I am trying to understand if the process I have followed is incorrect or the product key I have purchased is unreliable.
My Dell machine came with Windows 8.1 with Bing and a Dell Recovery Partition. I only have a 32GB hard drive, the partition uses 8GB. I wanted to create more space on the drive by removing the partition.
After attempting several other approaches, I concluded that the best way to delete the partition was via a clean install of Windows.
As I understand it, with the Bing version the product key is in the BIOS and you can't use it to do a clean install. I therefore purchased a Windows 8.1 Pro product key.
Using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool, I downloaded and clean installed Windows 8.1 Pro. Upon completion all is working but Windows Activation is not accepting my new product key so I have an unactivated version and a Build 9600 logo on the desktop.
Before I blame the product key, I wanted to seek assurance that the process I have followed is valid and should work. Or perhaps the Bing version product key in the BIOS is the problem?
My Dell machine came with Windows 8.1 with Bing and a Dell Recovery Partition. I only have a 32GB hard drive, the partition uses 8GB. I wanted to create more space on the drive by removing the partition.
After attempting several other approaches, I concluded that the best way to delete the partition was via a clean install of Windows.
As I understand it, with the Bing version the product key is in the BIOS and you can't use it to do a clean install. I therefore purchased a Windows 8.1 Pro product key.
Using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool, I downloaded and clean installed Windows 8.1 Pro. Upon completion all is working but Windows Activation is not accepting my new product key so I have an unactivated version and a Build 9600 logo on the desktop.
Before I blame the product key, I wanted to seek assurance that the process I have followed is valid and should work. Or perhaps the Bing version product key in the BIOS is the problem?
