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I'm a Sony VAIO User. I bought it from internet. It came to me with a preinstalled Windows 8. There was no serial key on any surface of laptop and i was given no CD or any other stuff, just the laptop; so I had no serial key.

Like a month ago, my harddisk crashed, and needed to replace it; and temporarily a pc service installed Windows 10 because of we didn't know the serial key. But as you know, it's not compatible with a lot of things. Now I want to install Windows 8 again and update to 8.1.. etc.

I found my serial key within a help of a program. I checked it by microsoft technical support chat and they said it's an OEM version.

My questions are:

  • Is it possible for me to reinstall windows 8 with that serial key?
  • If yes, how?

(When I try to install download windows 8 from this site http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only, after i enter my key, it says "This product key cannot be used to install a retail version of Windows 8").

Kevin Panko
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ilkeaw
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1 Answers1

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Windows 8 machines have Windows 8 key embedded in the motherboard. So every time you reinstall Windows on your machine it will always read it and activate automatically. The reason for this is that hash is generated based on system and then the key is matched to this hash and this info is stored somewhere on Microsoft servers.. And usual problem with that setup is that when the motherboard was replaced, then the Win8 key is absent from replacement board, and new key is supplied with the board (or at least that's how Dell does it). And after that the new key is matched with new hash somewhere. Side effect of that is that you cannot use same key on two systems without major phone time with Microsoft (if at all possible).

Usually there should not be problems with installers when all is ok. I've installed windows 8 from dell OEM windows key on Dells, Lenovos, HPs and one Toshiba and always - if computer had genuine preinstalled Windows 8 - it never asked for key while installing, and after installation it was activated.

So in your case you have to reach the seller of your machine. If it was supposed to be new, you probably got scammed. If it is refurb/used, there may be problem... But either way worth trying - maybe they will have some solution to that.

AcePL
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