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April 17th, 2016 14:00
Can't install Windows 8.1
I have an Alienware Area 51 Triad I bought last July. It came with a Windows 8.1 restore disc that I used to install Windows 8.1 onto the machine on day one. Basically I wanted to use my PCIE SSD.
OK, so all has been well since and I upgraded to Windows 10 when it first came out. However over the past few days I have been experiencing crashing and BSOD and today it would just BSOD within about a minute of loading into Windows. I tried everything to rescue the install but I think the PCIE SSD may be dying.
OK, so no bother I broke out a brand new 240GB SSD I have had since the Black Friday sales and booted Windows 8.1 from my Dell disc.
It wants a product key. No matter what I have done or what I have tried it wants a product key so I can not reinstall Windows :S
Does Windows 10 kill your 8.1 serial? how can I reinstall Windows 8.1? I have been told the product key is in the bios, well that ain't working.
Please help !
shesagordie
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April 17th, 2016 14:00
(Moved this to the Alienware Forum board. DELL-Chris M)
Bev.
Tesla1856
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April 18th, 2016 12:00
No, AFAIK ... it shouldn't modify the Win8-key in BIOS.
Try this:
Properly create a bootable USB-Flash drive of your Official Dell OEM Win-8 DVD-ROM.
Make this change, and then try it. Skip key on initial install. Get Windows installed, drivers installed and online to Internet. See if it will activate genuine then.
https://www.techmesto.com/install-windows-8-1-without-product-key/
I did something similar with Windows-7 ... I cloned my current Win-7 drive and did a "test upgrade" to Windows-10. Worked fine and even activated genuine.
After testing, disconnected that drive and re-connected my original Win-7 SSD. It still said Win-7 was genuine. Might not mean much since we know that the OEM-Activation scheme has changed between Win-7 and Win-8.