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?
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).
Until very recently i was running Windows 8 with a 240 GB Sandisk SSD as a primary and a 2 TB Western Digital Green HDD as a storage. I decided to set up a RAID 1 setup so i purchased a second 2 TB HDD and installed it.
My intent was to run windows 8 off the 240 SSD as a primary and have a RAID 1 setup for my 2TB HDDs.
I learnt that my data configuration was set to AHCI. I decided to do a complete clean install and change the sata configuration in BIOS to RAID.
After successfully creating a RAID volume using my 2TB HDDs i proceeded to install Windows off my primary. I am however having difficulties in that it will not allow me to install windows on either drive.
My laptop originally had Windows 8 installed on it on an SSD and an HDD. I have since wiped the drive clean. But now, I need to get Windows 8 back for work. How can I replicate the original layout with Windows 8 being put on both a SSD and a HDD. The nature of my work involves a lot of CAD software usage for projects as well as research and the like. As such, I would like for such software to be located on my SSD for faster speeds.
Tried numerous times to install the update but keeps hanging when at "Applying PC Settings". It usually stops at around 84%, eventually the screen will go black only showing the cursor then finally it shows the bsod. The bsod says: driver power state failure.
I have Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate installed and activated. I am trying to upgrade to Windows 8 and the upgrade assistant tells me it needs at least 2gb when I have 8gb and Windows 7 sees and knows I have 8gb
I am thinking it could be my bios, but it's already at the latest version
Here are some photos from my bios, so you can tell me if there is anything I need to enable.
These are photos from my bios. I need to change to get this to work.
I bought a HP notebook with windows 8.1 installed , but no installation DVD . In order to create one I downloaded from Microsoft , ( from windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media ) the Windows 8.1 Setup ( file OSGS14-WindowsSetupBox-32bitand64bit-English-4141408.exe ) and ran it but always receiving the message : we can't connect right now . I have tried more than 20 times and failed.
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.
I am trying to install the Windows 8 DVD over the current XP OS, but in MyComputer, the DVD Drive isn't listed in the tree view. Device manager says it's installed properly and functioning well. My Q is this: how do I run the installation DVD from the DVD drive using the Command Prompt. On Windows Start-up I hit F12 to access the boot order, and when I arrowed down to the DVD drive and hit ENTER, Windows would just jump straight to the XP start-up process. It's like something won't let me access the DVD Drive.
Acer laptop already has Windows 8.1 installed. It has a MBR disk. My USB Flash Drive won't boot from it but it does my my desktop so not the USB flash drive.The flash drive was created for UEFI or MBR boot using Rufus. I tried the tutorial in sevenforums to convert the Acer to GPT but it says the boot drive is in use and can't. I tried to boot to a Command Prompt but that gives me an X: drive and I can't change it to C prompt. I have done this before from a boot drive and it worked but won't on this machine. How can I get this converted from MBR to GPT??? How can they make that tutorial work for them? They are doing it from within windows there??? This machine BIOS has nothing for legacy or UEFI or secure boot for sure. Is my only option MBR then? If it is what do I make the flash drive with as Rufus option says for UEFI or MBR but won't boot this machine. Yes I have it to boot first but it lights up but goes straight to windows.
OK, I have an Avatar Pitbull Gaming Computer. I have a blank ssd and i have the WIM file and WINPE on a flash drive trying to install from the flash drive. When I boot to the flash drive i get a black screen that says operating system loading??? There is no operating system so im at a loss.
I installed windows 8 pro and here are the issues I am having.
Every time I install (Pro Disk) when it finishes and restats, it goes right back to the beginning of the install Once I can get it installed, once the first screen spins, it stays black, but if I sleep and wake it, it goes right to the sign in screen-weird.
Then, it says no updates have been searched or ever installed, when I search I get the Error Code 80248007 cannot update.
We got a nice Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook and all it needed was a hard drive. Now.. here's the problem.. I'm good with a screwdriver or a soldering iron but software isn't my strong point.
It's a genuine Windows 8 machine and as I understand it, it will have the genuine COA embedded in the bios right? Now I've tried installing Windows 8.0 64bit OEM which I believe is the correct uk ISO, and I've tried the Pro version also but with both, neither seem to pick up the embedded COA and therefor do not activate.
Am I correct in thinking that it might be because I have to use CSM mode in the bios to get it to recognise my installation media? If I had a UEFI version would it make any difference?
When first I tried to install a fresh copy of windows 8, I deleted all the partitions including systems reserved etc
Now It shows 2 drives where both of the drives are now currently unallocated and are ready to create fresh partition:
Drive 0 - 500GB HDD <== This is where I want to install my windows Drive 1 - 20GB SSD <== This is where the system is creating the system partition
When ever I create the partition in either drives the windows create the system partition (350MB) in ssd automatically. and when I install my windows on 500 HDD then windows wont work because the systems files are on other drive. Furthermore, I dont want to install my windows on ssd because of the limited space. So How can I install my windows in 500GB HDD so it creates the system partition also in the same drive i.e. drive 0 - 500GB HDD
NOTE: I have tried everything using diskpart and making the drive 0 active but still its not working. I dont want to send it to Samsung warranty because they are charging me like $100
I have a Surface Pro 64GB, 64GB SDXC, and a 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive. I wiped out the recovery partition a long time ago. I have downloaded Windows 8.1 Enterprise using my MSDN subscription. How do I install Windows 8.1 using the ISO and the 32GB flash drive? I have run Rufus but the flash drive does not appear in the Device area. The ISO is on the SDXC drive and when I double click the ISO or try to mount it I get an error that says it cannot mount the file. My question is, how do I install Windows 8.1?
How am I suppose to install windows 8 on a new motherboard if all there is are the upgrade versions of the disc? I have vista on my old motherboard but that doesn't seem to be working any more. When trying to install it i get an error reading The computer started using he Windows installation media. Remove the installation media and restart your computer so that windows starts normally. then, insert the install media and restart the upgrade.
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.
Although I already have Windows 8.1 installed on my computer, why does a message crop up every now and again when I am on the internet telling me that I have Windows 8 and I need to go to the Microsoft Store to download Windows 8.1?
Windows 8.1 doesn't seem to like my 40GB IDE HDD, it won't seem to install no matter what. Upon selecting & formatting the partitions the setup just keep throwing 0x80070057 "Windows could not format a partition on disk 0" even if I reformat the HDD as per MS support article.
I rebooted into Windows 7 on my primary HDD and reformatted the 40GB HDD and attempted to install Windows 8.1, this time it gave me "Windows deployment engine could not initialize".
I tried something else, installed Windows 7 flawlessly on the 40GB HDD then proceeded to upgrade to Windows 8.1 via setup.exe. Everything went fine until the first reboot when it got stuck and hangs at exactly 77% with the fish and spinning orb. After around 30mins it reboots then asks me to 'Select Keyboard Layout" then requests which OS to select. From there I only have 'Windows Setup' and 'Windows 7'. Whenever I selecting 'Windows Setup' it ends up in black screen with the mouse cursor followed by a loop where it continuously asks me for Keyboard layout.
My Windows 8.1 x64 iso is not damaged (hashes are correct) nor is the 16GB boot USB disk that I used. What could possibly be wrong here? The HDD is a 11 year old Maxtor D540X-4D 5400RPM but it's fully functional (no errors in Windows 7 and correctly detected in my BIOS).
Fully wiping the HDD using GParted doesn't work either.
I am using the guide to install Windows 8 over two partitions and I get the error:
Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition contains one or more dynamic volumes that are not supported for installation. I followed all the steps 100%
Found this Get the paid version of EaseUS Partition Master at discount. Magic Partition Manager Freeware for PC/Server users. Upgrade EaseUS Partition Master Free can I use this to copy partitions?
Worked it all out, the software linked above was able to convert my Dynamic drive to a Basic drive for free!
I want install another copy of windows 8 on another partition. This is useful in installing different group of programs so I boot the suitable one related to specific problems. Moreover you can delete a problem file from the other partition.
I have one of the original Acer Chromebooks with a 320 Gig Hard Drive. I would love to be able to install Windows 8 on it. how to go about doing this successfully?
I own a Lenovo Y580 Ideapad that came with Windows 8 preinstalled, so I was never given a license key or CD, and I am trying to use the SSD as my main drive by doing a clean install of Windows 8 there and then copying over any other files I want from my HDD.
I downloaded a Windows 8 iso file and verified the hash so I know it was a clean file. I burned that iso to a flash drive using Rufus, following all of the instructions in this post: UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows
When I attempted to boot from the flash drive my computer would hang at the Lenovo start up screen (black screen with Lenovo written on it) and then start flashing on/off every 5 seconds for a minute or two and then hang at the start up screen once more indefinitely. It would not let me F2 to BIOS when I turned it on or F12 to Boot device selection.
So, I formatted the flash drive and then followed this post: Create Bootable USB or DVD with Windows 8 ISO Once again, no dice. Same problem. I tried putting my HDD as the very last boot option, enabling Legacy boot mode, etc etc but still haven't been successful. The iso I used was an x64 Windows 8 (core I believe? Just regular). I am currently downloading the 8.1 iso to see if that will work.
I have in my possession an HP Pavilion a1230n desktop compulator. I was told that it crashed some time ago and was only used for simple things as it was deemed not trust worthy and stable. It was running Windows xp until about two weeks ago when the power at the person's house went out suddenly and the ntldr was corrupted and wouldn't boot, obviously the solution to that was to do a clean install but as xp is to be dead soon, the decision was made to go to the Windows 8.1.
It seems as if this is genuinely possessed by an evil spirit, as I was told by the owner, because LITERALLY NOTHING I've done is allowing me to install Windows 8.1, not even booting into the USB installer of 8.1, or even trying to run Windows 8.1. Normally I deploy Windows through DISM and my custom .wim file onto the hard drive and I boot into WinPE or a neutered Windows installer USB and apply boot files to the drive and it works just fine. That hasn't worked. I had 8.1 on the target drive, was actually able to get the DVD installer to run, although this was the second time since the first run of it didn't even find a hard drive when I plugged it back in, and apply boot files successfully. I restarted, but it ran for about a few seconds and ran into continuous reboots before it said that the install needs to be repaired.
Then I tried to actually run the DVD installer of straight up vanilla Windows 8 to see if maybe there was a CPU requirement not being met, but the installation failed about 47% through. I THINK the error code was 0xc0000221, not sure though. Next I tried remaking a THIRD USB installation of 8.1, but EVERY single time when I boot off into the USB drive, it takes at least five minutes (normally it shouldn't take so long) before any activity on screen shows. But EVERY time, it hangs up and restarts. The error code I got for sure with that was elxstor.sys 0xc0000221. In one of the failed attempts of installing, it was the same thing but with a different .sys file.
The thing is I KNOW for sure my .iso images of Windows are perfectly fine I was just recently used the previous USB installer to deploy 8.1 onto a laptop just yesterday but doesn't work on this PC. The compulator in question is 64 bit capable and as far as I know meets the Windows 8 CPU requirements. I've disconnected EVERY peripheral even the keyboard, and obviously reconnected the keyboard and ran it again. I've cleared the CMOS. I have the USB and keyboard connected to the motherboard's USB ports and not the headers. I've also gone to the extent of using a third party, non-partisan hard drive with Windows 8.1 deployed on it to try and install boot files on that to see if hard drive issues may be present from the PC's drive. That also didn't work nor did installing Windows onto that separate drive from the DVD work either. I've checked the PC's hard drive for errors, everything is ok.
I've installed Windows at least over 100 different times from VMs to many different PCs, but this is literally the first one to cause such an issue I can't even think of why. Although, thinking about it, I do remember once with a slightly older HP desktop when I was trying to run a Windows 7 To Go drive off of it, it just wouldn't run whatsoever and I had to fix the bcdboot files for it run again.
I have Windows 8 in my desktop PC and want to format my hard disk's partition where windows 8 is and install Windows 8.1.
For this, I have a bootable USB with Windows 8.1.
When I try to access BIOS to change the boot order of the PC, pressing DEL (as I always did without problem in previous versions of windows) sends me to a blank screen. The BIOS never load. I tried waiting more than 30 minutes. It wont load.
I also tried clicking RESTART while holding the SHIFT button to access the advance options, but it doesn't show the UEFI Firmware setting that it was supposed to.
Finally, I tried to enter through the PC SETTINGS in the charm bar, but it doesn't show the Update and recovery option I was looking for.
It says: Windows can't be installed to Drive 0 partition 2. (show details)
After I click that I get a 'Windows Setup' popout that says Windows cannot be installed to this disc. The selected disk has an MBR Partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.
I've tried this: Windows 8.1 installation has failed - Microsoft Community
CBS LOG:
Code: 2014-01-31 17:19:00, Info CBS TI: --- Initializing Trusted Installer ---2014-01-31 17:19:00, Info CBS TI: Last boot time: 2014-01-31 17:12:24.3842014-01-31 17:19:00, Info CBS Starting TrustedInstaller initialization.2014-01-31 17:19:00, Info CBS Ending TrustedInstaller initialization.2014-01-31 17:19:00, Info CBS Starting the TrustedInstaller main loop.2014-01-31 17:19:00, Info
ok so i just got 8 today and i went though the installation then after it told me to restart twice the next time it went to a purple screen and i couldn't do anything?