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I have recently decided to upgrade my laptop to an SSD. This has meant that I will need to reinstall Windows 8.1 Pro from scratch. I had first got Windows 8 from Dreamspark last year as an ISO download, and a key (which was only on their site, besides, they no longer have Windows 8 on there), but I kept a copy of the ISO I downloaded then (but no the key). So I have written that to a USB, and it boots up, but the only Key I have is the one I recovered from my previous installation (via Jelly Bean Keyfinder), but it maintains that it is invalid.

Is there anywhere where I can download, or somehow, armed only with a valid Windows 8.1 Pro Key, get Windows installed on my new drive?

p.s. I do have a connector so I could access both drives at the same time (boot from the hdd, and connect the ssd via usb), then copy one to the other (theres enough space), but ideally, I want to do an absolute clean

topherg
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    I'm not sure about Jelly Bean Keyfinder, but many tools weren't updated to get the Windows 8 keys (which apparently changed algorithms from past products). There are [some alternatives to get the actual Win8 key in this question](http://superuser.com/questions/495794/how-to-find-windows-8-product-key) – ernie Feb 21 '14 at 23:20
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    Its invalid because its a Windows 8.0 key and not a Windows 8.1. The solution of course is to install Windows 8.0 by using they key you do have and then upgrade to Windows 8.1 **Otherwise the only other solution is to use a generic Windows 8.1 key then change the license key to your Windows 8.0 key once its installed.** – Ramhound Feb 22 '14 at 00:43
  • Is there any way I can recover my Windows 8 key from an existing Windows 8.1 Installation? – topherg Feb 22 '14 at 11:11

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If you log on to Dreamspark you can find the original key in your order history.

Awk34
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