Windows 10 Help

I decided to do the upgrade from 8.1 to 10 and got my MBR hosed for my trouble. I am guessing it was caused by having a dual boot of 8.1 Pro and 8.1 Enterprise. I booted off Linux to back up my data and removed the hard drive with 8.1 Enterprise. Now how do I do the upgrade? Do I have to reinstall 8.1 Pro all over again? Or is there a way to bypass that? I tried to do a repair but it said my hard drive was locked and to unlock it, that was new. Its an A-DATA 240GB SSD.

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stryder144

Do you have the Windows 10 license key? If so, I would download the appropriate ISO from Microsoft and do a clean install.

ssnyderu2

No key, it never got that far.

Plantwiz

Are you using the 'free' upgrade? If so, I believe your Win8 license key is what is going to move you into Win10. Not 100% as I have not bothered to do the install (did the download) but I believe you need to reinstall win8.1 and then run the upgrade again....however, I was able to download the full media, so if you did the full media, you may be able to install a clean Win 10, but just need your win8 key.

markulous

I had this huge long conversation with my coworkers today about this and Google'd the hell out of this.

From what I can tell, unless you purchase a key, you have to go the long route and install 7, 8, or 8.1 then upgrade. Supposedly the keys you get for Windows 10 are all generic too, so not sure how we handle new hard drives after next year when it's no longer free.

varelg

bbbbb hahahahaha! Windows... 10...

varelg

So you are saying you had dual boot Windows 8.1. Which of those two did you try to upgrade from?

xD Lucas

markulous wrote: »

I had this huge long conversation with my coworkers today about this and Google'd the hell out of this.

From what I can tell, unless you purchase a key, you have to go the long route and install 7, 8, or 8.1 then upgrade. Supposedly the keys you get for Windows 10 are all generic too, so not sure how we handle new hard drives after next year when it's no longer free.

I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10, pulled the Windows 10 key using "Produkey", and now I have a Windows 10 DVD I can clean install.

markulous

xD Lucas wrote: »

I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10, pulled the Windows 10 key using "Produkey", and now I have a Windows 10 DVD I can clean install.

Have you done it yet? I use Produkey for a lot of things also, but I read that that program or Magical Jelly Bean just pulls a generic key.

xD Lucas

markulous wrote: »

Have you done it yet? I use Produkey for a lot of things also, but I read that that program or Magical Jelly Bean just pulls a generic key.

I've done a clean install of Windows 10 with the key. I read on another forum that Windows 10 is a lot like Windows 8 in that it takes note of your hardware configuration, and the key isn't even required. I haven't read that anywhere else, but it's plausible.

stryder144

I upgraded from the Preview version of Windows 10 to Windows 10 Professional final. I used Belarc Advisor to pull the key and did a clean install. Everything installed easily without any hitches.

ssnyderu2

After a whole day of working with it I finally tracked the problem to an external usb drive. Not sure what it had to do with anything, but when I turned it off all was good.

Ukimokia

markulous wrote: »

I had this huge long conversation with my coworkers today about this and Google'd the hell out of this.

From what I can tell, unless you purchase a key, you have to go the long route and install 7, 8, or 8.1 then upgrade. Supposedly the keys you get for Windows 10 are all generic too, so not sure how we handle new hard drives after next year when it's no longer free.

Microsoft has stated that the key for windows 10 is going to be cached in your physical hardware outside just your HDD. So unless you're replacing your motherboard, memory, and HDD you should probably be fine. There may also be a way to back it up like how you'd normally backup your system.

markulous

Ukimokia wrote: »

Microsoft has stated that the key for windows 10 is going to be cached in your physical hardware outside just your HDD. So unless you're replacing your motherboard, memory, and HDD you should probably be fine. There may also be a way to back it up like how you'd normally backup your system.

Curious how exactly they do this. Stored on the CMOS?

Michael-

"Windows 10 handles keys differently. When you upgrade to Windows 10 via Windows Update from Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, the process registers your computers hardware, and qualifying OS with a Microsoft Product Activation Server. The device is then considered a Windows 10 device.

Subsequently anytime you re-install (or clean install) the installation checks with those servers, finds the unique installation ID and produces the validation"