Need a windows 8 iso

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
S

stil7z

Honorable
Feb 12, 2014
11
0
10,510
I removed windows 8 to put windows 7 on my laptop however I have a new computer now and I need my windows 7 back. so im in the process of reinstalling windows 8 with the recovery media I created with windows 8 before my clean install of windows 7 but i get the message that my recovery media or recovery partiotion cannot be found. after a tedious call with sony support they inform me that they want me to order new copies of the recovery media. im not doing that. I retrived the key myself as it was not supplied to me and now I need somewhere to get a windows 8 iso, also the official windows download doesnt work for me because I have an OEM Key :/ it is genuine but I just cannot seem to find an iso file of windows 8 home anywhere.

Can this be explained? is there a reason I cant find windows 8 home anywhere? I can find the iso of just about any other version. also let me know if im in over my head, am I dreaming of the impossible here?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
171,728
18,099
184,590
Upgrading to Win8 invalidated the original Win7 install. I'm not sure you can go back. And you cannot use both at the same time.

So....buy the disks from Sony to reinstall on the old machine, and buy a new OS for the new machine.
You can't use both Win7, and the upgraded from Win7 to Win8 at the same time.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stil7z

Honorable
Feb 12, 2014
11
0
10,510


Im not sure if I had explained correctly but the laptop was preinstalled with Win8, and I downgraded to Win7 not upgraded to Win8 from Win7. My Win7 is a retail copy which I own a cd for and the product key. and I have used it on many pc's before. However all I have for this laptop is the windows 8 product key I was not supplied with a disc, I was required to make recovery media with Win8 which I had but it does not work.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
photonboy

photonboy

Titan
Jun 20, 2006
21,567
13
85,015
Some confusion here...

1) Putting Windows 7 on that machine should have Activated it to that machine so the key may not work on another machine now.

2) You WIPED the backup Image of Windows 8 that was on the hard drive. That's why you couldn't restore it.

What is SONY asking you to pay anyway? If it's $20 or less you got off lucky. If so, they'll be SONY specific versions that won't work on other machines likely.

I'm not sure what Sony would say if you said your hard drive died or something, but Acer was horrible about that. Acer wouldn't even talk to my brother-in-law once his Warranty was up.

3) So basically you've got TWO problems now:

#1 Windows 7 disc might not work with other machine since it's activated to the one it was just installed on.
#2 Windows 8 discs might not be available from Sony for cheap so now you've got to buy that as well.

Sorry.

Sometimes you can try installing things, then contact Microsoft via the telephone Activation, get a code, and hopefully things work. I uses a generic Windows disc to reinstall Windows 7 to my brother-in-law's Acer computer (which had W7 before) and activation worked. Now where did I get the ISO for that disc?? Hmm..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
photonboy

photonboy

Titan
Jun 20, 2006
21,567
13
85,015
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1lJLniY-j8

It's not 100% certain that you wiped the Windows 8 backup Image. You can likely go into DISK MANAGEMENT and see if a small partition of under 10GB appears on the drive. Assuming you can still access Windows 7.

Your Recovery Media I believe just boots then restores the Image of Win8 on your main drive. If you deleted it this won't work.

Some laptops can also use different methods to do a Factory Restore such as the method I linked above but I didn't know which model you had.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stil7z

Honorable
Feb 12, 2014
11
0
10,510


tells me the recovery media or recovery partition cannot be found, this happens while it is attempting to boot vaiocare (rescue mode) that I get to through a recovery options button. and I found out the cd that I made is exactly what they want me to order.

I've changed my boot mode to uefi and my boot order is correct, I have even read I could try the bootrec commands in command prompt which 2 of which worked but bootrec /rebuildbcd fails.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
171,728
18,099
184,590


Installing Win 7 may have screwed the Recovery data.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stil7z

Honorable
Feb 12, 2014
11
0
10,510


well I did think this aswell, but I still have the two partions that were on the laptop when I got it. one called system reserved, which I saved obviously and the partition containing Win8 OS which I put Win7 on to but this is basic procedure when reinstalling windows. I never removed anything, I just dont understand?

edit: pardon me, if I'm coming off a bit sour. been working at this blasted thing all morning and its testing my nerves for sure :)

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
171,728
18,099
184,590


The System Reserved is merely a 100MB or 300MB boot info partition. It contains nothing about reinstalling the OS, whichever one.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stil7z

Honorable
Feb 12, 2014
11
0
10,510
okay guys so I actually managed to solve this and you wont believe how. SOMEHOW just SOMEHOW when I left the boot mode in legacy, everything went smoothly and it automatically switched to UEFI during Win8 install I believe. my product key was verified and im commenting here now from Win8 :). Now isn't this technically impossible??? I thought that none of win8's new code could operate on legacy? to be honest im not sure of the difference between the two is, but what im getting at was I thought win8 was just completely incompatible with legacy.

So the problem is solved thank you all for your time helping me! but this has me curious now, does anyone have any idea why or how this actually fixed my problem?

edit: scratch all of that I am actually running Win8 in legacy mode, is this okay?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
photonboy

photonboy

Titan
Jun 20, 2006
21,567
13
85,015
Legacy vs UEFI:

Mainly you're just losing the boot-time malware prevention. Some malware that already got onto your system tries to embed itself into the Registry during boot before your anti-virus is properly functioning.

I'm not certain, but I think the Graphics Card had to have a UEFI BIOS or you couldn't install Windows 8 in UEFI mode.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom