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    Can't get clean install of Windows 8.1 pick up product key from BIOS

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by bidzina, Jan 8, 2014.

  1. bidzina

    bidzina Newbie

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    I have Acer S3-391 with a pre-installed Win 8. Initially I thought I would downgrade to Win 7 Pro as I'm used to Win 7. So, I deleted recovery partition of Acer Windows 8 on my hard drive and installed Win 7 Pro (with my own product key) on it. Also, I've upgraded to UEFI BIOS 2.17 version.

    Now I've decided to reinstall Win 8 on my notebook, but I'm running into a problem:
    As I've wiped out the original recovery partition which included all the bloatware it came with, I'm using a clean Windows 8.1 ISO image trasnferred to a FAT32 formatted USB flash drive. It's actually a Windows 8.1 Professional ISO, but I've added "ei.cfg" file with "Core" and "OEM" parameters in it. So, it installs a clean Windows 8.1 with UEFI setting in BIOS , but won't pick up a product key from UEFI BIOS. It assigns a generic key and I can't activate it with Microsoft.

    Any suggestions to make it pick up the embeded product key from BIOS without ordering a recovery DVD set for $45 from Acer?

    Thank you.
     
    bidzina, Jan 8, 2014
    #1
  2. blackomegax

    blackomegax Notebook Geek

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    The product key burned into your bios is for windows 8 only
     
    blackomegax, Jan 9, 2014
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  3. bidzina

    bidzina Newbie

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    Yes, your're right. I found Win 8 ISO last night and added $OEM$ folder and it activated. I extracted the product key now and will try installing 8.1 with it. Will see if it activates with it.
     
    bidzina, Jan 9, 2014
    #3