Installing Windows 7 on a new SSD

[mdownesx]

I just replaced the hard drive in our old Pavilion G7 laptop with a 120Gb SSD.  I went to Microsoft to use their media creation tool to create a DVD to install Windows 7 and then I will upgrade to Win 10.  After I entered the product key the site said it couldn't find a copy of my Win 7.  So after doing reserach it said that windows that comes installed on your computer has to be handled through HP.  Does anyone have advice on how I can get win 7 installed on this laptop?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You can download a W7 Home Premium ISO file from this site at the link below.

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-and-office-iso-downl...

Click on the Windows ISO downloader link on the webpage.

I have zipped up and attached the Microsoft ISO to USB utility below so you can transfer the ISO file to a USB flash drive or DVD.

[mdownesx]

Thank you for those instructions.  When I ran the Win 7 USB/DVD download tool to make the bootable USB drive it copied the files but I got a message that said it was unable to run bootsect to make the USB drive bootable.  Any idea on how to resolve this?

Also, can I go straight to installing Win 10 or do I need to first install Win 7 and then upgrade at Microsoft's site to win 10?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

If you had previously upgraded to W10 and want to install W10, there is no need to install W7 at all.

You can clean install W10 using the media creation tool from the link below.

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

The utility will allow you to make a bootable USB installation flash drive (you will need a 4 GB flash drive for this), or save an ISO file which you can burn to a DVD to install W10 that way.

During the installation process if you are asked to enter a product key, check the 'Skip' box, and W10 will install and automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.

Then go to your notebook's support page to install any drivers or available software you need.

[mdownesx]

Thank you again for your help.  So I followed your link and was able to get the iso file but when I went to put it on a USB stick or a DVD it failed.  Any thoughts on why this may be happening or a work around?

When I used your instructions for Win 7 it failed on the USB but worked for the DVD.  I went to install Win 7 using the DVD and it was working but that's when I asked the question about installing Win 10 directly rather than going from 7 to 10.  I did have Win 10 on this computer before making this SSD upgrade.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

If you have W7 on there now, just go to this link and click on the update now button and you can just sit back and let W10 automatically install over W7.

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

Of course you are going to need to be connected to the internet.

Do you have the wireless and or ethernet drivers installed on W7 so you can get online?

[mdownesx]

Paul - I want to thank you again for helping me.  I figured out why I couldn't create a Win 10 bootable USB drive.  I was trying to create it from my laptop with which I already created three bootable drives with, so I am guessing Microsoft only allows so many downloads?  I went to another laptop and it worked the first time.  I now have Win 10 on my old HP laptop!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.