Where is my WIN 8.1 disk & product key?

[kurtkurtosis]

I received my SP3 on June 20. I had expected a copy of WIN 8.1 (DVD or USB stick) along with the Product Key.

If WIN 8.1 gets corrupted how do I go about reinstalling the operating system?

Thanks.

 

[diamond.g]

Isn't there a recovery partition on the drive?

Side note, can we slip stream updates into said recovery partition?

 

[mcsenerd]

Doesn't work like that. The machine comes with a special partition that contains a recovery image. Should you need to refresh your PC (Windows included) that is the image used to make it happen. These machines do not deliver with a physical copy of the installation bits.

 

[bamaster]

Maybe use this to get your key? I'm not on my SP3 at the mo.

KeyFinder | Magical Jelly Bean

 

[wookiee2cu]

I think all manufacturers have gone away from the discs. I got a Dell CPU about 2 years ago and when setting it up a message appeared that I should make a back up myself.

 

[JesseDiaz]

Doesn't work like that. The machine comes with a special partition that contains a recovery image. Should you need to refresh your PC (Windows included) that is the image used to make it happen. These machines do not deliver with a physical copy of the installation bits.

So where is the recovery partition for SP3...Im looking for it and cant find it

 

[jnjroach]

So where is the recovery partition for SP3...Im looking for it and cant find it

Here you go:

 

[JesseDiaz]

Here you go:

View attachment 2307

Thanks AGAIN...yet another save by jnjroach....

So this might sound stupid can I ask what steps you had to do to get the above screenshot and writting done. I want to make sure Im using the most efficient way......

Thanks

 

[jnjroach]

I'm doing it old school, I'm using the Snipping Tool.

 

[JesseDiaz]

I'm doing it old school, I'm using the Snipping Tool.

Ahh...lol...okay Thats what I do but I wanted to make sure I wasnt missing some feature in SP3...

And here I was in the COntrol Panel trying to push each button on the PEN thinking I would get the LASSO and be able to capture the screen!!!

 

[jnjroach]

If I'm doing it for my notes I use the Pen Button Double Click....

 

[malberttoo]

I received my SP3 on June 20. I had expected a copy of WIN 8.1 (DVD or USB stick) along with the Product Key.

If WIN 8.1 gets corrupted how do I go about reinstalling the operating system?

Thanks.

In addition to what Jeff said... I played around a lot with 8.1 as soon as it came out and various ways of doing "clean" installs, specifically on a ThinkPad that came loaded with WAY too many Lenovo utilities and apps. Long story short, if you use a KeyFinder utility, it will almost certainly not be a key that you can actually activate the OS with. Instead, it seems like on new machines, the product key is actually embedded in the BIOS somehow, or something. Basically, you should be able to simply do a clean install of the exact same OS that came on the device, and it will activate automatically using the product key that's in the BIOS.

If anyone has any more info on that, I'd really like to hear it.