Britec Tech Support Forum

Hi,

I have a laptop that runs Windows 8.1 Pro the hard drive is non original and has no recovery partition. I want to format the drive and re-install windows ( I have no media I would download using media creation tool) I believe I may have 2 options:

Download Windows 8.1 install and upgrade to Windows 10 after install.
OR COULD I miss this step and
Download windows 10 and Install onto a blank formatted drive using my existing key?

There seems to be many different answers to the above online, perhaps someone whom has tried/done the above could please advise?

Thanks
Craig

Craig, if you go to this website https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 You can download a full version of Windows 10. It'll ask you for your product number or give you a choice to proceed without Product Key. I've done this on my machine and it works fine.

(03-30-2016, 08:37 PM)Kevin_Adair Wrote: [ -> ]Craig, if you go to this website https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 You can download a full version of Windows 10.  It'll ask you for your product number or give you a choice to proceed without Product Key.  I've done this on my machine and it works fine.

Thanks for the prompt reply Kevin. I did not want to go faffing about deleting/formatting and then finding myself in a mess! I will go for a USB install and keep that as a backup as opposed to a recovery partition (better on a usb if hard drive fails) Hopefully it will be straightforward.

Thanks again
Craig

If you have not done a upgrade yet.
Download Windows 8.1 install and upgrade to Windows 10 after install.