Win8 Media Creation Tool asks for KEY

[watrhous]

Im trying to reinstall Win8 onto a ssd using the media creation tool USB and its asking for a key. Bah!

Thes old drive is literally dead or i would use produkey to get the key and other info.

Any ideas why this is happening and more importantly HOW to get around it?

This is a HP beats edition 17 laptop.

 

[Rogue Leader]

The Laptop should have a label on it somewhere with the product key. If it does not well you're out of luck.

 

[Barty1884]

Most keys from laptops will show as "OEM" an unable to use the media creation tool anyway - MS usually divert those cases to the manufacturer.

FWIW, somewhat similar to W10 (which uses your hardware activation on MS's servers), W8(.1) has an imbedded key in the BIOS firmware (I believe that's how it works - could be wrong), and it should read that & reactivate when you reinstall the OS & get online - I had to reset one like this, skipped the prompts & it activated fine.

Getting the install media will be the tricky part (I had a USB drive I'd created from another setup, so didn't have the same issue).

 

[watrhous]

Most keys from laptops will show as "OEM" an unable to use the media creation tool anyway - MS usually divert those cases to the manufacturer.

FWIW, somewhat similar to W10 (which uses your hardware activation on MS's servers), W8(.1) has an imbedded key in the BIOS firmware (I believe that's how it works - could be wrong), and it should read that & reactivate when you reinstall the OS & get online - I had to reset one like this, skipped the prompts & it activated fine.

Getting the install media will be the tricky part (I had a USB drive I'd created from another setup, so didn't have the same issue).

Win8 and 10 Keys are embedded in the mainboard like you said. So this is the source of my confusion. Either way, i got it to install by using a freshly made media creation tool USB. I must have been using Win8.1 Pro or something on the flash drive i made before because this home edition worked.

PRAISE THE LORD! Hallelujah!