yronnen

jaclaz , You're right, I did get the message about the dynamic disk and said yes, and I did not backup the MBR - but that was because I didn't really care about the data... Anyways, I've downloaded one of the linux based rescue discs with parted magic and erased the entire drive. This solved the problem.

Hi, I have an HP Elitebook 2740p (12" touchscrren). I've created a new partition using windows disk manager tools, but since I had a few hidden partitions (part of HP recovery), the system converted the HDD from simple to dynamic. The problem is that I'm trying to install Windows 8 on this machine (it comes with Win7 pro), and it would'nt install since it is a dynamic drive. Ive tried to convert the disk to basic using Paragon partition manager 10 pro. It tells me that it need to reboot the machine to complete the conversion, but it cannot install the windows recovery environment which popsup when paragon changes the drive during boot. I've tried to use the paragon recovery cd, but it hangs. I've also tried to use some recovery cd with partition magic, but it crashes as well. I've tried to restore the computer to factory settings using the recovery option that reinstalls windows, but it crashes too... I've decided to take the drive out and put it in an external enclosure to clean it from another computer...but it is a 1.8" drive.... Any ideas? Thanks

Why should you care about the disc itself? I bought the license using my edu email, and it supposed to be upgrade. However, I've used a retail DVD (not upgrade) to install and activate without a problem. The license is not OEM. Having said that, you should know that Microsoft changed the license and activation procedures in Vista and 7. Basically, you can activate the system on two different computers (not at the same time...), but after that it will not activate and you will need to call Microsoft. Microsoft may or may not allow you to activate the system for the 3rd time (on different hardware).