hi,

I like to know if somebody has a laptop with windows 8.1 installed and has a recovery  partition in the case of reinstalling windows 8.1.   somebody has erased all harddisk  with low level format for some reason.

now this man has no more 8.1 to reinstall it.  I have my self the dvd of this version of windows 8.1 or suppose the trial version ,

if I install the windows from my dvd (or the trial version )and activate it with his product key which is on his laptop voor his 8.1 version.

is this action illegal or not ? if this action is illegal i like to know why?

thanks

johan

If the dvd came with the system or even a trial. The OS is suppose to automatically activate your software with embedded key. However there are people this did not happen. If the OS did not activate with the trial installed call Microsoft support

IN the run type slui.exe 4, A list of countries will come up. The automated message will give an option to phone a number for further assistance

or try

1-800-426-9400

• Edited by colakid 23 hours 31 minutes ago

If a proper license is held for the product, MS do say that you can use any legitimately-acquired media to re-install.

If the computer originally shipped with a manufacturer-supplied copy of Windows (OEM), then only the media from the OEM should be used. This might require him to purchase a set of recovery discs or USB from the OEM.

It may be possible to retrieve/download a copy of Windows 8.0 or 8.1 from the MS website, with only a product key, but, it is common for modern computers sold now, that there is no visible product key (instead, the key is stored in firmware)

If you need to download Windows 8.1, to create installation media, this article may help:
http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-81-tip-download-windows-81-iso-windows-8-product-key