Recovering windows 8

saddadbadhad · March 30, 2015

My kids use the computer I built about 5 years ago. Originally it used windows 7 pro (64bit) which I upgraded (or downgraded) to windows 8 when it was first released and later updated to win 8.1. I didn't buy a win 8 disk but upgraded online. I have a win 8 recovery flash drive but no disk just the original windows 7 pro disk. Recently the hard drive failed (seagate barracuda doing the clickety clonk failure). I have put in a WD Blue and reinstalled windows 7 pro. But does anyone have any advice on getting back to Windows 8.1? The recovery flash drive isn't much use it just finds the installed version of win 7 and lets you boot.

Any thoughts or help appreciated. Should I just leave them with windows 7?

Thanks

John

zlolslavez · March 30, 2015

I guarantee someone will say just keep Windows 7, it is, "better". But I disagree, as you might as well use what you payed for (if you are willing to do what I say in this post). If you received some type of code to upgrade just use that, if not contact Microsoft.

obsidian1200 · March 30, 2015

Just to preface what I'll say next, I don't think you need to upgrade to Windows 8 unless you have a specific need for it (coming from someone who uses and LOVES Windows 8.1 over 7). Since it's running 7, it should be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10 per Microsoft. If you prefer 8.1 and want to upgrade, read on.

Do you still have your upgrade key for Windows 8? This will be needed for the upgrade process. If you do, this article from Microsoft will walk you through the upgrade process. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/upgrade-from-windows-7-tutorialThe guide mentions specifically 8.1, but the windows 8 product key should work fine. I've used Windows 8 product keys with 8.1 installations and there haven't been any issues (yet).

If you don't have the code, do you still have the old drive and can you boot into it at all? There are tools available to pull product keys from windows installations, although not always reliable.

Cheers!

saddadbadhad · March 30, 2015

Thanks to both obsidian1200 and zlolslavez for their responses. The disk is stuffed and more so since I tried freezing it to see if that would work (it didn't). But I have searched my old emails and found the receipt which has the upgrade key. I remember how bitterly disappointed I was with Microsoft after I installed win 8.0 and found it to be almost un-usable. Up to that point I loved their products right back to MSDOS. Now I still resent that they took me for $NZ50 for that downgrade. Win 8.1 is way better than 8.0 and doesn't require Stardock. I will put 8.1 back on as we are all used to it now quirks and all and as you say I have paid for it.

Thanks again for your help.