systems?
I am having problems installing UEFI & a Error 0x80004005 with Windows 8.1 OEM saying it can't create partitions for UEFI then creating 2 partitions for MBR installation instead. This using a 400 TB, hard drive, setup with a GPT system & nothing else & ready for Windows 8.1 to create the partitions.
The first time it happened I used MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional, to delete the partitions created by Windows 8.1 & convert the MBR to GPT, then used Wipe Disk function to erase all data and set all the bits to a 1.
The only thing that I can think is upsetting the installation is that I have left the other drives in the system including 1x3 TB drive, 1x2 TB drive and a second 4 TB drive.
The 2 TB drive has "Win 7 Ultimate" installed using MBR, the 3 TB drive is empty but ready to install Windows 8.1 setup with GPT, and the other 4 TB drive has a UEFI Windows 8.1 installed but broken.
I have also tried to install UEFI Win 8.1 on the 3 TB drive but it failed with the same error code as above.
This UEFI takes a lot to get ones head around dose't it, and me being much older than I once was makes it even harder. I have tried this installation at least 3 to 4 times now and doing these "Wipe Disk Functions" every time has so far lost me 3 whole days just in wasted time.
I am trying to upgrade from windows 8 pro to windows 8.1 on a samsung laptop. The download completes and installation starts.
After a while the following message appears "you cant install windows on a usb flash drive with setup"
I am not actually trying to install to a flash drive. I contacted Microsoft and after 5 hours they said that I should connect to the internet with a cable and not by wireless in order to solve the problem (this didn't work of course and I had told them that it was an install problem and not a download problem).
