So the hard drive on my computer failed. I do not have the product key for this computer and can not get it of the failing hard drive because it does not power up at all. But the computer does have the built in product key in the bios. Is there a way that I can re install windows 8 on this computer and activate with the bios key with out getting the recovery media from the manufacture.
View 7 RepliesWindows 8. I am fairly well versed in Windows 7 matters, but it seems with Windows 8 things have changed.
I need to find out how to install Windows 8 on a new HDD in a device that has a failed disk. I have no repair disk or ISO, and no product code.
A little background: I have a friend's Packard Bell Easynote TE11HC laptop (Win 8 x64, not the pro version) that won't boot. Typically it is about 2 months out of warranty! Having run a few tools I have established that the HDD is corrupted in a major way. Chkdsk ran for 24 hours before I cancelled it at 5% through. It reported many, many corrupted or unreadable sectors, so I felt there may be little value in fixing that disk, even if chkdsk ever managed to complete.
The disk is a Toshiba MQ01ABF050 500GB, Tosh's own diagnostic tool report a failed disk.
I have mounted the old disk in an external caddy and connected by USB, and it is recognised, I can even browse the folder structure. Maybe it's just the boot sectors that are bad.
Anyway, now that repair disks from OEMs are a thing of the past, I am wondering how to go about installing the OS on a new HDD. There are no longer labels with product codes on, so how do I go about getting the necessary info to reinstall?
I have read how to download a Windows 8 ISO, but without another machine with the same OS how do I get anywhere? And without a product code, how will I activate it after installation?
The laptop also had MS Office 2013 installed, so if I can find a license key for that it would be handy. I am hoping such info can be retrieved as the disk is still browsable.
I recently bought a laptop with Windows 8 and have erased the hard drive while trying to install another OS (not a good move, I know). This caused problems and now I'd like to re-install windows 8, except I have no way of doing this without knowing my product key, which I cannot access through my computer now. Is there a way to re-install windows 8 without having to purchase it again?
View 8 Replies View RelatedI got a new Windows 8 computer about 2 months ago; added a new user for my kids about 3-4 weeks ago and since then have noticed that text for all users, within Windows and IE (address bar, top pulldown menus, icon descriptions on desktop) now all appear in a symbol mode that is unintelligible. When I open up Windows (ie, control panel or other Windows dialogue boxes) the text has all been changed to symbols as well. I called customer support for my computer (Lenovo) but no support ....
View 9 Replies View RelatedWhen Win 8.1 Preview was first released it installed without issue in a second partition on my Win 7 Pro Lenovo Edge E335 and created a standard dual boot setup. A week ago something or other started causing chaos in Win 7 though 8.1 still ran normally, but as 7 is my day-to-day system I needed to get it working normally again. Three different Acronis images restored OK but then each developed the same problems, so probably a rootkit was behind it all. Unable to overcome these problems I restored to factory condition, reinstalled my software and life returned to normal.
I then set about repartitioning to install Win 8.1 Preview again but hit a first problem when the same DVD and key I had used previously failed as the key was not accepted. Undaunted I tried again with a new key I found on the internet and this key did work. However the install then failed with the message that Win 8.1 can not be installed to an MBR disk, only to a GPT disk. Now this is the same disk that installed to the same MBR HDD previously, only the key being different.
Is the only solution to this to convert the entire disk to GPT and reinstall both 7 and 8.1 again? If so, that's a bit of a problem as my Win 7 was preinstalled to an MBR disk and I'm certainly not buying it again.
The Win 8 Pro/Win 7 Ult on the left relates to a different box.
My son's laptop (Windows 8) failed, and despite F9 options to reset or refresh, and CHKDSK was unable to recover the system due to bad disk sectors. I bought a new disk , but as I had made no recovery media, and the OEM doesn't supply any, I have no way of reinstalling Windows 8.
However I did mange to install Ubuntu Linux on the new disk and the Laptop is now working fine. Out of curiosity I connected the old bad disk via a USB enclosure, and lo and behold Disk utility was able to read the OEM Recovery and Restore partitions. I have made several copies of these on a Win 7 laptop, USB and LInux partitions, and all look good (as far as i can tell).
My issue is that as the OEM recovery partitions seem fine, I reckon they should be installable onto the new disk, but I am at a loss as to how I can use this data to reinstall Win 8 onto my laptop. Most of the advice I can see assumes a working copy of WIn 8 or having a retail Win 8 ISO, which of course I do not have. Remember , unlike Win 7, WIn 8 has no product key identifiable as it is contained in the BIOS somewhere, but I reckon it should recognise the OEM's recovery partition if I only could manage to load it.
I now have a sketchy knowledge of lots of new terms (mounting , partitioning, MBRs, boot sequences etc ) so exactly what to do. [ The tutorial on this form requires a retail win 8 ISO]. I did find a Linux method involcing DD, DDRESCUE , PARTPROBE etc ) which I have tried but all to no avail - I am sure I was close though! ]
I recently purchased an Asus X551 laptop with Windows 8 but straight the way uninstalled Windows 8 and installed Ubuntu (after creating a Windows 8 recovery drive just in case). I have since decided that I want Windows 8 back as I have found that I cannot use a lot of software on Linux. The laptop did not come with any form of recovery disk or installation disk, the only reminent of Windows 8 I have is the recovery USB that I created from within the OS.
When I plug in the USB and boot from it it brings up the recovery menu with options to reset the PC but when I click it it says something like - "Unable to reset PC. A required partition is missing".
I built myself a new system and I am now on my third clean install of Windows 9 Pro. The first installation was nixed due to faulty programs and the second by faulty hardware. This installation seems to be fine, at least my event log is not showing any significant errors. I really don't won't to do another clean install so the question I have is:
Can I install Windows with UEFI without reinstalling on a new hard drive formatted as GPT?
Two days ago my ISP replaced my modem-router for a new one. Ever since the replacement, my main desktop computer won't connect to the internet "immediately". I checked the connection via ethernet and WiFi with my other computers (even tested every single one of my ethernet cables) and they work perfectly fine, except for my main desktop computer.
What my desktop does:
When I turn it on I have to wait for around an hour before it connects to the internet. During that hour, it attempts to identify something (I guess the IP? - the yellow warning icon gets displayed) and after 3 seconds of attempting, the connection drops and it goes back to saying "No connection". The connection is being made via Ethernet cable and I tried the troubleshoot but it continues to say that I need to plug-in a ethernet cable to my computer, thing is it is already plugged in and like I stated above, the cable worked fine with all my other computers. My desktop used to work perfectly fine with my old modem-router.
I attempted to do do some troubleshooting refreshing my ip using the cmd with admin privileges but nothing worked as it said every time that there was no media connection. My desktop just randomly connects to the internet by itself after an hour of attempting to connect and disconnecting and once it gets connected it works perfectly fine until I restart my computer or turn it off and then the next day it'll be the same thing over again.
This has gotten extremely annoying, what can I do to fix this and further prevent it from happening? - I updated all my drivers and it's still the same. It'll just connect to the internet whenever it wants to.
I was wondering if it's possible to take windows 7 from my first computer and install it to my new one that has windows 8 on it (windows 8 has problems with its wifi where windows 7 worked perfectly).
View 6 Replies View RelatedDoes installation Id change after reinstalling Windows? In other words is it possible to use the confirmation ID I got after clean install of Windows?
View 9 Replies View RelatedI am trying to setup a new Windows 8 computer that is going to be a gift. I need to go through the setup procedure so I can install some software which is also part of the gift. How can I do this without having to use a Microsoft account, or at least with leaving the least amount of account remnants for the new user?
View 2 Replies View RelatedI previously setup a DVP 11 pro tablet by logging in with my outlook.com email account.
Now I am about to setup an AIO desktop . So I am sure the same questions will be asked about logging in with email account and password when first powering up the computer.
My questions are:
a) Should I use the same outlook.com email and password for the second computer as the first ? Will Win 8 even accept this because one tablet is already setup using this same email address and pw . Even if it accepts what are the implications?
b) I would prefer not to sync the Tablet and the AIO computer . In this case should I setup another outlook.com account with separate email address and PW? I guess I can do this by clicking on setup a new account .
c) Actually I would prefer to setup the 2nd computer with local account . But from my experience with the DVP 11 Pro , this option is not available in the setup screens. ie I can't get pass the the first screen that asks for email and password. Since this is a purchased machine and not a clean install , I believe the only way to do this is to first setup with an email account then subsequently disconnect and setup local name and password.
Recently I was trying to upgrade my Windows 8 Pro computer to Windows 8.1 Pro. But I had no working USB sticks so I thought I could make a NTFS partition into my hard drive and extract the Windows 8.1 Pro installation setup files on there. So when I restarted my computer, it booted up into the Windows 8.1 Pro installing setup but said that I needed to boot up into Windows and put the installation media back in. But I could not and just kept booting into the installation.
So I thought that if I delete the partition I could go back to Windows. So I did with DISK PART. Now when I restarted it, it now gives me "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER". I'm guessing that when I deleted that partition, there is unallocated space left and my computer is trying to read off that but not the Windows partition.
I have a Compaq computer ...
I am trying to boot from the windows installation disc but after the window logo, for a split-second it says your pc ran into a problem, I didn't even notice the first time because it was so fast, then it just restarts. I already have indows 7 installed and i want to install windows 8 on my other hard drive.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI 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 RelatedQuestion: How would you approach this migration?
I just bought a copy of Acronis True Image 2013 with Plus Pack. It appears that this is all I need as True Image will install the new motherboard drivers as part of the migration process. But do I stay with MBR or move to GPT?
Presently both Win7 (on a 120GB SSD drive) and Windows 8 (on a different 120GB SSD drive) are both MBR format. I don't want to start over from scratch. That's why I bought the Acronis 2013 with Plus Pack.
If I remove the boot drive from my old Windows 7 computer and put it into my new Windows 8 computer, how can I set up the new computer to allow dual boot at start-up?
View 1 Replies View RelatedThe windows 7 usb/dvd tool will not recongnize my flashdrive. I am trying to install windows 8 on my friends laptop but it will not work it says there is no compatible flashdrive in the computer.
This is the message it says : There is the flashdrive i using, there is the information about the flashdrive
Is it the flashdrive and how do I get it to work. I tired using a fat32 format on the flashdrive that did not work either.
Can i move old activated Windows 8 Pro with MC key to new computer (complete new build)? And how?
View 5 Replies View RelatedI have 2 HD's in my PC, yet I can only access one. Never had this problem before when formatting in W7.
When formatting i delete all partitions and create new ones. The thing is windows creates 3 extra partitions with my first one (recovery - about 300MB, system - about 100MB and MSR - Microsoft reserved about 128MB) and 1 extra partition with my second one (also MSR - about 128MB).
So i then have 4 partitions made by MS and 2 partitions i made myself (partition 0 and 1).
The next thing i do is select partition 0 and resume the setup.
When i check my HD's under "Computer" (dutch version of Windows). Only one HD shows up.
I have to galaxy s2 one of of the can't connect to the pc and the other one can. The one which dosn't connect a messege pops up ( the last device you connected to this computer malfunctioned and windows dosen't recognize it.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI bought a laptop, specifically the Samsung QX410-J01. The Laptop came pre-installed with Windows 7, and I upgraded to Windows 8 on 10/26/2012. I bought the Windows 8 Pro product key, downloaded, and upgraded to Windows 8.
Just last week my laptops Motherboard failed and my computer would no longer start up. The HDD works just fine though so all my files are safe. I decided I wanted to build my own PC and I am simply waiting on my case to arrive.
My question is I want to use Windows 8 on my new PC. The problem I am facing is I do not know how I am going to install Windows on my new machine. I do not want to purchase a new install disk and license since I have already paid for the OS. I can only think of two options and I am not sure if either of them are right.
1. Plug in my laptops hard drive into the new desktop. Run Windows 8.1 on that and use the new Terabyte hard drive I bought as a second hard drive.
2. Somehow put Windows 8.1 on a flash drive and install it from the flash drive onto the new blank hard drive. Then use the product key that I had purchased to activate the OS onto the new hard drive!
I really do not want to have to purchase Windows again, but if I must I guess I will. I believe there has to be a way I doubt after being a loyal Microsoft customer, switching to Windows Phone recently, and buying an Xbox One, that Microsoft will just say "Too bad, buy it again".
My computer has been running fairly slow lately, and I want to do a full system restore. I've done this on my old Windows 7 computer with no problems, but I can't seem to do it with Windows 8.1.
My laptop didn't come with an installation disk, Windows 8 was already installed when I got it. And I can't seem to make a recover partition drive.
given that the Messenger app worked with Facebook and Live Messenger (now Skype)...
how to add my Facebook account into the 8.1 RTM Skype app?
Windows 8.1 RTM ships with Skype, so I assume that Skype is already fully functional.
How I could go about doing this. Last year I bought a Windows 8 Pro upgrade disc we used to upgrade our machines from Windows 7 home Premium to 8 Pro. Is it possible for me to use that same upgrade product key for Windows 8 Pro on 8.1 so I could have a Pro version of 8.1? The computer I originally did the upgrade on I am no longer using and is there a way to deactivate the license on that one so it could be used on the new computer I bought? Also I just want the extra's of the Pro version so does it matter it is the license for Windows 8 even though the new computer uses 8.1?
View 9 Replies View RelatedThe computer I am using is a Dell Inspiron M5040 laptop.
I got a Samsung 840 Pro Series SSD to replace my HDD, and used the Samsung Software that came with it to image my OS over to the SSD. It had an error at first, so I removed my antivirus program and ran it again, and it worked.
Everything works pretty much the same, except for noticeable differences in search and Internet webpage access.
If I search in Explorer, the searches are fast and prompt. But if I search with the regular search charm ( WIN+S ), searches are more than 7x slower than on the previous HDD. Also, webpages a quick to load on different computers (not the internet speed, in other words). But this computer had slow loads, and now the loading is even slower on the new SSD.
Things I've tried:
Multiple SFC scans - all say there is some files that could not be fixed All windows updates installed enabled Trimm, updated SSD firmware, ran Windows SSD optimization, optimized computer for SSD use Reset Internet Explorer Rebuilt index
I'm thinking of ditching this slower laptop in favor of something... anything nearby. Regretting either imaging to another drive, or using Samsung to do it.
My Video Thumbnails in Windows (File) Explorer have gone and been replaced by the generic Icon for the program I select to play the video files (VLC, GOM etc). It's happened to my AVI and MPG files on ALL my Windows 8 PC's.
The Folder Options are set to "Display file icon on thumbnails" and the Performance Options/Visual Effects are set to "Show thumbnails instead of icons".
I tried using the "Media Preview" program but it only works on about one in a hundred icons.
If it's happening on all my PC's it must be happening to others, how to fix this?
I've had a lot of trouble with my samsung laptop. The HDD has been replaced but I now cannot do a refresh or reset. I get the message"Some files are missing. Your Windows installation or recovery media will provide these files". The laptop came with Windows 8 installed so I do not have the installation discs. I can do a factory restore by pressing f4 on start up successfully but still shows the above message trying to refresh. What caused this and what can I do about it?
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have just bought an AIO Asus desktop with 1 Tb of storage. The c: (Windows)drive is allocated 100gb and the d: drive 931gb. I just want to transfer all the data from my old computer. This was pretty much all in the folder c:>Users>Myname, but when I try to transfer it all into the same folder on the new computer, obviously with 100gb there is not enough space.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI was installing Windows 8 at my desktop pc.Suddenly power cut occured and it caused the compute to shut down.Then when I restarted my pc again a messege appeared saying that the installation has been corrupted and it can't be continued and it doesn't log on.After that when I tried to re-install Windows 8 the setup got stuck at the "setup is starting" window.I waited overnight for it to go and the installation to start.But it doesn't happen.I have tried to re-install several times but the same problen happens again and again.So neither I can log into my computer now nor I can re-install windows.I don't know what to do.
View 9 Replies View Related