OEM Windows 8 on new SSD?

My Windows 8 laptop came with Windows 8.0 preinstalled along with Lenovo's bloatware. I assume the licence key is embedded in the BIOS. There was no option to create recovery disks, and now the hard drive crashed so I bought a blank SSD. How can I get a legit version of Windows 8 onto my new SSD?

I was trying to find a W8.0 iso to install but it looks like there aren't any around unlike W7.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

 

You need to extract your product key using RwEverything

1) Download RWEverything

2) Extract the ZIP

3) Right click on rw.exe then choose Run As Administrator

4) From the top left of the menu, click on Access, then choose ACPI Tables

5) From the top row, you will find a lot of tabs, scroll to the right, then click on MSDM

6) Your product key will be displayed at the bottom near Data


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Next, go to Windows PID checker and paste your product key there and it will tell you which edition of Windows the license is for (Core, Pro, or Single Language)
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Now, to get the right ISO for your product key:

Click on this link: Windows 8.1 Media Creation

Then download and launch the Create Media file

You will then be given a choice to choose the language, edition (as in Windows 8.1 Core, Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 8.1 Single Language, etc.)

Then choose the architecture you want (32-Bit or 64-Bit) and start the download.

It will give you a choice of whether you want to create it directly on a bootable USB Flash disk or simply save the ISO somewhere for later use.

Note: If you are not sure which edition to download, simply visit the PID Checker website, enter your Windows 8 or 8.1 product key and press the CheckPID button, it will then tell you the exact edition of Windows that key is meant for. You will need to download the correct edition to be able to activate Windows after you install it.

 

Good answer thanks for sharing.

The Windows 8 product key is a series of 25 letters and numbers and should look like this: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx.

Here is a list of 22 free programs that extract product keys,choose one for windows 8.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/productkeysactivation/tp/topkeyfinder.htm

Cheers
3Fees

 

But those tools only work if you have the Windows 8 that has the product key in the BIOS. If one had formatted and forgot to run those tools before, then the only option to get the actual key from the BIOS is RWEverything since it accesses the BIOS directly

 

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Thanks for replying. What if my drive is brand new and empty so I don't have access to Windows to run RWEverything?
Also, Windows PID Checker is no longer available, however I already know I have Windows 8 home/standard, but it seems the only downloads from Microsoft are Windows 8.1 - and my research found that W8 and 8.1 keys are incompatible. Thanks.

 

1) Doesn't matter if you don't have Windows installed, you can install it then if you have downloaded the correct version, it won't even ask you for a key everything will happen by itself.

2) Windows 8.1 Standard is the same as Windows 8.1 Core so get that edition and choose x64

 

Thanks, I didn't find that Media Creation link before. Another Microsoft installer I found requested the serial before downloading, which wasn't possible.

I have another question:
My hard drive seems to have died but I'd like to check for sure by putting it in a cheap eBay enclosure and connecting it to another laptop via USB. Would a normal internal drive show up as an external drive when connected in this nammer, even if it has the C drive and all?

Thanks

 

it will appear as an external drive and the C: or D: driver letters that it has will be moved to the first available driver letter.......which may be E: or F: depending on your setup.

After connecting it, try running HD Sentinel and run a health check

 

Here's my update. I received my external enclosure today, plugged it in the 1TB Samsung Seagate ST1000LM024. Windows recognised 4 partitions but only the Windows8_OS partition had a name and storage bar underneath (65/90GB). Actual content size of the C drive was only 53MB and the folders were either empty or inaccessible. HD Sentinel didn't recognise the whole drive but displayed "?" for each partition.
Seagate Seatools's scan resulted in a "Fail."
IOBit Disk Doctor said the "boot sectors are unreadable or corrupt."
Windows error-checking wouldn't start.
The drive sounds like it still spins fine, no cracking noises so I'm not sure what type of failure it could be. It was only 19months old too...now I have to shell out to get an Evo 850.
For the last 5 months I've been running aR61i ThinkPad with an ancient but reliable 160GB HDD...so slow.

 

But he claims that the laptop cam with W8 preinstalled, are those extra steps necessary? I mean, the installer finds the key in the BIOS by itself, right?

 

Don't get an EVO man, that drive is a TLC NAND SSD and with the reputation of Samsung recently, I wouldn'ttouch anything made by that company with 10 inch pole

 

Thanks a lot for info!

 

My 840 is the TLC SSD with the worst endurance of all. I've written 3.7 GB per year so far. If my SSD have the same endurance as the one Techreport destroyed in their endurance test it would begin reallocate sectors in the year 2066 if I keep it at this rate, and then keep on working until 2227. LOL.
The newer TLC drives have a much better endurance than that.

I guess you're referring to something else, please tell me.

 

Who trust a new Evo and Samsung? What is the next problem that will be launched? New tlc nand = new problems?