Wiped hard drive

[DazBolton]

Hard drive failure, whilst working in China on my 4 year old pavilion laptop. (Bought new in the UK from Curry's) A Chinese HP store rep managed to get my system working by overwriting the hard drive with a Chinese version of Windows 10 (which of course is in Mandarin). Q. Can I download a bootable copy of Widows 10 from the Microsoft website ? Will it activate from the code stored in my BIOS chip or do I need to acquire my activation code, prior to completing a fresh install of Windows 10 ?

[TJLP]

Hello there,

You can download the installer from Microsofts's website and install a fresh copy of Windows 10, and it typically autoactivates when you're online as long as your previous copy was active.  Microsoft now keeps a database that contains bits and pieces of information regarding systems that have active Windows 10 installations for situations just like this.

Go to: (you may need to do this on another PC)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Then select the 'download tool now' option under the create windows 10 installation media header.  Go through the Wizard, and I suggest doing the USB bootable media option.  Once you have created the windows bootable USB, plug it into your PC, boot it up and press F9 to bring up the boot menu.  Then select the USB drive in the boot menu, press enter, and continue on through the windows install when the menu items come up.  When you get to the point where it asks for a key simply click Skip this step near the bottom.  Windows will then do its thing, and once online it will likely self-activate if your previous copy was active.  Don't forget to check for and run windows updates.

Good Luck!