Windows 8.1 Product Key and Activation

Okay.  Putting together the pieces you have provided so far...  Making some assumptions . . .

You have an 'older' computer system (would you mind sharing the make & model?)  Somehow (would you mind sharing how?  Upgrade?  If so, from what OS?) the system ended up with Windows 8 or 8.1 (which one?  can make a difference.) installed on it originally and activated (how did you get it and how was it activated originally?  How did you get your product key?)  Something happened and you had to try to re-install.  You (many assumptions here) decided to do a clean install of Windows 8.1 and when you attempted to activate, it failed.  You then tried the instructions to activate by phone and the automated method failed.  You then chose to speak to an operator and even then, the activation failed.

So, how much of that is accurate?  Can/will you fill in some of the blanks to the story so we can figure out more details of where things could be going awry?

If i could i would, i just so happened to have someone visit me by chance who was studying IT and sorted my pc out for me.

Please forward the email you get for this response and ask them if they might take a few minutes of their time to explain what they did to fix your system.

The link will be included already, but, just so they can see it in its entirety :

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_install/windows-81-product-key-and-activation/53c94388-00d4-4556-8760-2b9d824680ab?page=6&msgId=9d9dec7a-7037-4983-b3d3-d817610d5063

As the more solutions that get posted in places like this... The better off everyone is.

O baby, Now I found what my troubles were. Bought new computer, I was given a 15  character product key from Best Buy with 1's and 0's in it. Some people tell me that this is not a real MS Key. Then I upgraded for the free upgrade for windows 10.  Windows 10m would not activate automatically, nor would it active manually. ASUS computer help line had no record of the proper Product Key.  I  debated with BB Tech Geek People for over a week, Took Computer into store. Best Buy could not fix. BB considered replacing the computer. however the computer was no longer stoked by Best Buy, So they did a system restore. With two exceptions, I got all of my programs back. By The way MS does not store the Email contacts in a manner that can be easily copied  carried forward, when my old computer died, it took all my E-Mail contacts with it,. Now that this things  such as product keys and contacts are stored in the cloud in a computer room far away, may Heaven have mercy on us.

The activation key is a 25 character alphanumeric string, can't imagine what the binary key you have could be.

Your issues with Best Buy (there's a false description if ever I heard one) are covered by the law but OEM licenses require that the system manufacturer provides support for Windows not Microsoft.

Contacts and other data are stored in files on the computer, it just requires a technician who know what they are doing (that rules out Best Buy) to know which files to transfer. Contacts are not stored in the cloud unless you use a webmail service instead of a mail client on the PC.

Cloud based storage is probably more safe than any system you could possibly implement is a home network. Clustered servers, on the fly regular backups and fully updated and patched systems leaves very little to chance.