How do I replace failed disk in ENVY.

[wfavero]

The disk in my ENVY failed, 3F0 failure.  After having the data on the disk professionally recovered, I need a new hard drive for my notebook.  I have read here that any 2.5 disk will fit.  I’m going with SSD since I have to replace.

How do I my copy of Windows10 Pro onto an empty disk drive.  In fact, how do I even boot.

Once Windows is working, Can I just copy all the apps over from the Program folder or do I have reinstall everything from scratch.

thanks

[Huffer]

We need the full model number to give you specific directions. Generally yes any 2.5 inch wide SATA-3 7mm thick SSD would work for you and the Samsung Evo 860 is a superior product but WD and Crucial and many others make a good product. 

Windows 10 is now a free download from Microsoft. Google "Media Creation Tool" and you will find links to the download site. The site is set up to guide you to make a bootable thumb drive which you will use to reinstall Windows 10 onto a blank hard drive. It will just reactivate with no need for a Key Code or anything like that. Not sure how well the data recovery service restored your files but unless the recovery was flawless and perfect, you cannot copy apps/programs off the drive and reinstall them on the new Windows 10 install. An exception would be apps downloaded as .exes which you can find in the downloads folder. So something like Malwarebytes that is a free download can be retrieved fromt he download folder and reinstalled.

If you do have a perfect copy of the old drive it could be copied sector for sector (i.e. cloned) to the new clean hard drive and we can walk you through that. Takes some 3rd party software and some relatively cheap equipment to do it.  That would recover all but the most secure apps like Adobe Creative Suite products which are expensive so their developers make them smart enough to know they have been cloned over and will require reactivation. 

If the data is preserved on the recovered drive you want to look for the C:\swsetup folder as it has the original HP drivers and factory utilities and apps. Even without that the HP website will have drivers and factory utility type apps available for download. Any significant apps like Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, etc. will have to be reinstalled from scratch and your license reactivated. For Office and Adobe products and anything else you paid to buy, you want to log on to your account page and deactivate the old installation so the license will let you reinstall. 

We have walked hundreds of folks through this process so please post back as much as you need to and we will get you back up and running but need that model or product number to point you to manuals and such. 

[wfavero]

Thank you for all the details.

The old disk was too messed up to clone so a copy and paste had to be performed.

Other than ENVY, I don’t have any other info since I cannot start machine.  I do have a Belarc report but it only list ENVY and the serial number....[edit]

The board is labeled HP 816D 91.1E from the above report.

[Huffer]

Serial number I do not need and please remove it from the post. What is the screen size and what are the specs? Processor type and speed. If it has a removable battery the ID plate is often inside the battery bay. 

[wfavero]

I’ll have to update tomorrow.  Machine is at the data recovery place, picking it up tomorrow. 

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[Huffer]

Take your time I ain't going anywhere. Happy Thanksgiving if you are in or from the USA. I will get notice when you reply again. 

[wfavero]

The disk drive was fried.   Had a computer show recover the data.  I then replaced the damaged HDD with a 50GB SSD.  The replacement was pretty simple.   We were unable to clone the hard drive so it was a copy and paste job to get the data off.   Now the cumbersome task of rebuilding all of the installed software....

I was very disappointed to discover that my machine will only accommodate 1 disk.   It seems I have one of the very few ENVY 17 laptops that only allow a single disk.  Since I had to open it up anyway, I had great plans of expanding its disk resources.   It also appears 8 GB per slot is as high as memory will go.   I will be read more carefully when buying future machines.   That amount of memory is a fraction of what my Thinkpad will manage. 

BTW, the serial number an model number was behind the battery just as you stated.   Once the machine came home, I was able to retrieve that information (and ye I know it's no longer needed)..... 

HP ENVY Notebook Model 17-S043CL

Thanks for the assistance.