I received my work laptop with Windows 8 Pro pre-installed.
A few months down the line something happened, and the IT dept. formatted my laptop, and re-installed Windows 8 using their own VL disc.
I didn't realize this until the Win 10 upgrade came, and then I decided format, and re-install using a Windows 8 OEM disc.
The problem is that now I can't activate my copy of Win 8 Pro, and the error it gives is 'Error code: 0x8007007B: The filename, directory name or volume label syntax is incorrect.'
I also can't activate by phone, and after running slui 4
it tells me 'Can't activate Windows by phone, contact your sys admin.'
So now I can't figure out where the problem is. Here's a list of potential issues, but I'm not sure if any of them matter:
- Formatted original Windows 8 Pro OEM, partitioned drive.
- Installed Windows 8 Enterprise VLK
- Installed Windows 7 Pro on other partition (dev testing, not activated)
The sticker at the back of the laptop says Windows 8 Pro, but of course the key is in the BIOS. I downloaded a tool to give me the keys, but there were 4 different keys/options. I used the default one, but I did try the others too (which failed).
Another thing I noticed is that when I re-installed Windows 8 Pro OEM, it asked for the key, which I assume would automatically find by itself, but didn't.
Any ideas?
Edit: So I get into work this morning, and I see it's activated. But once I run cmd /c "slmgr /dli"
, it tells me its a VOLUME_KMSCLIENT license. So did I use the incorrect key? Did the tool I run give me the key for the currently installed version of Windows Enterprise or something?