Notebooks & Netbooks

[blue2oct7]

I need to create a bootable USB with windows 8 on it in order to reboot my aspire v5. When I purchased my laptop, it had windows 8 already installed on it. My laptop also has the windows 8 product key on it. However, I can't boot my laptop until I have this bootable USB. How can I avoid purchasing windows 8 in order to make the bootable USB if I can't get my product key? My laptop is no longer under warranty, so I'm afraid I can't even try to ask Acer to find my product key without wanting some form of payment. Help!?

[Colchicine]

1)  You don't need a bootable USB to "reboot" your computer.
2)  Are you talking about recovery media to reset your computer?

3)  Use this to get your product key: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

[BearPaw]

Your going to need to purchase a USB drive yourself and create that media. Thankfully prices for 16GB flash drives have dived down lately (I would suggest a 32gb Flash Drive to comfortably create it.

Windows keys from Windows 8 and up don't appear as COA anymore due to new licensing terms and restrictions / requirements for OEMs to prevent piracy.

For more info about creating a recovery drive see here for the instructions : http://acer--uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14303/~/create-a-recovery-usb-flash-drive-with-...