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Trouble Installing Windows 8.1

B

Baracoa

n00b
Joined
Jun 21, 2014
Messages
29
Hi

I've just finished building my PC and I have a full OEM version of Windows 8.1 here, complete with DVD and product key. I don't have an optical drive on my new PC so I figured I'd follow these instructions (and these) to create and burn an ISO to a USB stick.

However, when I put the DVD in my old laptop the DVD drive doesn't recognise that there's a disk in there. Does this mean the disk is faulty?

If so, do I just have to wait for a new one to be sent, or - preferably - is there a way I can download a Windows 8.1 OEM ISO so that I can put it on my USB? Any advice is greatly appreciated; I've taken the day off work to install everything and now I'm stuck!
 
I've also tried this method but because it's an OEM key it just says the key cannot be used to install a retail version of the OS.
 
I've managed to get the DVD working (it was the drive that was broken) so I created an ISO and used Rufus to create installation media (the windows 7 exe didn't work). However, now when I put the USB in the PC it gives me the error: "Secure Boot Violation. The system found unauthorized changes on the firmware, operating systems or UEFI drivers..." Has anyone come across this before? Is it an issue with my installation media or do I just need to disable secure boot? I'm on an Asus Z97i-Plus
 
Just disable secure boot. and enable legacy mode. you should be good to go :D I remember it took me about 2 days of figuring it out. (i wasn't too determined)
 
Baracoa said:
I've also tried this method but because it's an OEM key it just says the key cannot be used to install a retail version of the OS.
Click to expand...

You can install it with an OEM key and then change it to a retail key after installation.

Baracoa said:
I've managed to get the DVD working (it was the drive that was broken) so I created an ISO and used Rufus to create installation media (the windows 7 exe didn't work). However, now when I put the USB in the PC it gives me the error: "Secure Boot Violation. The system found unauthorized changes on the firmware, operating systems or UEFI drivers..." Has anyone come across this before? Is it an issue with my installation media or do I just need to disable secure boot? I'm on an Asus Z97i-Plus
Click to expand...

Disable Secure Boot. It's there to protect your computer from being attacked by malicious code during boot by allowing only what is registered in the bios to boot. Attempting to boot off the USB would be considered an attempt to hack the computer by Secure Boot. You can re-enable it afterwards.
 
Secure Boot should not be giving an error just because you are booting Win 8.1 from a USB. I would suspect the image or disk is bad. I have installed Win 8.1 from USB drives before with secure boot enabled. I would try to use a different method to create the USB media, you should be able to just format as FAT32 and copy the contents of the Win 8.1 ISO to the drive, then select the "UEFI: USB DRIVE" option in your bios as the boot source, this part is important as you will have two USB drive options, one with UEFI in it and one without, as I said choose the UEFI one. If there is not a UEFI one then the disk or image on the disk is bad.
 
Thanks for your help, I've managed to get it working now. I used a generic ISO and then just activated it with my OEM key. It appears the disk was a waste of time :)
 
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