[Coda]

Here's the thing: The key wouldn't help you there. The keys that come with computers are OEM-locked. You CAN'T grab a copy of Windows from somewhere else and install it using that key, and you CAN'T use that key on a different computer. And that's been true since Vista.

You CAN slap a hard drive with Windows already installed on it into another computer, but it locks itself down when you do that. It gives you enough time to recover the stuff you need off of it but it'll start refusing to let you use it after a while.

So in other words, the very reason you like keys is completely irrelevant because it doesn't actually work.

Now, why your laptop wouldn't let you make a recovery USB is an extremely good question, and that sounds like something worth investigating. If you tell me more about what Microsoft referred you to, I can give you more information.

Side note: You're right about $40, but $40 now isn't significantly more than the $15 that recovery disks were in the good old days, thanks to inflation. And before that, it was even more expensive because technology prices have been coming DOWN over time.