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robman50
join:2010-12-14

robman50

Member

[WIN8] Buying Win8 Pro from Microsoft

So I went to »windows.microsoft.com/en ··· dows/buy and clicked on Download Pro for $39.99, ran the Upgrade Advisor, and I told it to go ahead and show me the order page. What is the difference between the 2GB Digital Download for $39.99 and the Windows DVD for $12.99?

Racerbob
Premium Member
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY

Racerbob

Premium Member

The $12.99 DVD is an extra....a hard copy of the operating system. So your total cost will be $39.99 + $12.99 plus tax. The method I used was the $39.99 download and then a burn to a usb flash drive to do the install from.
robman50
join:2010-12-14

robman50

Member

I believe the 2GB download is the upgrade? What would I need for doing a clean fresh install of Windows?
Say for example if I have an blank HDD and need an primary O/S, what would I have to purchase?
Gem
Premium Member
join:2005-09-10

Gem

Premium Member


There are posts in this forum that explain how to do a clean install to a new hard drive using the $39 downloadable digital upgrade from Microsoft. I've not been able to understand how to do that even after reading and re-reading those posts, but give it a try. I must be misunderstanding something really obvious.

As a workaround. I upgraded a clean, brand new W7 install to W8 and am living with that rather than trying to solve how to use the digital W8 upgrade option to do a clean W8 install on a new drive. That worked.
robman50
join:2010-12-14

robman50

Member

I kind of figured out that the DVD was an extra copy. I can just make my own copy of burning the ISO twice and that would be the same as the $12.99 option.
robman50

robman50 to Gem

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to Gem
I read somewhere than Win8 Pro lets you do a clean install with the digital download but then again it might be some thing different like the OEM editions.
I can't find the blog I was reading to explain this. I'll keep searching.
robman50

robman50

Member

Here it is.
blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/02/upgrade-to-windows-8-pro-for-39-99.aspx
robman50

robman50 to Gem

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to Gem
said by Gem:

As a workaround. I upgraded a clean, brand new W7 install to W8 and am living with that rather than trying to solve how to use the digital W8 upgrade option to do a clean W8 install on a new drive. That worked.

So a clean install of Win7 with all motherboard, video, and other drivers? Or just Win7 and the drivers after Win8 is installed?
MrFixit1
join:1999-11-26
Madison, WI

MrFixit1

Member

Just to be clear , the $39 deal is for an upgrade license . If you want to be fully legal you cannot install it on a new , completely bare , drive . You must first have a qualifying OS installed .
Having said that , Google is your friend
If you just want to start from scratch and wipe your old install , that should be one of the options you are given when you " upgrade "
What with the Media Center key boondoggle , it would not surprise me if you had to have a validated qualifying install instead of just an old install with a " valid " key , so don't know if just throwing a partial XP or 7 on would work .
60632649 (banned)
join:2003-09-29
New York, NY

60632649 (banned) to robman50

Member

to robman50
That doesn't sound like a deal to me, in fact they would have to pay me to deal with win8, and $40 wont cover my time or expenses dealing with the hollywood production looking BS.
Gem
Premium Member
join:2005-09-10

Gem to MrFixit1

Premium Member

to MrFixit1
said by MrFixit1:

What with the Media Center key boondoggle , it would not surprise me if you had to have a validated qualifying install instead of just an old install with a " valid " key , so don't know if just throwing a partial XP or 7 on would work .

My experience was that the W7 install that was upgraded to W8 had to be activated before proceeding with the upgrade.

Simply having the old W7 install disc in a drive or offering up the old W7 key code were not viable options for me to upgrade to W8. I had to upgrade from an installed, activated verison of W7 in order to upgrade using the $39 digital download.
robman50
join:2010-12-14

robman50

Member

Well I did make a full backup a few days ago so what I am planning to do is do an EFI boot from the DVD, wipe the HDD completely, install W8 as an GPT layout. If that doesn't work I will just do a clean install of W7 and go from there.
As for MBR, GPT and EFI, I figure since I got an UEFI motherboard I might as well run an EFI shell.

Pirate515
Premium Member
join:2001-01-22
Brooklyn, NY

Pirate515

Premium Member

said by robman50:

Well I did make a full backup a few days ago so what I am planning to do is do an EFI boot from the DVD, wipe the HDD completely, install W8 as a GPT layout. If that doesn't work I will just do a clean install of W7 and go from there.
As for MBR, GPT and EFI, I figure since I got an UEFI motherboard I might as well run an EFI shell.

I did just that actually. I'm not sure if the upgrade DVD that the Upgrade Advisor makes is bootable. Before you proceed, see if you can get a copy of the TechNet/MSDN DVD. I've noticed that the Upgrade DVD is 2.x GB in size whereas TechNet one is 3.x GB (x64 version for both). The TechNet DVD will do a clean install with upgrade key and will allow you to partition as GPT. It will not activate though since it will detect that it was not an upgrade install. This is where Google is your friend. Simple registry edit and reboot resolves that "problem".