“True,” Elena said, “but there’s the Software Recovery page for people who bought a digital license. If your laptop came with 8.1, the product key is embedded in the BIOS. You just need the right tool.”
“No problem,” Carlos thought. “I’ll just download the ISO from the internet.”
If you need help finding the or the right tool for your situation (and you have a valid license), let me know.
But during installation, the screen went black. Then a popup: “This copy of Windows is not genuine. Product key required.” He had no key. Worse — the installer locked his hard drive, and he couldn’t go back to his old system without formatting everything. Frustrated, Carlos called his tech-savvy cousin, Elena.
A massive green button: . He clicked. A 2 GB file started downloading. He waited two hours. When it finished, he mounted the ISO and ran setup.