I've just posted this on the HowTo Geek forum. They e me routinely, and I happened to spot a relevant thread.
At this point in time I am awaiting the full W8.1 discs from MS. They're a fraction of the price and it did take supervisor level intervention, but you know, there's is still a principal involved here. I'm paying cash out to use my machine with MY Key. A key that seemingly is cunningly hidden from its owner. Just don't get it - in both senses of the phrase.
I purchased an Asus UX31A from somewhere you can buy the best stuff. I upgraded to 8.1
I subsequently purchased another one, this time for half the price. It was running W7 and I assumed he'd rolled it back legally. Now I find he did not, and what's more, one can not roll back to 7 without 8 being Professional. Lots of misinformation when buying kit these days.
Tallked to MS. Asus, BB, several times each. Even MS bod did not agree with his colleague on the matter of putting in the Key. Asus, BB and MS have all said put the new software in ( on a clean install) and the computer / software will recognize each other and it will work. Yeh, right. Finally, up to supervisor level and they let someone have the case number that is sending a full version. But there's a charge. A bargain really, but still somewhat galling to think I can't just download and put MY key in.
I'm aware there are utilities to extract this Key from the BIOS or wherever it lies, but every one I found is looking into the OS software. Oh, my. DOS was so much easier.
So now I have to buy a USB DVD to start proceedings unless I can run the DVD - to USB stick conversion on another computer. I MUST NOT risk the second machine by having the discs start an instal.
So, can this be done safely on another (W7) machine with full version 8.1 discs making the USB bootable? SAFELY.
Sorry, my shouting is involuntary. wink