Install Windows 10 on replacement hard drive without recovery disc?

[DroCincy]

I purchased an HP mini desktop about 3 years. I am 99% certain that the disk is/has failed. Initial problem was unmountable boot volume blue screen. Then I tried everything to get my PC to boot (chkdsk, refesh PC, system repair, boot from USB) all showing errors on the hard disk and not allowing me to start Windows.

I have a backup of my files from 3 weeks ago so all is not lost. However, I have no recovery disk - accidentally wiped out copy I had on USB drive. I have no other Windows 10 PCs at home to create Recovery media from. I do have a Windows 7 PC that I can download and create usable/bootable USB media on.

At this point, I'm considering buying a replacement drive (likely SSD). If I install a new blank drive, will I be able to download and install Windows 10 on it? I purchased the desktop with Windows 7 and upgraded to Windows 10 during the free upgrade period and I have the product key. There's a chance that I may have a Windows Image Backup on an external drive created after I upgraded to Windows 10, but not 100% sure. Any help on whether I can be successful if I buy and install a new drive is appreciated. Just wondering if it's worth the effort to salvage my PC.

If all else fails, my backup option is to move to full-time use of my Chromebook and say goodbye to Windows forever. 🙂

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You can make a W10 USB flash drive installer with the Microsoft Media Creation Tool, using an 8 GB flash drive using another Windows PC, if your PC is not working.

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

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, select the 'I don't have a product key' option, and W10 will install and automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.

Here are the steps to create the W10 USB flash drive installer...

Select Download tool now, and select Run.

If you agree to the license terms, select Accept.

On the What do you want to do? page, select Create installation media for another PC, and then select Next.

Select the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10. You want 64 bit.

Select which media you want to use:

USB flash drive. Plug in a blank USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space. Any content on the flash drive will be deleted.

Then you can reinstall the drivers and available software from the PC's support page.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-mini-300-000-desktop-pc-series/7477739/...