Aspire V5-471P Restoring to clean hard drive - Windows 8

My son has an identical Aspire V5-471P laptop to mine (I liked it and it seemed easier to maintain two identical PCs). Bought his off eBay but mine was new. Unfortunately his hard drive has failed so I'm going to fit a new one.

The V5 doesn't come with restore disks but mine can make a restore USB or I can clone my hard disk. I'd prefer the latter option so I don't have to go through the palaver of installing all the software, but I'm wondering if I may have a hitch when it comes to registration.

What do I do as far as Windows registration is concerned? There's no licence key on the base of the laptop or on the warranty and quickguide.

Accepted answers

Alan-London

I would suggest you create a restore media set from your working machine asap.
Failing that, you would need to purchase media from Acer.
I don't know about the V5 but my Acer required a DVD as well as USB stick for the set. When you create the set you will be shown the requirement for your machine.
You can use the created media on both of your machines. There should be no need to worry about registration. This will happen automatically as the OEM key is embedded in the machine - Microsoft have removed the need for stickers and consequently are no longer used. Note that, should you use Windows media from a different source, it will need the serial from that version - the embedded key will not work.

All comments

Alan-London

I would suggest you create a restore media set from your working machine asap.
Failing that, you would need to purchase media from Acer.
I don't know about the V5 but my Acer required a DVD as well as USB stick for the set. When you create the set you will be shown the requirement for your machine.
You can use the created media on both of your machines. There should be no need to worry about registration. This will happen automatically as the OEM key is embedded in the machine - Microsoft have removed the need for stickers and consequently are no longer used. Note that, should you use Windows media from a different source, it will need the serial from that version - the embedded key will not work.

colin_thames

Thanks Alan

Am still hoping that I can use my cloned drive rather than starting from scratch. Does anyone have any idea if this will pick up the licence key from the BIOS when it starts up?

Colin

IronFly

Yes, it will check the key from the BIOS.

colin_thames

I've now managed to clone my drive and install it into the Aspire V5-471P. This is not an easy task in itself as the hard disk is not behind a panel in the base like larger V5s but is under the top cover. Yo will have to remove all the screws from the base then prise off the keyboard then lift up the top silver cover and trackpad from the front. You don't need to lift it up far because the disk just sits in some padding at the front on the right. Its cable is long enough to pull out the hard disk and disconnect it from its plug while holding it just outside of the laptop casing.

If I have occasion to remove the hard disk again I might take a video and post it on YouTube

Anyways, I found some software (RWEverything) that will read the Windows Product Key off the BIOS. Details here:

http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-retrieve-windows-8-oem-product-key-from-bios/

That's enabled me to read the key then change it in Windows (Right-click on This PC, click Properties, then scroll down to Windows Activation, Click Change Product Key, then enter the number you've got from the BIOS.

To read the key on the current version of Windows and other software I used Nirsoft's Produkey (details here: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html#DownloadLinks)

So now my PC is all street legal and I didn't have to go through Restoring and adding all my software and backed up files. Must have saved me a couple of days at least.

Thanks for all your help guys.

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