Win 8 suddenly became Vista

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Flustered

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I have an ASUS desktop with reinstalled Win8. This morning it began acting funny, freezing up and such. I did a restart and it hung on a blue screen until I finally held the off button to shut it down. When it restarted the resolution had changed, my keyboard would not work. Mouse either. I shut it down and checked that everything was connected. On start up, I was running Vista.

I never had Vista on the thing, it came with 8. Now most things will not work as it is trying to find drivers and can't. I called Microsoft but since it was an ASUS install they sent me there. ASUS suggested a backup then a full recovery. I tried to attach my external drive but it can't see it. I tried to copy my photos to a disk but it won't read the disks either.

When end I go to the recovery the only option I find is Vista. Win8 is not there. The only thing I can think of is I migrated things from a Vista machine when I got the ASUS a few years ago.

What at can I do to recover from this?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Here's what I would do.

1. Boot to a usb thumb drive and copy your "DATA" to a safe place.
2. If you have Windows 8 media, I would then boot to that media and reinstall a NEW windows 8. By new I would delete the partitions and let the install media create new ones.
3. If you don't have windows 8 media, then use another machine to download the media. I believe there is a tutorial on this site that will provide instructions on how to download the latest media.

You could spend hours/days/months trying to figure out how this happened or you could spend a day to reinstall. Anyway, this what I would do...hope this helps.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASRock 990FX Killer
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    ASRock 990 FX Killer
    Memory
    32gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 750i
    Sound Card
    Realtek (Stock on MB)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ASUS 27 HD Monitor & a 37" LCD HD TV Screen (For movies)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    1 250 GB SS hard drive for OS
    1 1TB hard drive for data / mirrored to a second 1 TB hd.
    PSU
    650W
    Case
    No name tower
    Cooling
    Enermax Liqtech 240
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech
    Internet Speed
    Dnload 10.48 Upload .48
    Browser
    IE 11 and Chrome when IE doesn't work
    Antivirus
    F-PROT
I keep some Linux LiveDVDs on hand for just such 'emergencies' and copy data to external drives of sufficient capacity. A USB drive has to be set up to be bootable, have an Operating System installed on it. The only downside to a LiveDVD is it is a bit slower processing than the installed version of Linux, not a problem of the OS but of the DVD drive.

If Vista otherwise works one could connect a USB drive and copy the data, Vista and later don't have much problem with recognizing the USB drives if the ports work but may need drivers from the computer or motherboard maker.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    WinXP, WinVista, Win7, Win8.1, Win10, Linux Mint 20
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2 Customs and 12 OEM/Brands
    CPU
    AMD and Intel
Always proof read! It should say pre-installed not reinstalled. Anyway, thank you for the suggestions. I will see if the system will recognize a thumb drive. I do not have the disks to reinstall but ASUS should be able to give me the product key. I will give it a try. I am not wasting time trying to figure out how and why, that is a lost cause. Time to fix it and move on.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
You can get Windows 8.1 install media here, Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help that will install and activate with Windows 8.0 and 8.1 product codes. You have to download the correct version, matching what was installed originally, or your key will not work. Showkey will show you your key, Showkey - Windows 10 Forums, if its an OEM embedded key. Now that you've restored back to Vista, showkey may not be able to find your windows 8 key.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
All of your symptoms can easily be the result of a corrupted filesystem -- which often happens with a failing hard drive.

If the PC really is running Vista and is working well enough to install apps, then you should find out the manufacturer of the hard drive, go to their website and download and run any drive health utility they have. That will tell you the condition of the drive.

With Win8, PC manufacturers stopped putting product keys on stickers and embedded them in the BIOS, so a reinstall of the SAME Win8 version as you currently have should see the product key and activate automatically.
 

My Computer

System One

There is no way Windows 8 is going to turn into Vista.

Right click on Computer and select Properties. What does it say?

Run systeminfo from a Command Prompt, what does it say?

If you mean it looks like Vista, that's possible if it's running crippled due to problems.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaCenter K450
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core i7-4770 @ 3.4Ghz
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    16.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Integrated HD Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP h2207
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050@59Hz
    Hard Drives
    250GB Samsung EVO SATA-3 SSD;
    2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA-2;
    1.5TB Seagate ST3150041AS SATA
    PSU
    500W
    Keyboard
    Wired USB
    Mouse
    Wired USB
    Internet Speed
    3GB Up, 30GB Down
    Browser
    SeaMonkey
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender; MBAM Pro
    Other Info
    UEFI/GPT
    PLDS DVD-RW DH16AERSH
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