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Thread: Fresh install of windows 8 upgrade

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    Fresh install of windows 8 upgrade

    Hi guys,
    I moved today from a dodgy hard drive to a fresh install of windows 8, but the issue I have is that my windows 8 key is only for upgrades not fresh installs. Can I do a mirror of the old install on the old failing hard drive or will that not work? Alternatively I'm guessing I have to install windows 7 first and then upgrade rather tediously....
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    Minister of Silly Walks
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    Re: Fresh install of windows 8 upgrade

    I believe you will need to change a registry key I cannot recall which one in a fresh install to trick it into thinking that it was upgrade install.

    Edit:
    If it is a different hard drive, I believe windows 8 would complain the hardware change and ask you to activate when you clone your HDD.

    If you going for fresh approach, is your upgrade key was purchased without media installation and must be used with upgrade assistant only? You will need to do a registry key change, rearm Windows 8 then reboot which I cannot guarantee if it works but it has been documented on the web. Here the link http://lifehacker.com/5984278/how-to...n-upgrade-disc

    If you get error 0x8007007B from activation saying your product key can only be used for upgrading.

    1. Press the Windows key and type regedit. Press enter to open the Registry Editor.
    2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/ and double-click on the MediabootInstall key in the right pane.
    3. Change the key's value from 1 to 0.
    4. Exit the Registry Editor, press the Windows key again, and type cmd. Right-click on the Command Prompt icon and run it as an administrator.
    5. Type slmgr /rearm and press Enter.
    6. Reboot Windows.


    Otherwise you should activate it fine with clean install as I have upgrade version media + key of Windows 8 Pro at home.
    Last edited by stilkun; 11-09-2013 at 12:11 PM.

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