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I have recently decided to upgrade my laptop to an SSD. This has meant that I will need to reinstall Windows 8.1 Pro from scratch. I had first got Windows 8 from Dreamspark last year as an ISO download, and a key (which was only on their site, besides, they no longer have Windows 8 on there), but I kept a copy of the ISO I downloaded then (but no the key). So I have written that to a USB, and it boots up, but the only Key I have is the one I recovered from my previous installation (via Jelly Bean Keyfinder), but it maintains that it is invalid.
Is there anywhere where I can download, or somehow, armed only with a valid Windows 8.1 Pro Key, get Windows installed on my new drive?
p.s. I do have a connector so I could access both drives at the same time (boot from the hdd, and connect the ssd via usb), then copy one to the other (theres enough space), but ideally, I want to do an absolute clean
topherg
Posted 2014-02-21T22:49:10.710
Reputation: 1 004
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I'm not sure about Jelly Bean Keyfinder, but many tools weren't updated to get the Windows 8 keys (which apparently changed algorithms from past products). There are some alternatives to get the actual Win8 key in this question
– ernie – 2014-02-21T23:20:16.3001Its invalid because its a Windows 8.0 key and not a Windows 8.1. The solution of course is to install Windows 8.0 by using they key you do have and then upgrade to Windows 8.1 Otherwise the only other solution is to use a generic Windows 8.1 key then change the license key to your Windows 8.0 key once its installed. – Ramhound – 2014-02-22T00:43:42.207
Is there any way I can recover my Windows 8 key from an existing Windows 8.1 Installation? – topherg – 2014-02-22T11:11:50.853