Windows 8 recovery after HDD crash

[Draax]

Hello,
First of all i would like to apologize for my English due to its not my native language.

I have a costumers Acer laptop in for repair, the hard drive are dead.
Gave him an offer to repair it and he accepted but then i found out he have Windows 8 on it. (out of warranty)
He has no recovery disks what so ever and there are no product key printed on the oem label.
I do have an oem disk for Windows 8 but once i boot it up it will ask me straight up for a product key.
I heard rumors or read somewhere the product key is located in the bios but i have no idea where to find it or how to deal with this.
Of course i could order some new from Acer but since i remember they need COA and product key number but there isn't anything like that.

Have anyone encountered this problem?
Thanks a lot in advance - Johan

 

[HFultzjr]

This may be of some help.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/ss/windows-8-clean-install-part-1.htm

 

[glricht]

Based on previous TN posts and other sources of information, I came up with the following procedure. It's worked for me when I had to replace a bad HD:

1. Obtain the customer's legal Win 8 product key.
a) If the customer has the product key already, proceed to step 2
b) If the PC will boot and the key is in the BIOS, run RWEverything (http://rweverything.com/) to display the key
c) If the PC will not boot, bypass this until after step 2

2. Install Win 8 using the appropriate generic key below. The key will allow Win 8 to be installed,
but you'll need to change it later.
334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT for Core/Home (8.x)
XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB for Professional (8.x Pro)

3. If you don't yet have the genuine product key, do step 1b

4. Change the product key to the one extracted in step 1

5. The OS will show as activated

Hope this helps.

 

[Draax]

glricht,
This might work very well. I will try it asap and report back!
Thanks!

 

[Draax]

Works like a charm, thanks a lot!!

 

[onetech4all]

I follows the steps, and I could not find the Win 8 key to extract. Can someone post some pictures or some more light on this subject please?

 

[Draax]

Hi there,
This video will show you how its done:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/a-clean-install-of-windows/microsoft-product-activation/obtaining-your-oem-bios-embedded-slp-product-key-using-rw-everything-oem-only/

 

[danrmcr]

I've ran into it a couple times, where if the license sticker just says Windows 8 then you need an OEM/Retail Windows 8 disc, not 8.1 as 8.1 is a different product key.

If it is an 8.1 sticker than you need an 8.1 disc... if I am not mistaken.

 

[Draax]

In my case i used a 8.1 disk with a 8.0 product key, it worked great for me.
However i don't know if it works the reverse way yet.

 

[onetech4all]

Thanks! This worked for me!