Need Windows 8.1 product key after clean install Windows 10

Danwoo · 27 Aug 2015

I have a Lenovo S21E-20. I purchased machine new, it came with 8.1 loaded and as soon as it was turned on it said "free upgrade to Windows 10 available". Due to small SSD memory, could not simply upgrade from installed to Windows 10. I used a clean install using a USB. After installing Windows 10, there was no room left on SSD. So in order to continue, I deleted Windows (old) folder. Now the computer is asking me to go to settings and activate but it will not do so, it is asking for a product key that I do not have.

Is there a way to achieve this activation?

BunnyJ · 27 Aug 2015

The problem is you had to perform the upgrade first, then it win10 would have activated properly. After that you could do a clean instillation and win10 would activate. By doing what you did(Clean Install without the upgrade first) you can't activate Win10. You'll have to go back to win8.1 and upgrade. But given your small SSD that could prevent you from doing this.

The only option I can see is you getting a bigger SSD(120gb+) and reinstalling Win8.1 and then upgrading. 32Gb will not cut it for upgrading to Win10.

Sorry your in this situation.
Jeff

xtcrefugee · 27 Aug 2015

BunnyJ said:

32Gb will not cut it for upgrading to Win10.

You can update to 10 with a 32GB disk no problem, I have done it myself. Most current 8.1 devices with limited storage (32GB or less) will come in a "WIMBoot" configuration. This has caused space problems for installations using the GWX downloader, but using an ISO/USB drive works fine. You may need external USB storage for the system to use during the upgrade to back up your existing files, but I didn't. Of course you're not left with much space afterwards, so I'd recommend doing a clean install after Windows 10 activation.

Danwoo, unfortunately you will need to revert to 8.1. If your system has a recovery partition you can use that, but if you have no recovery media either you'll need to contact Lenovo and explain the problem.

BunnyJ · 27 Aug 2015

xtcrefugee said:

You can update to 10 with a 32GB disk no problem, I have done it myself. Most current 8.1 devices with limited storage (32GB or less) will come in a "WIMBoot" configuration. This has caused space problems for installations using the GWX downloader, but using an ISO/USB drive works fine. You may need external USB storage for the system to use during the upgrade to back up your existing files, but I didn't. Of course you're not left with much space afterwards, so I'd recommend doing a clean install after Windows 10 activation.

Danwoo, unfortunately you will need to revert to 8.1. If your system has a recovery partition you can use that, but if you have no recovery media either you'll need to contact Lenovo and explain the problem.

OH.. ok.. but I would still conceder getting a larger SSD. 32Gb is very small. And I agree with the last part of your post.

Jeff