Hi I have bought a 250gb ssd for my inspiron 17r 7720 and was unable to use dell backup and recovery since the ssd is smaller than the original 1tb hdd. Therefore I have done some research and found that i need to get the iso for a fresh windows 8 install. I am running dell windows 8 core and am in the UK/GB but unsure what iso to use. I have tried an iso from another thread but an error came up saying something like ''the product key entered does not match any of the windows image available for installation'' from thread called ''Thread: Windows 8 Core SingleLanguage OEM original'' but i think that version was a US one (pg11) i have also tried changing the version and language using the tutorial on ''Why no image file of Win 8 OEM DVD?'' pg3 but on install it asked me for my windows 8 key... but i thoight it would retrieve it from the bios and i dont actually know my key could i just download any windows 8 iso that isnt cracked and just install that? and that would use the bios key? help needed!!! so annoying after buying a new ssd and cannot use it!!
Clone your hard drive to the ssd(make sure hard drive used less than 250gb space) using hard driver cloning software, then you should be able to boot up from the ssd.
hi thanks for the reply but i want to do a fresh install of windows 8. no cloning as i have heard it is not as good
The recovery partition has .wim files on it?? Maybe you could extract them and use it to install / restore the OS?
From my own experience, Dell OEM is better than fresh install, and you can upgrade from OEM core to ProWmc or w8.1 ProWMC whatever you prefer.
hi erm i think my recovery partitions are empty. I think this happened when i tried installing my dell backup on my ssd but i accidentally did it on my original hdd so everything was deleted