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I have a PC running Windows 8 which I wanted to reset. It was running extremely slow. It was taking 15 minutes to show every window I click and about 20-30 minutes to boot up.

I managed to live through going to recovery options (in PC Settings i.e. inside the OS) and clicked on "reset my PC" and chose to remove everything and do a clean install. It rebooted to splash screen, started resetting process and next thing I know, it aborted at about around 3-7% (estimate, since I wasn't looking when it aborted).

I looked to see "Could not reset your PC" or "There was a problem resetting your PC" or something to that effect. Now I tried to boot it up again, it said C:\ is corrupted and started scanning and repairing. 60% in the process (about an hour), it aborted abruptly (I WAS looking) and restarted itself. 9% through the second repair it aborted and said there was a problem and I need to reinstall Windows 8 from a media (I don't have one, it came pre-installed) or contact support.

I did contact support and chat is busy and booted me out of queue, now I'll Email them. Any suggestions? I don't care about any data in the PC so any solution is valid. The only thing I want to keep, is the Windows 8 product key which I didn't extract from Windows since I figured I'm using their own built-in utility, and I now just read, it can't be extracted since it's a preinstalled copy of Windows 8.

Ramhound
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Mars
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3 Answers3

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You can download any Windows 8.X Core/Professional/Single Language installation media if you don't choose to wait for your OEM to send you one. The only thing you have to make sure of is that it is the correct version ( Core/Professional/Single Language ) that matches the license type for your device otherwise the license key that is detected won't work.

If that happens I suggested using the generic license key for Windows 8.0 or Windows 8.1 which matches installation type you originally had installed. Microsoft Support isn't going to be able to send you an installation disk thats up to the OEM to provide unless Microsoft is the OEM (i.e. Surface Pro, ect ).

There are also tools that can take a look at the memory location where the license is stored on (some) OEM products to display the license. The tool is RWEverything and the tutorial on how to use it to determine your enter link description herelicense. I remember reading this tool does not work with every OEM, so if the tool does not work, contact your OEM for assistance in that matter. Here is question that lists other solutions to extracting the license out of BIOS.

Additionally here is some information on Windows 8.1 generic license keys.Also Belarc Advisor allows you to legally extract your license key once you have Windows installed with your actual license key. Its the only tool I know that gives you the correct license key for Microsoft products.

Community
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Ramhound
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There is no way to extract the product key from windows, it should be on the underside of the laptop sometimes hidden under the battery.

If it has factory reset partition it should still be accessible and you can try again.

Andrew Crawford
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Hey to who this my concern All you have to do is: 1- go to bios setup 2- disable boot from Hard drive COMPLETELY. 3- activate booting from your CD Drive 4- Save changes and exit. 5- restart your computer . 6. you'll be asked to click any key to boot from CD Drive.

the PC will start from your CD Drive, and you can go on .. I had the same problem too but it work for me perfectly.

Rÿdër Jâxkšôń
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