[H] Windows 8 on a dead HD

[Thane Sherrington]

I have a Lenovo desktop with a dead hard drive (completely dead).  It 
had Windows 8.1, so I put in a new drive and tried to install Windows 
8.1.  8.1 doesn't detect the COA key from the BIOS (although NirSoft 
does) and when I enter the key, 8.1 says it isn't valid.  So I'm pretty 
sure the problem is that the version of 8.1 I'm using (Pro x64 English) 
isn't the one that was used by Lenovo (there are about six different 
version so 8.1 (Pro, non-pro, English, English International, Single 
Language, etc.).

Anyone know a way to figure out which version it was rather than just 
trying every one singly?

T