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Windows 8/10 and new HD

  • 07-12-2015 11:43am
    #1
    oscarBravo
    Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 28,831 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Background: my sister bought a laptop with Windows 8 on it. A week or two ago, the hard drive died. She needed it sorted in a hurry for college, so I got a new hard drive and did a fresh install of Windows on it.

    Now, I'm not a Windows guy, but it seemed logical to me to install Windows 10, since that's the direction things are headed anyway, so I downloaded an ISO and got it up and running. I told her to ring Microsoft and explain the situation, and they should be able to activate it for her.

    Several hours and four different people later, she finally got her Windows 8 licence key - but not a key that will work on Windows 10. "Beyond unhelpful" is how she described them.

    So here's my question: am I going to have to wipe the damn thing again and install Win8 on it in order to get it licensed? Does anyone know of a workaround?

    Cheers.


Comments

  • #2
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Has your sister got the Windows 10 1511/November/Threshold 2 update installed? It's meant to accept Windows 8.x keys for activation.

    The last resort would be to install 8 and do an upgrade, or, if you can, install 8 on another hard drive, activate it, then use gatherosstate.exe to generate the activation ticket. You could then import the ticket to the existing 10 install.

    They definitely don't make it easy; the official way is to install 8 and then upgrade to 10!


  • #3
    Irish Steve
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 6,522 Mod ✭✭✭✭Irish Steve


    Just to complicate things, depending on exactly when you downloaded the Win 10 ISO, you may have got the earlier version, rather than the latest version (1511, otherwise known as TH2, still buggy on some video drivers) that was released and withdrawn, which will activate with a Win 7 or 8 key.

    It may be worth downloading the ISO again, and checking with it to see if it says it's going to update, if that's the case, then the Win 8 key won't work with the version you have now.

    And yes, Microsoft do seem to be very good at making a total mess of even the simplest things, let alone a complex update.

    Shore, if it was easy, everybody would be doin it.😁



  • #4
    oscarBravo
    Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 28,831 Mod ✭✭✭✭oscarBravo


    I downloaded the ISO on Saturday morning; it's Win10_1511_English_x64.iso.

    Thanks for the help so far, folks. This is why I use Fedora!


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