HDD died, Win 7 licence ?

lway

Hi folks,
My kids laptop HDD died (it was dropped) so I was get a grinding noise from it on startup and it doesn't boot to Windows only to BIOS. I booted off a recovery CD I have (Hirens boot CD) and tried recovering and formatting the HDD but it shows up as no volume and I get an error message saying Drive geometry incorrect. I've taken out the HDD and hooked it up to an external drive enclosure I have but it still doesn't show up when connected to a desktop.

I've ordered a replacement HDD from Pixmania but was wondering if anything could be done to recover the Windows 7 licence from the old HDD or do I need to purchase a new licence for the new HDD. Don't remember if it came with a CD as it was a few years ago that it was bought and I can't find one.

-( i )- Wicker

There is usually a sticker somewhere under the laptop with the windows key included

lway

Thanks, Why didn't I see that .

The replacement HDD will be a few days getting to me, how do I go about downloading Win 7 to the new Drive ?. Do I download it from Microsoft to a DVD and boot the laptop off that and it will ask for the licence key before installing it on the HDD ?

yoyo

lway wrote: »

Thanks, Why didn't I see that .

The replacement HDD will be a few days getting to me, how do I go about downloading Win 7 to the new Drive ?. Do I download it from Microsoft to a DVD and boot the laptop off that and it will ask for the licence key before installing it on the HDD ?

You can either burn to DVD or else download the USB Bootable Tool to make any 4+GB usb stick bootable. The isos can be downloaded from Microsofts digital river account, and you can activate Windows with the serial underneath the laptop.

Nick

lway

yoyo wrote: »

You can either burn to DVD or else download the USB Bootable Tool to make any 4+GB usb stick bootable. The isos can be downloaded from Microsofts digital river account, and you can activate Windows with the serial underneath the laptop.

Nick

Unfortunately it seems as if I'll have to purchase another copy of Windows for the USB bootable Tool, If I try and download a 30-day trial version it seems as if my old Product key (from the sticker) will not activate it (this is what i'm reading on Support forums). As the laptop won't boot to Windows I cannot create a Recovery Disk off the old installed version, bit of a Catch-22.

Seems as if the manufacturers charge for a recovery Disk, though I can't find where to buy it from on their site.

silentrust

lway wrote: »

Unfortunately it seems as if I'll have to purchase another copy of Windows for the USB bootable Tool, If I try and download a 30-day trial version it seems as if my old Product key (from the sticker) will not activate it (this is what i'm reading on Support forums). As the laptop won't boot to Windows I cannot create a Recovery Disk off the old installed version, bit of a Catch-22.

Seems as if the manufacturers charge for a recovery Disk, though I can't find where to buy it from on their site.

As I understand it when you activate windows, a hash is generated based on your hardware specs so replacing the hard drive would stop you from reactivating automatically.

I've been down this road once before. If you call Microsoft and plead your case, explaining the situation, they will let you activate again.

GreenWolfe

lway wrote: »

Unfortunately it seems as if I'll have to purchase another copy of Windows for the USB bootable Tool, If I try and download a 30-day trial version it seems as if my old Product key (from the sticker) will not activate it (this is what i'm reading on Support forums). As the laptop won't boot to Windows I cannot create a Recovery Disk off the old installed version, bit of a Catch-22.

Seems as if the manufacturers charge for a recovery Disk, though I can't find where to buy it from on their site.

Make sure you're downloading the same ISO as the name on the sticker. If the sticker on the bottom says Home Premium, download the Home Premium ISO and so on.

I had to do the same with a Windows 7 Pro laptop recently and I just had to activate it over the phone. The setup program had no problem recognising the entered key from the bottom of the laptop.

You can also use Rufus to write the image to the USB key.

There is a text file in the iso called ei.cfg that determines which edition (Home Premium, Ultimate etc) and channel (retail, OEM) gets installed.

It doesnt matter which ISO you download, just edit the text file to make sure you install the version appropriate to your licence. Make sure to change the channel to OEM if necessary because you do not get a full retail licence when you buy a laptop.

Sometimes you have to ring them to activate, just tell them the truth, the HDD died.

lway

Thanks all,
Managed to find a link to download the iso's, not sure whether the original was 64 or 32 bit but will try these when the replacement HDD Drive arrives in a few days

Links for anyone with similar issues:

32 and 64 bit Win 7 Home Premium iso's:
http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65732/X15-65732.iso
http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso

Here are the 32 and 64 bit Win 7 Ultimate iso's :
http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-59463.iso
http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-59465.iso

Win 7 Professional 64 bit:
http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-24281.iso

RossieMan

hey, the old windows license should work as long as it hasn't been activated before.

chances are seeing as its a kids laptop, it probably hasn't been used.

also, 32 bit and 64 bit won't matter. just remember that if you have more than 3gb's of RAM that the 32 bit won't use it as it is capped at 3.xx(can't remember of the top of my head.

any problems installing, or with activation don't be afraid to PM me for help.

yoyo

RossieMan wrote: »

also, 32 bit and 64 bit won't matter. just remember that if you have more than 3gb's of RAM that the 32 bit won't use it as it is capped at 3.xx(can't remember of the top of my head.

If the ops CPU supports x64 instructions that is, not all don't. Some early Dual Core ones don't even

any problems installing, or with activation don't be afraid to PM me for help.

Lets not go there . No activation bypassing discussion or assistance please

Nick

silentrust

At the risk of sound evangelical, you could always do what I did when my current laptop died with Windows 7 installed and switch to the latest version of Ubuntu Linux - it looks great and so far I haven't had any compatibility issues with Windows files -plus it's free! If you're unsure suggest you take a look at some Youtube videos of Ubuntu in action, as I think these are easier to understand than reading a list of specs on the main site.

lway

silentrust wrote: »

At the risk of sound evangelical, you could always do what I did when my current laptop died with Windows 7 installed and switch to the latest version of Ubuntu Linux - it looks great and so far I haven't had any compatibility issues with Windows files -plus it's free! If you're unsure suggest you take a look at some Youtube videos of Ubuntu in action, as I think these are easier to understand than reading a list of specs on the main site.

I have an old desktop of my own dual booting Ubuntu or Win Xp but I haven't used Ubuntu much. Like I said this laptop is for my (approaching early teen) kids and is mainly used for some Googling and watching movies with VLC player and playing a few games (Angry birds, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies etc.) would these all run on Ubuntu?.

Which begs a new question, once I get Win 7 back up and running on it, what about MS Office ? I can't remeber what was on it but I reckon i'll install Open Office for those school projects etc.

silentrust

lway wrote: »

I have an old desktop of my own dual booting Ubuntu or Win Xp but I haven't used Ubuntu much. Like I said this laptop is for my (approaching early teen) kids and is mainly used for some Googling and watching movies with VLC player and playing a few games (Angry birds, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies etc.) would these all run on Ubuntu?.

Which begs a new question, once I get Win 7 back up and running on it, what about MS Office ? I can't remeber what was on it but I reckon i'll install Open Office for those school projects etc.

Good man, I would suggest Libre Office over OpenOffice as it mimics MS Office more closely in my ever humble opinion.

You can certainly Google and play movies using VLC player if running Ubuntu. I have taken the liberty of doing some googling and have also found you can indeed play Angry Birds on Linux through using a program named Wine which allows you to run some Windows Programs. Wine will also let you play Peggle and there actually is a Linux port of Plants vs. Zombies.

Naturally the kids will also be able to play any flash games e.g Farmville on Facebook just as they would if you're running Windows. Ubuntu also comes with Libre Office preinstalled.

If I have one criticism of Ubuntu and Linux in general is that it can be a bit aggravating to set up in the first place and you have to be content to do a lot of Googling and copying and pasting commands into the terminal if you're a bit of a technophobe like me but once you do have everything just so then I find it's a lot faster and easier than Windows.

yoyo

Helpful advice to the op only please. Changing to Ubuntu/Linux was never suggested by the op. Please review the forum charter.

silentrust

yoyo wrote: »

Helpful advice to the op only please. Changing to Ubuntu/Linux was never suggested by the op. Please review the forum charter.

This is a potential solution - if someone needs help fixing their broken down vehicle and they can get another for free instead, this is another way for them to get around I have read the forum charter and the moderator is allowed to use their common sense when it comes to deciding if a post is relevant or not - please apply yours!

p.s The OP did actually ask me for more information when I mentioned Ubuntu and is aware of it.

yoyo

silentrust wrote: »

This is a potential solution - if someone needs help fixing their broken down vehicle and they can get another for free instead, this is another way for them to get around I have read the forum charter and the moderator is allowed to use their common sense when it comes to deciding if a post is relevant or not - please apply yours!

p.s The OP did actually ask me for more information when I mentioned Ubuntu and is aware of it.

It is akin to someone suggesting to return to Windows if a person is having issues troubleshooting a wifi adaptor under Ubuntu. Linux wasn't suggested by the op in the thread, it was mentioned later on by you.
Also Windows doesn't "break down" so you need to buy a new copy to replace it. You can get the re-install media "free" legally, and then just re-activate it with the serial associated with the machine.
The charter indicates:

Not answering the question asked
If people are having issues with their current machine please do not post "Get Windows", "Get Google Chrome", "Get a Mac" etc. type responses. These are neither helpful to the user or a solution.

I am a fan of Ubuntu (well actually, not the newer versions but Lubuntu, Mint are excellent) but discussion of Linux was not relevant to this thread. I did apply "common sense", I was also just enforcing the rules of this forums charter.

Nick

lway

Thought i'd add a quick update as I hate threads where the OP doesn't let you know how it went .

So I burned the 32bit Win 7 Home Premium ISO I linked to previously (this was what was on Win7 licence sticker on the bottom on the laptop) to a disk, set the laptop to boot from the CD/DVD drive first in the BIOS menu, replaced the old broken HDD with my new one put in teh DVD and switched it on.

Answered a couple of questions about Language and region and it installed Win 7 to the HDD for me. Was prompted for the licence key, typed in the one off the sticker and it told me it would activate the next time I connected to the internet. I had to use a different computer to download the drivers for the LAN and WLAN to a usb drive, copied them to the laptop and ran them before I could connect it to the internet.

Currently downloading and installing 122 Windows updates :rolleyes:. Didn't get any error messages about the Win 7 activation so I'm guessing the licence is tied in someway to the motherboard so all went well.

Thanks all for input and advice, hope this helps someone in a similar situation.

unkel

Nice one!

To check if windows was indeed activated check in start -> control panel -> system and on the bottom of the page it should give you activation information.

Now patch it all up and don't forget to install anti virus software!

lway

unkel wrote: »

Nice one!

To check if windows was indeed activated check in start -> control panel -> system and on the bottom of the page it should give you activation information.

Now patch it all up and don't forget to install anti virus software!

Thanks unkel,
Just to close this one out completely, when I went into Control Panel -> System and Security -> System, down at the bottom of the screen it told me I had 23 days to activate my copy of Windows, Clicking on the link asks you to choose your current location, I chose Ireland (obviously) and then it gives you a free phone number to ring and a 48 digit number that you need to enter on your phone in eight, 6 digit blocks (probably worth using a desk phone for convenience), They then give you another 48 digit code in 8 blocks of 6 (A to H) that you then enter into the form on your screen, Click Next and then it told me that it was Activated.

Hope this helps someone.

unkel

Yep I've done the phone activation myself once or twice