How to Reinstall Windows 8, Motherboard loaded Product Key

Baystuff

New Member
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1
Here is my problem. My Dell Inspiron preloaded Windows 8 laptop crashed and the problem was the hard drive. I was 3 weeks out of warranty, so I went and purchased a hard drive from Best Buy and put it in. I did not have a disc from dell when I received the laptop, it just has the Windows 8 Home sticker on the bottom of the laptop. I did a little research and found that all of this was correct, that they are now "injecting" the Product keys into the system board.
Although I was out of warranty, I told Dell that I needed the software to install windows 8 back on the drive. They said that they would do that. So the other day, I received 2 discs. One was the drivers for the Inspiron 15 and the other was Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit with SP1. OK, so now I am confused. I purchased the laptop with Windows 8 x64 Home premium. So is this a mistake that Dell sent me the Windows 7 Home Premium disc, or am I supposed to load that and then upgrade to Windows 8 and 8.1 from there? I can't find any information on the Dell site or Google that gives instructions on loading Windows 8 from Windows 7 other than the ones that want a 25 digit Product Key. I don't have a product key and these Dell people should know that! Anyone else have this issue or know how I can get my laptop going again? Thanks for any help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Trying to get back to 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 15 3521
    CPU
    Intel I3
    Motherboard
    Intel
    Memory
    8 Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel
    Browser
    IE
    Antivirus
    Symantec
How to download and clean install Windows 8.1 if you have an OEM computer with UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8/8.1 product key. -> link
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo G580
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3230M
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, standard user account
    Other Info
    UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8 product key.
So is this a mistake that Dell sent me the Windows 7 Home Premium disc

IMHO -- yes -- it's a mistake on their part.

Since it came preloaded with Win8, they need to send you Win8 disc(s).

I would contact them again and complain.
 

My Computer

Yes it is a mistake, and I would seek the proper disks

but if it came with windows 8
then you are not that much better off
then with windows 7 disks

If you want to clean install windows 8.1 rather then just upgrade Dell's Windows 8 disks to windows 8.1

use the dell drivers disk and download Windows 8.1 setup Media - link in sig below
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
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