Hello,
I hope this post isn't too redundant, but I've spent the last 3 days trying to restore my OEM version of Windows 8.1 with the "install.wim" file that I had saved (before deleting the recovery partition to save space), to no avail. So I thought I'd share my solution in case others run into the same problem.
I recently installed Windows 10 Insider Preview on my Acer Aspire ES1-311 PC (which originally came with Windows 8.1 with Bing). When I realised that various things were not yet working in this beta build, such as Bluetooth, I decided to revert back to Windows 8.1 with a clean ISO downloaded using Microsoft's Media Creation Tool.
What I didn't know, however, was that my Product Key was only valid for my OEM version of Windows, and no other, therefore I was unable to use the key when attempting to install the Windows 8.1 edition that I had downloaded.
I found various tips and tricks online, including:
Reinstall windows 8 by install.wim - Requests - reboot.pro
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/5074-recover-windows-8-wim-file.html
https://www.winhelp.us/restore-windows-re.html
None of which worked on Windows 10.
I also tried to re-create the Recovery Partition, as I had saved all of its files, but that didn't work either.
In the end, the following method is what worked for me (Updated on 30/07/15):
If you are already using Windows 8.1: skip to the next step (Analyse your "install.wim")
If you are currently using another version of Windows: then install a clean Windows 8.1 without the product key
- Download the Windows 8.1 ISO using the Media Creation Tool
- Make a bootable USB drive with the ISO using a tool like Rufus
- Add an "ei.cfg" file to the "sources" folder of the USB (in order to be able to install Windows without the product key) by following this tutorial:
http://www.pcsteps.com/627-install-windows-8-1-without-product-key/#The_Magic_eicfg_file
- Install Windows 8.1 from the USB drive (click "Ignore" if asked to enter a product key)
- Wait for install to complete
Analyse your "install.wim" to determine how many images (ie "indexes") it contains
- Do WinKey+Q, type "cmd"
- Right-click on "Command prompt" and open it as Administrator
- Run the following command:
(replace "C:\Win81-Recovery\install.wim" with the path to your own "install.wim" file)
It will return something like this. Every "index" represents an image:
In this example, "install.wim" contains two images named respectively "Factory Default Image Backup" and "PBR_IMAGE".
If "install.wim" contains a single image: skip to the next step (Register your "install.wim" file as the recovery image)
If "install.wim" contains multiple images: you must determine which index to use as your recovery image.
Note: If one of the images is named something like "PBR" or "Push Button Reset", chances are this is the index you should use. Otherwise, you need to find out more about each image.
- To get more detailed information on each image, run;
Note: This includes the default language of every image. If your OEM Windows 8.1 was initially in a non-English language, then pick the image that is in your language.
If this doesn't provide sufficient information, then you will need to check the contents of each image by mounting them separately:
Note: This will take up at least as much space as the size of "Install.wim", so you can either create a local temporary folder (eg. "C:\test" ) if you have enough space, or mount the image to an external drive.
- Run Command Prompt as Admin
- Run the following command to mount the first image (index 1):
(replace "C:\test" with the path to the folder you want to mount the image to)
- Once the process is complete, browse to the folder containing the mounted image, and check for elements that you remember being in your factory build. To save time, look for more obvious things first:
- When you have gathered all the information you need, dismount the image to save space:
- Mount, browse and dismount all images in the "install.wim" file by changing the number after "index" in the command.
When you have determined which image to use as your OEM Win 8.1 recovery image, go to the next step.
Register your "install.wim" file as the recovery image
- Transfer your "image.wim" to your hard drive
- Do WinKey+Q, type "cmd"
- Right-click on "Command prompt" and open it as Administrator
- Run the following command:
(replace "C:\Win81-Recovery\INSTALL.WIM" with the path to your own "install.wim" file)
- Run this command to check that the Recovery Image path is the one you have just set it to:
(Taken from: http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to...ery-drive-to-an-external-drive-in-windows-8-1 )
Create a recovery USB of your OEM Windows 8.1
- Plug in your USB drive
- Go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Recovery and click on "Create a recovery drive"
- Check the "Copy contents from the recovery partition to the recovery drive" box and click Next
- Select the USB drive, click Next, then click Create
- Wait for the process to complete (it will take a while)
Reset PC with OEM Windows 8.1
- Once the process is finished, reboot on the USB drive
- Select your language
- Click on "Troubleshoot"
- Click on "Reset your PC", then click on Next
- Click on "Windows 8.1"
- Click on "No, keep existing partitions"
- Click on "Just remove my files", then click on Reset
This will start the recovery process
As soon as the computer restarts, remove the USB drive so the installation can continue from the local hard drive.
Follow the installation steps until install is complete.
Activate your OEM Windows 8.1
You probably don't need an Internet connection for this step, but just in case: you might find that Wifi isn't working on the computer. This is because the driver isn't installed and the Wireless adapter isn't recognised. Just connect to the Internet with an Ethernet cable.
Do WinKey+Q, search for "Activate Windows" and click on it (or go to Control Panel > System and Security > System, then click on "Activate Windows" at the bottom). Now enter the Product Key that came with your computer and click "Activate", it should validate within seconds.
That's it!
Note: The first thing you should do now is check if there are any missing drivers. The Device Manager might list a number of "Unknown devices". Here's the tutorial I used to identify them: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-find-unknown-device-drivers-by-their-vendor-device-id/
Once you've finished all this, your Windows is ready to use.
Hope this will be helpful to someone
I hope this post isn't too redundant, but I've spent the last 3 days trying to restore my OEM version of Windows 8.1 with the "install.wim" file that I had saved (before deleting the recovery partition to save space), to no avail. So I thought I'd share my solution in case others run into the same problem.
I recently installed Windows 10 Insider Preview on my Acer Aspire ES1-311 PC (which originally came with Windows 8.1 with Bing). When I realised that various things were not yet working in this beta build, such as Bluetooth, I decided to revert back to Windows 8.1 with a clean ISO downloaded using Microsoft's Media Creation Tool.
What I didn't know, however, was that my Product Key was only valid for my OEM version of Windows, and no other, therefore I was unable to use the key when attempting to install the Windows 8.1 edition that I had downloaded.
I found various tips and tricks online, including:
Reinstall windows 8 by install.wim - Requests - reboot.pro
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/5074-recover-windows-8-wim-file.html
https://www.winhelp.us/restore-windows-re.html
None of which worked on Windows 10.
I also tried to re-create the Recovery Partition, as I had saved all of its files, but that didn't work either.
In the end, the following method is what worked for me (Updated on 30/07/15):
If you are already using Windows 8.1: skip to the next step (Analyse your "install.wim")
If you are currently using another version of Windows: then install a clean Windows 8.1 without the product key
- Download the Windows 8.1 ISO using the Media Creation Tool
- Make a bootable USB drive with the ISO using a tool like Rufus
- Add an "ei.cfg" file to the "sources" folder of the USB (in order to be able to install Windows without the product key) by following this tutorial:
http://www.pcsteps.com/627-install-windows-8-1-without-product-key/#The_Magic_eicfg_file
- Install Windows 8.1 from the USB drive (click "Ignore" if asked to enter a product key)
- Wait for install to complete
Analyse your "install.wim" to determine how many images (ie "indexes") it contains
- Do WinKey+Q, type "cmd"
- Right-click on "Command prompt" and open it as Administrator
- Run the following command:
Code:
dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:C:\Win81-Recovery\install.wim
(replace "C:\Win81-Recovery\install.wim" with the path to your own "install.wim" file)
It will return something like this. Every "index" represents an image:
Code:
Index : 1
Name : Factory Default Image Backup
Description : <undefined>
Size : 21 720 008 653 bytes
Index : 2
Name : PBR_IMAGE
Description : <undefined>
Size : 26 579 957 014 bytes
In this example, "install.wim" contains two images named respectively "Factory Default Image Backup" and "PBR_IMAGE".
If "install.wim" contains a single image: skip to the next step (Register your "install.wim" file as the recovery image)
If "install.wim" contains multiple images: you must determine which index to use as your recovery image.
Note: If one of the images is named something like "PBR" or "Push Button Reset", chances are this is the index you should use. Otherwise, you need to find out more about each image.
- To get more detailed information on each image, run;
Code:
dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:C:\Win81-Recovery\install.wim /index:1
dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:C:\Win81-Recovery\install.wim /index:2
dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:C:\Win81-Recovery\install.wim /index:3
and so on
Note: This includes the default language of every image. If your OEM Windows 8.1 was initially in a non-English language, then pick the image that is in your language.
If this doesn't provide sufficient information, then you will need to check the contents of each image by mounting them separately:
Note: This will take up at least as much space as the size of "Install.wim", so you can either create a local temporary folder (eg. "C:\test" ) if you have enough space, or mount the image to an external drive.
- Run Command Prompt as Admin
- Run the following command to mount the first image (index 1):
Code:
dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:C:\Win81-Recovery\install.wim /index:1 /MountDir:C:\test
(replace "C:\test" with the path to the folder you want to mount the image to)
- Once the process is complete, browse to the folder containing the mounted image, and check for elements that you remember being in your factory build. To save time, look for more obvious things first:
- Go to "Windows > Web > Wallpaper", to see if the original desktop background image is there.
- Go to "Users > All Users > Desktop" to see if any of the bloatware links and apps (such as Ebay, Wild Tangent Games, Booking.com, Dropbox, etc.) are there (check the "desktop.ini" file as well).
- The "Program Files", "Program Files (x86)" and "ProgramData" folders can also provide some clues. Look for non-default applications that you remember of, such as software trials (eg Microsoft Office, Foxit Reader, etc.).
- Go to "Users > All Users > Desktop" to see if any of the bloatware links and apps (such as Ebay, Wild Tangent Games, Booking.com, Dropbox, etc.) are there (check the "desktop.ini" file as well).
- The "Program Files", "Program Files (x86)" and "ProgramData" folders can also provide some clues. Look for non-default applications that you remember of, such as software trials (eg Microsoft Office, Foxit Reader, etc.).
- When you have gathered all the information you need, dismount the image to save space:
Code:
dism /unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\test /discard
- Mount, browse and dismount all images in the "install.wim" file by changing the number after "index" in the command.
Code:
dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:C:\Win81-Recovery\install.wim /index:2 /MountDir:C:\test
dism /unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\test /discard
dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:C:\Win81-Recovery\install.wim /index:3 /MountDir:C:\test
dism /unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\test /discard
and so on
When you have determined which image to use as your OEM Win 8.1 recovery image, go to the next step.
Register your "install.wim" file as the recovery image
- Transfer your "image.wim" to your hard drive
- Do WinKey+Q, type "cmd"
- Right-click on "Command prompt" and open it as Administrator
- Run the following command:
Code:
REAGENTC /SetOSImage /Path C:\Win81-Recovery\INSTALL.WIM /Index 1
(replace "C:\Win81-Recovery\INSTALL.WIM" with the path to your own "install.wim" file)
- Run this command to check that the Recovery Image path is the one you have just set it to:
Code:
REAGENTC.EXE /Info
(Taken from: http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to...ery-drive-to-an-external-drive-in-windows-8-1 )
Create a recovery USB of your OEM Windows 8.1
- Plug in your USB drive
- Go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Recovery and click on "Create a recovery drive"
- Check the "Copy contents from the recovery partition to the recovery drive" box and click Next
- Select the USB drive, click Next, then click Create
- Wait for the process to complete (it will take a while)
Reset PC with OEM Windows 8.1
- Once the process is finished, reboot on the USB drive
- Select your language
- Click on "Troubleshoot"
- Click on "Reset your PC", then click on Next
- Click on "Windows 8.1"
- Click on "No, keep existing partitions"
- Click on "Just remove my files", then click on Reset
This will start the recovery process
As soon as the computer restarts, remove the USB drive so the installation can continue from the local hard drive.
Follow the installation steps until install is complete.
Activate your OEM Windows 8.1
You probably don't need an Internet connection for this step, but just in case: you might find that Wifi isn't working on the computer. This is because the driver isn't installed and the Wireless adapter isn't recognised. Just connect to the Internet with an Ethernet cable.
Do WinKey+Q, search for "Activate Windows" and click on it (or go to Control Panel > System and Security > System, then click on "Activate Windows" at the bottom). Now enter the Product Key that came with your computer and click "Activate", it should validate within seconds.
That's it!
Note: The first thing you should do now is check if there are any missing drivers. The Device Manager might list a number of "Unknown devices". Here's the tutorial I used to identify them: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-find-unknown-device-drivers-by-their-vendor-device-id/
Once you've finished all this, your Windows is ready to use.
Hope this will be helpful to someone
Last edited:
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8.1 with Bing
- Computer type
- Laptop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Acer Aspire ES1 311
- CPU
- Intel Celeron N2840
- Motherboard
- Acer Aspire ES1 311
- Memory
- 4 GB
- Graphics Card(s)
- Intel HD Graphics
- Browser
- Firefox 39
- Antivirus
- Avast