Dell W8 disc with other laptops

AlecEiffel

Hi all,

I have a Dell W8 disc (not the recovery discs you can make) that when I have used, has installed a clean no bloatware (no Dell apps or drivers) install of W8.

Can this be used (both technically and legally) to do a clean install on another W8 laptop (from another manufacturer)?

I am assuming that as it picks up my own product key from the laptop bios, it will just do the same on another OEMs laptop (purchased recently) but can anyone confirm? Also, as both laptops are licensed W8 I assume that it isn't a legal issue to install from a different disc but again can anyone confirm? I will be making recovery discs for the new laptop anyway but was just wondering for future ref or if I wanted to do a clean install.

Thanks!

gardner1

I have used a win 7 Samsung recovery disk (which came with laptop) to do a full install on a Toshiba laptop using the Toshiba serial number

AlecEiffel

Cool, thanks for your reply.

NiftyDigits

AlecEiffel wrote: »

Cool, thanks for your reply.

Completely unrelated though.

It should be fine as long as you are using the same SKU.

Esqui

I don't know about discs that come pre-made, but I know it doesn't work with the recovery media you create via Windows. Once tried to reinstall Win 8 on an HP laptop with a USB made from another of the same. It installed fine, but kept telling me the product key was incorrect and wouldn't activate

NiftyDigits

Esqui wrote: »

I don't know about discs that come pre-made, but I know it doesn't work with the recovery media you create via Windows. Once tried to reinstall Win 8 on an HP laptop with a USB made from another of the same. It installed fine, but kept telling me the product key was incorrect and wouldn't activate

Did you try a Phone Activation?

Esqui

I did not, as when I realised, I used the correct recovery stick and didn't have any of that trouble!

AlecEiffel

NiftyDigits wrote: »

It should be fine as long as you are using the same SKU.

Thanks for the reply. Both are W8 64 bit 'standard' edition, so it looks like it should be fine if required.

Cheers everyone!

NiftyDigits

AlecEiffel wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. Both are W8 64 bit 'standard' edition, so it looks like it should be fine if required.

Cheers everyone!

Standard is not an SKU.

Core Single Language

and

Core Country Specific are SKUs

No, it won't 'pick up' the key from your laptop. You will either have to make a backup of the activation on the new machine or do a Telephone activation.

AlecEiffel

NiftyDigits wrote: »

No, it won't 'pick up' the key from your laptop. You will either have to make a backup of the activation on the new machine or do a Telephone activation.

Everywhere I've read tells me that the key is embedded in the BIOS and is read by Windows during install to confirm that it is a valid key for the version being installed (provided install is from a correct version generic W8 media not an OEM recovery image). Is that not right?

Jivesinger

AlecEiffel wrote: »

Everywhere I've read tells me that the key is embedded in the BIOS and is read by Windows during install to confirm that it is a valid key for the version being installed (provided install is from a correct version generic W8 media not an OEM recovery image). Is that not right?

I've never tried it myself, but my understanding was the same as yours. I've certainly seen reports on other forums of people installing windows 8 from generic media and it picking up the embedded key. Obviously it wouldn't work on a computer which didn't come with Windows 8 in its OEM state, but it looks like that's not an issue for you.