Cannot Upgrade From 8 To 8.1

I have an HP desktop which was running Win 8.1 x64, which recently failed to boot. I did a refresh install of the OS (save files), which allowed it to boot again, but it restored to 8 and not 8.1. I have run all current windows updates, but for the 8.1 update it instructed me to go to the Windows Store and get it from there. The problem is, when I go to the charm screen and click on the store, I get a white screen with a message stating that the page is no longer available. It has a link to view more windows apps, but it just freezes when I click on it. I've tried installing from a USB installation media, but it just gives me the 'preparing' windows, then doesn't do anything past that. Can anybody help me out as to how to smash through this? Thanks.

 

Yeah as I used an installation media and it just popped up the “preparing” window, then did nothing past that. I could do a clean install right from 8.1, but I’d like to avoid that if possible.

 

Windows 8 to 8.1 was upgrade through windows store have a look in there to see if you can see it.

 

Did that. It’s in my original post....