I had to do a clean install of Windows 7. I have a product code to reinstall my Windows 8 product but can't find the iso files. I upgraded to 8 when it was available ditto for 8.1
View 3 RepliesHaving 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 RelatedI build my own desktop. I first had Windows Vista on it, which I bought on a DVD. I then skipped Windows 7 completely, but later upgraded to Windows 8 when Microsoft had a promotional period for it early in 2012 when it just came out.
Now I'm replacing the motherboard and also swapping the HDD to SSD, and I'm curious. Can I still install Windows 8 as an upgrade like I did before? And if yes, then how?
Yesterday, 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.
Let's say your computer comes with Windows 8 (not 8 Pro) preinstalled, using a SLIC and not a product key. Yu decide you hate the OEM crapware and want to do a clean reinstall. Bt you don't have reinstallation media, or the media includes the crapware.
View 9 Replies View Relatedi have a newish samsung laptop that came preinstalled with windows 8 but i need to format the stock hard drive and i was wondering how i would reinstall full windows 8 without a product key.
View 9 Replies View RelatedI have Windows 8.1 installed and then I installed Windows 7 afterward and now the system is using the Windows 7 bootloader as opposed to the Windows 8.1 bootloader. What I want to do is get set the Windows 8.1 as the default bootloader.
View 4 Replies View Relatedmy laptop came with a pre installed windows 8 having gpt format but i downgraded to windows 7 and reformatted it to ntfs,.. now I want to go back to windows 8 and format the drive to gpt again, but the external hard drive that contains the backup image was corrupted. What should I do?
View 6 Replies View RelatedI got windows 8 online and I went to try and use the re install feature but its prompting me with this "Some files are missing. Your Windows installation or recovery media will provide these files" But since i got it online I don't have the CD but I do have the product key
View 3 Replies View RelatedI want to increase performance on my pc, and i would like to rest to factory settings, I did not create any discs stupidly at the begging
View 7 Replies View RelatedIm reinstalling windows 8 on my just formatted hard drives since I've filled up 1.5 terabyte with shit. (Not porn) and now I can't install it again?
View 9 Replies View RelatedI have never dabbled in the installation or reinstallation of Windows 8 so far, but I am looking for information on how to re-install windows 8 onto a desktop computer that does not come with restore discs.
Now is it true that the CD-Key is stored on the BIOS? Or was that just a rumor that was floating around, I have never had true clarification on that.
If the answer is no, where would I find the CD-Key at that point?
Basically it is for a desktop computer that is no longer functioning and there were no restore discs created during original operation of the computer.
I accidentally reinstalled Windows 8.1 on a MBR partitioning style. I'm debating whether to start over and make sure I do it properly as GPT. I haven't installed any programs yet...is it worth it? (my MB is recent, supports UEFI, and im installing to an SSD).
View 3 Replies View RelatedI tried to reinstall windows 8.1 and it deleted my files I used it as a back up drive on my windows 7 pc I had 2 drives one with 7 the other 8 it ran fine when i set it up and used it a few times but the last time i was trying to boot it. It crashed so I tried to reinstall windows files but when it booted back up my files was not there i did not format to HD just reinstall windows i have the windows old files but my files are not in them i can run recovery software and see my files but before i do any thing that i can not undo I want to know is there a way to get my files back i have used recovery software in the past and only got back a few files so I am trying bypass that if I can.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI purchased a Lenovo laptop with Windows 8 Pro preinstalled. It came with 500 GB HDD. I changed the DVD Rom with SSD/HDD tray to use for additional drive. I put an SSD in there and installed Windows 8 on it using a USB Recovery Drive, which I don't have anymore. So my current setup looks like this:
After upgrading to Windows 8.1, the license of some software I'm using got messed up and I couldn't manage fixing it, so the only option I've got left is to reinstall/reset Windows. But since the Recovery partition is on another drive, when I go about creating a Recovery Drive, the option "Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive" is greyed out. I've got stuff on my HDD, which I can't currently backup so I don't wan't to format that drive. I'm perfectly fine with formatting the SSD, that's what I want.
How can I reinstall/reset my Windows? The only option I see is to install Windows on the Hard Drive (by doing a backup and formatting it first), and then create a usb recovery drive and reinstall again on the SSD, but that's a lot of hassle and I'd need to find an external hard drive for the backup.
I intentionally left the Hard Drive in the original bay (as Disk 0) because of the better protection against falling compared to the added bay in place of the DVD drive.
I will need to do a complete system recovery. My computer originally came with windows 7 and then downloaded and installed windows 8. I have my product key. When I downloaded windows 8 it gave me the option of burning a copy of windows 8 to a dvd, however I did not do that. Whenever I do a system recovery will I be able to get windows 8 back without having to pay for another download?
View 6 Replies View RelatedI did a factory reset on my windows 8, and it messed up, not completing. so it is now stuck on a cycle of 'preparing automatic repair' and 'diagnosing your pc'.
And I today recieved the windows 8 cd to reinstall the os.
But after I've chosen language, I get error message saying I'm missing 1 of the media drivers.
Computer: alienware m14x r2 laptop
I do this day in and day out with Volume Licensing but never with OEM installs...
A user that works at our company brought their personal laptop in, the hard drive failed hard drive tests so we have put one of our spare hard drives in and now we need to re-install Windows 8 x64.
Where do i get the installation media from if the users doesn't have a disc? Is it possible or do we need to order a disc?
My Boot loader on my Desktop crashed so i formatted the drive as it was my only option. I'm attempting to reinstall windows...
-so i downloaded windows from: Upgrade Windows with only a product key as i was instructed to by the 1800 Microsoft support staff.
-made a usb installation media and used my Original Product Key. i did this on my laptop. and then once the installation media was finished i plugged it in to my desktop. it didn't work it said the product key was invalid and to please try again.
-so i called them back and the ended up giving me a new product key. i tried that with them still on the line and it didn't work their suggestion was to recreate the installation media.
- i did that this morning because i was irritated enough for one night. any way it didn't work, i noticed one thing. at the end of the creation of the installation media it keeps giving me my old product key to use.
Just to be clear because I tend to ramble a lot. this old product key is the one that i got from Microsoft when i purchased windows 8 pro. i purchased it online at microsoft.com when windows 8 first came out. i have no original installation disk because i originally downloaded some software from their site.
I dont want to buy a new copy of windows because in my opinion i shouldn't have to. What i would like to figure out is how do i create instalation media with the new product key that they gave me? every time i reinstall the install windows 8 file from Microsoft.com it for some strange reason keeps giving me my old product key and i cant seem to be able to change that.
what is the best way to install a clean version windows 8 pro without losing my files, data and programs. I want to do that because my windows 8 became so slow and takes very long time to respond. whatsoever program or browser I open, takes some time ranging 30 sec to 5 minutes!! This thing never happened before as now I get not responding message on the window of each program...
Is there a way on how to do that?
Currently i am using windows 8 pro retail version.But i want to change the retail edition of my windows 8 to volume license version of windows 8 pro so that i can activate my product with the key provided by my corporate network.How to change windows 8 pro retail to windows 8 pro vl without reinstalling windows??
View 2 Replies View RelatedI tried to run "Reset and reinstall windows" when I found out that "keep nothing" is not a clean install.
However, the reinstallation part (Windows setup, with the serial number part) starts over and over again.
So I fresh installed Windows 8 on Legacy boot, deleting all partitions even the factory restore partitions, everything. I realized late that the new trendy thing is to install on UEFI, however I'm having difficulty doing this. How exactly do I go about this?
My laptop has a 256 gb SSD mSATA where Windows and apps are installed, and a media HDD sized at 750 gb. I deleted every partition I had when I installed Windows 8 and made new ones for a fresh install, however I think this is preventing me from doing a UEFI install correctly..
Me and my girlfriend both have recently bought new laptops that came with Windows 8 installed (HP Pavilion) but wiped the drive and installed Ubuntu straight away without booting Windows 8.
Now that 8.1 is out we want to give it a chance. I see I can download 8.1 preview from Microsoft but it comes with a product key, so I'm guessing that it will expire once 8.1 is officially released, but both laptops had Windows 8 preinstalled so they should have an embedded product key, correct?
Is is possible to install 8.1 preview and get it to use the embedded product keys, or do I have to buy a HP recovery disc and use that to install Windows 8 on both laptops, then update both to 8.1 through the store?
Also, if I was to buy a Windows 8 DVD in store (only about 20 more than a HP recovery disc), could I use that to install Windows 8 on both laptops (using the embedded product keys), and then use the product key that came with it to upgrade a family member to Windows 8?
I ahad updatedmy wife's laptop acer spire 5740 G from windows 7 to 8 and then updated to 8.1. She did not like os and asked me to revert back to 7. After running setup I formated the drivve C containing windows 8. But now computer doesnt boot and I tried to reinstall teh system but I cant see my hard disk- Setup runs till where do you want to install your OS and then I cant find my hard disk
View 9 Replies View RelatedI 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?
The 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 RelatedMy daughter brought her Gateway NE71B laptop to me because it was running like a snail. She had NO anti-virus software so I plugged in an external HDD and created what I thought was a Recovery Partition. When I had the computer boot to the external drive I tried the auto repair twice and failed both times.
When I tried to recover from the external drive I got an error message that said I/O error that could be caused by the fact that a portable device needed to be plugged in to continue.
Didn't know what to do so I unplugged the drive and tried again. No bootable devices found. Plugged the external drive back in and got the same I/O error. So I thought I'd just order the recovery media from Gateway. The day it arrived, I put the System Recovery disk in, It booted to the recovery screen with 3 options; Full recovery (original factory setup), Full recovery after removing data and Exit. I've tried both the first 2 options and up pops a window that says; Recovery must be done in Legacy Mode.
So I changed the bios from UEFI to legacy, restarted the computer with the Sys. Disk still in DVD tray, It start to load the recovery screen and up pops a window that says; Recovery Can Only Be Done In UEFI Mode.
If I were to guess, I would say I have an MBR virus and it's playing tricks with me. I've ordered a new identical hard drive to install when it arrives and hope to be able to get the recovery media to get back to normal.