@alpha
I'm not sure where he got the media from, I'm assuming Microsoft directly from the same link I see here for the install burn, but the keys we've been using (well, trying to use here lately) is the Universal key for 8.1 that's listed in Wiki. He said he used this before, took a few tries on installation, but it wound up going through the first time he installed a new HD (it wound up having to get replaced with my original before it went totally bad or something, I can't remember the specifics, end story is that I wound up getting an SSD). I didn't know of any way to verify this, but we didn't have my original key and I never got the pop up for activation of a genuine product. And he didn't have any keys of his own that I could have either. It's just been in the past... 6-8 months that the Universal key's not worked for me. He's got a diploma from... a college in St. Louis, where I am. I can't remember which one though... and combined with that my boyfriend used to play MtG with him a lot back in the early years, we trust him pretty well. I'm not 100% positive where the disc is that we used, but it threw me to 8.0 and I had to update manually back to 8.1. Even back with the first HD replacement I had updated to 8.1 and no issues.
I dunno why it cooperated then and doesn't now. I mean, there's plenty of speculation, but that doesn't help. All I know's that when we got the HD replaced, we had to leave my laptop with him so that we could go to work, so we weren't there for the boring bits, but I had no issues with activation, he said it took a few tries to get it to take the key but it did eventually and I got up to 8.1 with no problems at all.
I'll go ahead and run the install though and update you guys with the results!
Edit:
Weeeeeell.
So, I ran the reinstall.
It installed just fine, had one BSOD but likely because I forgot to unplug my tablet monitor. Unplugged it and things went smoothly. I got back in, checked ShowKey and then my Activate Windows. ShowKey updated to a new thing. OEM and Original now reflect OEM. Activate Windows held onto the Universal key I had used? but it took my OEM key. I guess all that remains is to wait like 30 days or whatever the timer is (I think it's closer to two weeks?) and see if it pops up all angry at me. You'll be the second to know, my boyfriend the first for me getting huffy at it.