How to reinstall Windows 8 update after hard disk failure

[eddyc]

Hi all,

Hoping someone can help.

My OCZ Vertex 2 just broke. No longer detected at boot and not detected by other machines (via usb). I fugure it's totally dead.

It was the boot drive for my PC. No data lost, just the OS.

So I've ordered a new SSD but I'm not sure how I'll go about getting Windows 8.1 back onto the machine. I started with Windows 7 and then paid the early bird upgrade price for Windows 8 when it first came out. I then did the upgrade to 8.1.

I've got the email from Microsoft with the Windows 8 upgrade licence key but that's it. No recovery disk.

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of Windows 8 to download and whether my upgrade licence key will activate correctly when I try to install it on the new disk from scratch?

Any help would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[eddyc]

Thanks! So if I can get hold of an ISO then the key I have should work even though it is only an upgrade key?

Also do you know if I can install 8.1 directly or should I install and activate 8.0 and then do the 8.1 upgrade?