Hard Disc failed - reinstalling windows 10

[Martin1972]

My daughter dropped her laptop and the Hard drive has stopped working (its not turning so I think it is dead_.  I swopped the hard drive with a different hard drive from a different laptop and it works, but with a different hardware configuration none of the network or sound drivers work and no matter how hard I try, I can't get them to load. 

I have bought a new solid state hard drive, but without a back up of the previous drive or a boot disk, how do I get Windows back onto my new hard drive?  If I make a boot disk/drive from a different laptop, will it fail as its not the original windows for this laptop?

Many thanks

[WAWood]

@Martin1972 

First off, the Windows license for a laptop is tied to the PC, not to the owner.  Thus legally, you can't move the drive from one laptop to another even if it works because that is a licensing violation.

Second, to get Windows onto the new drive, you need to use something known as HP Recovery Media ...

HP Recovery Media is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities.

In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks. You have to order these from HP; they can not be downloaded.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click "Update".

If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the "+" symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Service:

If you live in the US or Canada, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/phone-assist.html#section1

If you live elsewhere, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-contact-us.html

NOTE: After you get through, stay on the line until you are finally able to talk to some one -- it can take a while!

If you have trouble finding a phone number, then try: 1 (650) 857-1501.

If HP no longer provides Recovery Media for your model, another site you can check is: http://www.computersurgeons.com

When you get the media, if it is a USB stick, insert it into your PC, pressing F9 to get a Boot menu, then select the External USB Hard Drive to boot from it.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Martin1972 

Your PC appears to be supported by the HP cloud recovery client utility.

You may be able to use that to reinstall W10 provided the drive you bought is not significantly smaller than the original one that died on you.

Here is an info link for how to use the utility...

https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c06162205

[Martin1972]

You are a legend, many thanks. The software was quickly downloaded from the cloud (once I had a 32GB USB stick) and installation was easy. This has been a very simple process (unusual for computers these days 😁) but I would not have known about it without your advice. Thank you.

Martin

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Martin.

Glad the cloud recovery client tool worked for you.