CAUTION: You May Lose Reset/Refresh if You Upgrade to Windows 8.1

[The Evil Overlord]

Was the computer bought from a store? As it might have the product key on a label somewhere on the tower/base unit

[c0rnm3al]

No, I bought it used off the internet; I don't think it came with the product key.

[zhangm Supervisor]

Thread cleaned. Use of a key finder to retrieve a key from a legitimately licensed installation is not illegal.

There is no way to activate the Enterprise eval, with or without a key, nor any known way of converting it to something that is not Enterprise in order to attempt activation using a retail key.

The best shot, other than simply wiping and reinstalling, is to try reversing the process by obtaining a clean retail ISO that you have the license for, making a reset/restore partition exactly as you did with the Enterprise eval, and trying to restore the PC again with the new recovery files. I have not received any feedback about whether this works or not.

Edit 2: Sorry, I didn't see the bit where you mentioned not having a key either. What sort of laptop is this? Do you think it came with an OEM installation? I don't suppose there's a recovery partition or anything either?

Edited January 4, 2014 by zhangm

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

If it is an OEM laptop, the key is stored in the SLIC table in the BIOS so on a clean install of Win8 (with the appropriate version) it should detect and use it: http://superuser.com/questions/513904/how-to-extract-win-8-oem-key-embedded-in-the-bios

[primexx]

it should also be physically printed on the COA sticker on the bottom of the computer.

 

as long as you have a legit win8 key you're good to go. just find a win8.1 ISO and install with the generic key (XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB) which lets you install but does not activate. Once you're in Windows when you click "activate" you'll enter your actual win8 key and that'll work no problem.

 

So the hardest part should be obtaining your original key and a disk image of Win8.1.

[+therealDamien Subscriber¹]

I followed the instructions and went to refresh and it gave different error after that

 

could not find the recovery environment

 

 

 

I ran the following 

 

Run command prompt as administrator, and then input

reagentc /info

 

and it showed that windows recovery was disabled.

 

so 

 

then I put

 

reagentc /enable

 

 

 

 

Then I went back to refresh and tested it and it worked.

 

 

 

 

 

thought I would post this incase someone else has this problem.

[elfrik999]

Okay i have tried everything and nothing works to refresh or reset my Laptop i have a install.wim and its active but everytime i try to refresh it says Drive where Windows is installed is Locked please unlock Drive and try again.

when i try to reset it says Reset Partition is missing.

Anybody got a solution to this problem i am stressing with this crappy Windows 8.1 and only want my original Windows 8 back or at least a stabil System.

[cork1958]

Oh boy!

 

This sounds like another fine mess!! :wacko:

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

See if this helps

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/56167aca-6165-4db3-9868-c2bef5f40577/cant-refresh-drive-locked-win8-pro-rtm?forum=w8itprogeneral

[elfrik999]

Anybody here having trouble finding there original Windows 8 Key after they upgraded should try wpkey_v1.4.7d works great shows you the Original Key you had before you upgraded to 8.1.

[elfrik999]

Nope i have tried all that already i even had a Tech on the Asus hotline for about an Hour who went through some stuff with me and he can't fix it he said its a problem with Windows 8.1 itself.

I will tell you what i have tried so far:

Boot option changes = ineffective

Cmd in Admin = sfc /scannow, ren system restart, diskpart, bootrec, Dism.exe all tried all = ineffective

wim datei restart and refresh on drive C: and D: = ineffective

chkdsk runs without error

Disk Management = no problems

Reinstall from external Media = ineffective

ReAgentC scan shows active and no error

 

I have a full recovery disk from my original windows 8 and a Usb stick with a Disk Image and both dont work when i try to use them it tells me that they can't be used on ths OS i have.

[MightyJordan]

Nazmus, you're a lifesaver. Something weird happened with my Windows 8.1 Pro installation last week. No idea what the cause was, but a lot of seemingly unfixable issues reared their ugly heads; Internet Explorer wouldn't work at all (it'd open, stay frozen on nothing, then close after about 10 seconds), my product key seemed to be missing when I tried to find it (still activated though), got a "no such interface supported" error on when trying to bring something up from the control panel using the search charm, DirectX's diagnostic tool kept crashing after startup (if Soluto is to be believed), got an "interface not registered" error whenever I tried to open something from uTorrent (although it did open about 10 seconds later), Revo Uninstaller stopped working completely throwing up an "automation object not found" error whenever I tried to start it, there's probably a couple more I never got the chance to encounter. I got Windows 8 through the discounted online upgrade route, so obviously, no Windows 8.1 disc, but the refresh option didn't seem to accept anything anyway; I borrowed a Windows 8.1 Pro disc, and the computer threw up the same error with it in. Thankfully stumbled upon your advice though; I followed the steps (just using the Windows 8.1 Pro disc rather than the Enterprise Evaluation ISO), refresh worked first time and everything's golden again; it now seems to be as fast as my the PC I built for my brother last year (which it should have been in the first place, as we have the same Samsung 840 256GB SSD). :) Although there was one slight hiccup; it never saved a list of the programs that were removed. :P

[laeemra]

thank u for this solution ,but i just wanna ask ..... after i do this the recovary wil get me back to my difficult factory reset with win 8 or still with 8.1 

[Eric Veteran]

thank u for this solution ,but i just wanna ask ..... after i do this the recovary wil get me back to my difficult factory reset with win 8 or still with 8.1 

 

It will return your device to the latest installation.

[ariy010]

hello friends, i am new here, pardon me for grammar. i updated win8 from the microsoft website, and due to some reason my pc got slow and it wont reset or refresh, i read a post regarding this here on this site by nazmus shakib, who posted to download a windows 8.1 enterprise,and mount the image, copy install.wim,make a folder n paste and then writing some commands in cmd.exe, i did follow every step except for downloading the windows 8.1 enterprise from his given link, but i downloaded it from other site, after i followed all the given steps but after entering the command it says ''configures the windows recovery environment <windows re > and system reset'' instead of ''Directory set to: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\hardisk0\partition2\Win8

REAGENTIC.EXE: Operation Successful.
C:\Windows\system32>''

 kindly help me to reset my pc. thank you.

[ObeyC]

OMG thank you so much god will bless you