Yesterday, my Windows 8.1 preview machine decided it was going to restart every 2 hours unless I install the full 8.1. The problem is that the store install doesn't work; when I click "download", I get a message saying "something happened and the install of 8.1 Preview can't be completed." I also lost my installation disc at some point, assuming that would even work. What should I do?
View 1 RepliesYesterday, I clean-installed Windows 8 Pro x86 on an old Dell Vostro 1400 laptop which had been running Windows 7 Ultimate, and it activated and ran fine, without even a single exclamation point in Device Manager. I applied the update necessary to make the Store offer 8.1 and proceeded to install it as I've done on a couple other machines. After downloading the thing, it errored out with:
Couldn't install Windows 8.1
Contact your PC manufacturer to see if you can upgrade the System BIOS
When I clicked the OK button, it then gave me the informative and grammar-challenged error box:
Something happened and the Windows 8.1 couldn't be installed. Please try again. Error code: 0xc1900104
Try again Cancel
Ever the optimist, I clicked Try again, and of course, it proceeded to download all over again from scratch, only to error out in the same way. I then downloaded all the Windows 8 updates, although just the one had been necessary on my other machines that successfully upgraded to 8.1, and tried again, only to get the same result.
Today, I've discovered the Windows 8.1 Compatibility Assistant, which avoids the lengthy download of the upgrade every time (Microsoft, maybe you should run it implicitly before downloading 3 GB of transient data), and it tells me:
This PC doesn't meet system requirements
Contact your PC manufacturer to see if you can upgrade the System BIOS
Obviously, no BIOS updates are available, and what exactly is the problem here with my BIOS. The obvious googling turned up nothing except some people with Sony Vaios that had the same problem, which was corrected with a BIOS update, and of course, there is no information on what their BIOS update does to make the 8.1 upgrade possible.
When 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.
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 decided to make a fresh install with a iso from the download page and use the key that they provide on that same page. Windows 8.1 Preview ISO files - Microsoft Windows. I tried english 64bit...
Running from windows 8 seamed to work but i didnt have 6.8 GB free .. So I go to boot from the iso and format the partition. But got the message saying , the key is invalid ... tried my own genuine windows 8 pro key .. also didn't work.
How to install Windows 8.1 Preview using a Local Account.
1. Input your email address.
2. Type anything in the password field, but not your real password.
3. The following should appear prompting you to create a Local Account.
4. Click on "create a local account now"
Downloaded WindowsBlue-ClientwithApps-64bit-English-X1899605.ISO from Microsoft Site Burned Into DVD and USB Flash Using Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool After booting from DVD or USB i stuck at the fish logo !! and the screen is turned off after 2 or 3 minutes with activity in USB or DVD !!
tried it several times using different HDD with no success
Windows 8 Installation is OK without a single problem
Motherboard Gigabyte EP35-DS3L
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7200 @ 2.53GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 3650
HDD : SAMSUNG HD753LJ , WDC WD3200AAJS-00B4A0 and SAMSUNG HD154UI
After 3 days of fruitless searching and multiple attempts to install 8.1 I finally found the answer. My hardware does not have the required LAHF/SAHF support nor does it support Prefe6tchW. Why this matters now withe the 8.1 update when it does not matter with 8 is beyond me.
See here: Can't install or upgrade to 8.1 Preview - Microsoft Community
My old, reliable Dell Precision 370 is now at the end of it's long, illustrious life as far as new updates. I'll have to stay with 8.
I am getting this when I am trying to install Windows 8.1 preview on my computer, The Computer already has Windows 8 Preview on it now..
Error 0x0000000A when installing windows 8.1preview
I upgraded my computer's OS from W7 to Windows 8 some months ago. Not long after, I upgraded to the preview of the Windows 8.1 Pro. My Windows-license is legit, bought and valid. However, when I returned from my christmas holiday, I noticed the message in picture #2. Fair enough, I thought and proceeded forth.
Clicking 'Get Windows' got me to the screen pictured at #3. Oddly enough, I am unable to click any of the buttons, including Download, Home, Your apps and Your account. I can access the links further down on the page (which aren't included in this screencap) but for some reason I can't press anything else.
When I've tried to access the Windows 8 Store before this problem arised, even before I installed Windows 8.1, I have literally never been able to access the Windows 8 Store (See picture #1).
How do I go from here? I would like to register the Windows 8.1 ...
#1
#2
#3
I'm trying to find the official Microsoft licence agreement for Windows 8.1 Preview - any link?
I want to use Windows 8.1 Preview in a VM on a Windows 7 PC.
Normally for the full version of Windows 8, and I guess Windows 8.1 when the full version arrives, you'd need a separate licence for the VM installation. But does this apply to the preview version as well?
I'm trying to find a definitive link on the Microsoft website...
A while back I purchased a computer that had Windows 8, I then upgraded it to 8.1 when the update came out.
Through work I have been given permission to us one of the MAK keys we have for 8.1 Pro/Enterprise, and trying to use "Windows Anytime Update" says I cannot upgrade using the key. I don't want to install over everything or upgrade using the install CD as it usually messes things up... Is tehre an easy way to upgrade from a OEM base version to a MAK Pro/Enterprise edition?
Is it allowed to upgrade to Win 8 pro 64 bit from Win 7 32 bit?
View 4 Replies View RelatedCan I install Windows 10 Preview alongside with Windows 8.1?
View 9 Replies View RelatedIt's a temptation to install and explore 8.1, but siding on the side of caution and prefer to delay the upgrade.
The 8.1 upgrade is NOT automatic, is it?
I would like to wait, maybe a month, for all the kinks and bugs to get worked out of 8.1 before it's installed on my PC.
Using a dual-boot, with Win7 on the other side. If it's not possible, then I plan to continue with just using Win7.
I am currently using asus a42ja as my main laptop, and installed EOM version of windows 7 on it. Then i got an upgrade (from Microsoft store) to windows 8, a couple of months ago I upgraded to windows 8.1. Long story short, i got an SSD , and i wanted to clean install windows 8.1 on it.
1. the windows update advisor for windows 8.1 wont receive the product key that i currently have (win 8 upgrade) does that mean i cant do clean installation?? or should i install win 8 and do upgrade manually (which is a pain)??
2. lets say i will do clean intall win 8 on the ssd, will my upgrade key works? will i encounter a problem with the activation process?
3. other option is to reset my win 8.1 and clone the fresh copy to the ssd , but i never done this before , only refresh, and if im resetting my computer, do i need to re activate the windows? (and will my product key works?)
4. the last and least preferred option : do windows refresh and clone the system drive to ssd.
is there some utility to backup the windows activation?all i wanted to do is do a clean install of windows 8.1 (and activate it) on the new drive.
I have windows 7 and bought windows 8 upgrade discs (still unopened), I have no SSD now but want to buy one. What should i Do install win 8 first then the SSD? Or the other way around? What's better What will my recovery options be if I get a nasty virus? Also once my ssd is in it can't fit everything so when i want to download things and programs to the old HDD that will be fine right i can still access them from the desktop.
View 7 Replies View RelatedI just got a new laptop, running Windows 8.1 SL. I wanted to connect it to the office Active Directory domain, just to find that it can't. Now I know I can go to Control Panel, to the "Add features to Windows 8.1", and purchase an 8.1 Pro key. But my company has a Windows 8.1 volume license key, and there are still a few available that I can use.
However, I already have everything set up pretty much the way I want it; I don't want to format and re-install Windows. I tried to do the Windows "Add features to Windows 8.1" ("Windows Anytime Upgrade" as it was called in Windows 7) using our Volume License key, but it doesn't want to accept the key.
So I was wondering if there is any way to do this upgrade without losing any data? For example, is there something I can do with slmgr? Or can I maybe just insert the 8.1 Pro disc and do an upgrade?
Is upgrading from Win 8 to Win 8.1 working ?
I used the downloaded .iso (MSDN), but it only offered to keep personal files, all applications were gone after install.
Is this the expected behavior ?
If yes, this will be difficult cause MS has stated that all 8 users must upgrade to 8.1
Do the same applies to Server 2012 R2 (upgrade from 2012 to 2012 R2) ?
It looks like this PC can't run Windows 8.1. This might be because the Users or Program Files Folder is being redirected to another partition.
Using the guide (User Profiles - Relocate to another Partition or Disk), I had relocated my user profiles to D: Drive, when I installed my windows 8 Pro. I was able to go Windows Store to download 8.1 but I get the above error ...
Can I use the same guide and move back all user profiles, including local admin to C: Drive? and then upgrade to 8.1?
Upon upgrading, can I change again the user profiles to D: Drive?
last year i buy a upgrade of windows 8 pro. Now i have a dvd of windows 8.1 pro but no activation key. Can i use the activation key from my upgrade?
View 1 Replies View RelatedThe upgrade from windows 8 to 8.1 stops after the stage "setting up for a few more things" and reverts to windows 8.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI've tried everything, and it seems nothing works. Makes it to 72 percent on "Keep files, settings and apps", "Keep files" and "Nothing". Any other methods that might work? By the way, I'm using a USB to install the upgrade.
Things I've tried:
Disable video drivers
Delete temp
Delete other user accounts
Only Windows services
No start-up programs
Having previously upgraded to Windows 8 I restored the factory installation of Windows 7 prior to warranty repairs to my PC. Now that the repairs are satisfactorily completed what are my best options in upgrading again? On the one hand I could go ahead with the upgrade now or on the other should I wait until Microsoft have completed development of Windows 8.1?
View 3 Replies View RelatedAt work i have Windows 8 Pro installed from an MSDN ISO, having been waiting for the 8.1 update today i have now just seen a quote on Microsoft's site saying "If you installed Windows 8 using an MSDN ISO, you might be able to install Windows 8.1 using a similar ISO from MSDN"
Is there an easy upgrade option for this type of Windows 8 install? Preferably, without losing any data.
I purchased my HP Envy laptop a few months back - it came pre-installed with Windows 8. This ended up becoming problematic because as a gamer, a few of the games I wished to play were not compatible (even after scouring the net and researching a million ways to try get certain games to work).
So to cut a long story short, I did a full partition backup of all the partitions my laptop and then reformatted everything into 1 single hard drive, which I then installed Windows 7 on to. While Windows 7 works well on this machine, I've lost a few functions due to some incompatible drivers (like the amazing audio my laptop used to have, the fingerprint scanner, etc). I soon came to discover that my laptop model was specifically designed for Windows 8 and could therefore not be perfectly compatible with Windows 7.
So now, I would really like to restore how my laptop was beforehand (with Windows 8), although I am not sure how to go about doing this. I still have my full backup of my laptop's previous state. The program I used to back it up was EaseUs Todo Backup. This may seem like a bit of a dumb question, but I'm a little nervous to tamper with things I may not understand, like I did when I previously downgraded my PC to Win 7.
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?
I'm upgrading from Windows 8* After downloading 3 gig and then it installs automatically. THen it restart automatically and at 68% ("Getting Devices Ready: 68%" it crashed. Restarted it and it restored back to Windows 8..
An error code is:
0xC1900101, 0x30018
Don't want to download 3 gig again, where is the installation file saved?
What should I do now? Install it again?
I'm using Asus N53J Laptop.
I had a laptop running Windows XP. When Windows 8 came out, I downloaded Windows 8 Pro upgrade. I clean-installed it and also upgraded to WMC edition when Microsoft were giving this away for free.
Now that PC is kind of dying (it is about eight years old,) so I have bought myself a new one. The new one came running Windows 8 (not Pro, not WMC) OEM. I have no intention of ever using my old PC again, so my question is as follows:
How do I legally remove the Pro and WMC licences (and if required, Windows 8 itself) from the old PC and upgrade the new PC's Windows 8 to Pro WMC? I have a record of both the Pro and WMC product keys already. But how do I legally move them across to the new PC and upgrade the new PC's Windows 8 OEM to Pro WMC?
i have purchased windows8 to upgrade windows 7, install helper confirmed virtually all was ok to do it , windows 8 would not install over windows7 so after talking to microsoft i made a partition and dual booted to see if windows 8 worked, it does. Now i would like to upgrade my existing 7 or migrate all the emails programmes etc to windows8. what is the way to do this do i just try and upgrade windows 7 with 8 or is there a better way.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI want to upgrade my Windows 7 home premium to windows 8 pro, but I have multiple user accounts on this PC. Will it keep all files, settings and applications for all users?
Edit: for the upgrade I will be using the Windows 8 Pro .iso file from the MSDN