Craiglist issues

[cooknu2]

Hello noob here.. Well i purchased a brand new Surface pr0 3 from craigslist at a great price. I checked it over there was not issues with it and it was still in the wrapper, The guy even showed me a receipt.. I updated to Windows 10 just to give it a test drive. Well now i want to go back to windows 8.1. This is where the problem comes in. I got to Microsoft website to download SP3 image and i cant register my SP3. I gave Microsoft a call and they say it was already registered to another email adress. I was wondering was it done when it was purchased or after. I saved my recovery image off 8.1 to a flash drive and even saved a copy to my other windows 8.1 computer. Can i use my recovery image to get back or do i need sp3 image to get back... Please help..

 

[benjitek]

I'm not sure if it's the same for the SP3, but I discovered accidentally on my SP2 that if you do a system reset from Settings/Updates & Security/Recovery and choose Factory Restore it brings back Windows 8.1 -- I was expecting to get a clean install of Windows 10, but that wasn't what happened. It doesn't appear that the preview version of Windows 10 messes with the restore image, at least it didn't on my SP2

 

[cliffr39]

You can 1) contact the seller and see if they registered it and if so ask them to remove it from their account. 2) you should be able to use the image you created. If not, let us know and I'm sure someone can help you further.

 

[cooknu2]

Yeah i tried to contact them we did email exchange thru craigslist and now since the posting is gone or no longer active, i cant contact them. I know bad move but like it said it was brand new still in the wrapper with reciept.. Now i am not sure how to use the image.
Thanks again for the reply

 

[cooknu2]

I'm not sure if it's the same for the SP3, but I discovered accidentally on my SP2 that if you do a system reset from Settings/Updates & Security/Recovery and choose Factory Restore it brings back Windows 8.1 -- I was expecting to get a clean install of Windows 10, but that wasn't what happened. It doesn't appear that the preview version of Windows 10 messes with the restore image, at least it didn't on my SP2

Understood but i removed my restore or backup image to save space, not sure if i can go back to it with it on usb drive

 

[cooknu2]

Any help with how to use my recovery to go back from windows 10?

 

[Johnny365]

Go through MS Support and see what they say?

 

[kundas1]

OP you do know you can look through your sent items and see if you still have the emails...

 

[cooknu2]

OP you do know you can look through your sent items and see if you still have the emails...

True I tried that first but if the listing is no longer there I can't send email to them.listing was deleted.

 

[Johnny365]

Yeah Craigslist posters have the option to mask their email using a relay system so if the original posting is deleting, the email won't work anymore.

 

[kundas1]

even if you reply several times? I thought it was like kijiji where the FIRST initial email is through kijiji then all other emails are directly from the emailer... guess that isn't the case with crapslist lol

 

[cmergel]

I have not tried this, but couldn't you download the 8.X ISO directly from Microsoft and use the embedded BIOS product Key in the Surface to activate? Trying to recall if the earlier Surfaces came with 8.0 or 8.1? Then I believe you can download the latest Surface firmware from the Microsoft downloads or just use the Windows Update.