Hi,

I have purchased a HP laptop which is pre-installed Windows 8 half a year ago. Everything was good. Today, it is unfortunately corrupted. I would like to reinstall the system. I need a .iso file and activation code. How can I get the .iso file and how can I know my activation code?

How can I reinstall Windows 8?

Thanks.

Obviously, you did not make the Recovery Disks, that almost every install allows you to make. Too bad.

Any Windows 8 disk will do for the re-install, but the Activation Key should be on the label on the bottom of the PC.

Did you look?

There may also be a recovery partition on your hard drive, provided by HP.
Then there is a Key Combination, at boot, to allow you to enter that partition and do a full Recovery.

I recently had to do that for one of my customers, who also had an HP laptop.

Good Luck

TM

Like TM stated, there is a recovery partition on the HP. Recent models requires press & hold the "F11" key at boot to get the recovery going. As long as the MBR isn't corrupted, it should work. If so, make sure that you burn your recovery media ASAP after recovery.

You will need 5 DVD+/- R DVD's for the recovery media. As little as 3 may be needed, however sometimes a coaster is manufacured, & the HP Recovery Manager rejects those. Better to have an extra DVD or two on hand, than to be short. Be sure to number each with a marker & place them where they won't get missing.

Some newer models also allows for a Flash Drive recovery option, in addition to DVD's. It's quicker, requires less babysitting, you will need a 16GB Flash drive, if HP allows for this type of recovery.

In the event that your MBR is totally shot & you can't recover, then HP will sell you recovery media, you will need some details, such as model/serial number when placing the order. Expect to pay $20 to $30 for these. Hopefully, it won't come to that, however if it does, I hope that it's a lesson learned. Recovery Disk sets are to be made ASAP after acquiring the computer, Day 1 is perfect for this task.

Something that I forgot, that computer should also have been backed up as soon as updates were finished. That also would have saved you from this mess.

The owner's manual should have covered all of these topics, I know that mine did. Those manuals were meant to be read, not thrown in a drawer unforgotten, or worse yet, thrown away with the box/packing materials. Most (but not all) of the info that you need is in the provided manual(s) that shipped with the computer.

I hope that the "F11", or whatever key is assigned to recovery works for you.

Best of Luck,
Cat