Windows 10: Win 10 not activating with Win 8 key? Should this work?

So the story goes; my motherboard gave up the ghost on my old system so I have basically built a new system. I installed Win 8.1 pro on it as this is what I was previously using and quickly realised that my new hardware did not support earlier than Win 10. I had no internet access so I used an old laptop to get a USB bootable of Win 10 pro.

When I installed Win 10 pro it accepted my key for Win 8 Pro and let me sign in with my live ID. It has now come up though saying it needs activation. Activation error 0xC004F050. Is there anyway that I can get this to activate without having to go back to Win 8.1 and upgrading to Win 10? I have already installed everything and got it nearly just the way I like it. Would really suck to have to go all the way back to a fresh install again.

Just to be clear I have a genuine working key for Win 8 pro.

Any suggestions please?

:)

 

Unable to Activate Win 8

I got Win 8 isntalled on my file server, but I am unable to activate it with the key. Says the key is invalid. Since I work at microsoft I got a retail version from the employee store. I have been doing some reading, and to be able to activate Win8 with the key there needs to be a previous version of Windows installed for it to work. WTF, so you can't do clean installs?

And the box says nothing about Upgrade version. Straight Windows 8 Pro.

 

Unable to Activate Win 8

I guess that's two of us with magic Windows 8 upgrade disks. *Laugh :laugh:

 

Fresh Install of Win 10 without Serial Key?

Looking to reformat a laptops HDD, and then reinstall Win 10 fresh. The problem is it came pre-installed with Win 8 and I did the free upgrade to Win 10. How exactly would I re-format the HDD, reinstall Win 10 and ensure it reactivates properly? I don't see a Win 8 serial key anywhere in the contents of the box.