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I bought a Goldenfir SSD for my HP G42 230BR notebook, but it didn't come with Windows 10 installed. What's the easiest way to install the latest version of Windows 10 on my SSD?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

Excellent!

 

Your PC is not supported to run W11 so buy the W10 key. 

View solution in original post

12 REPLIES 12
HP Recommended

The easiest way would be to use the Microsoft media creation tool to make a bootable USB installation flash drive to install W10 you your SSD.

 

Make the 64 bit installation media.

 

Download Windows 10

 

Since your notebook did not come with W10, and I am assuming that you had previously upgraded from W7>W10 on the hard drive, when you get to the part of the Windows setup that asks what version of W10 you want to install, select the version of W10 you were running on the hard drive (probably W10 Home x64).

 

Then you will be asked to enter a product key.

 

Select the 'I don't have a product key' option and W10 will install and then it will activate after you are connected to the internet.

 

HP Recommended

No. The SSD came empty and without any Windows installed.

HP Recommended

Yes, I understand that.

 

When you replaced the hard drive with a SSD, were you running W10 on the hard drive at the time you replaced it?

 

The notebook was not supported by HP for W10 but you could still do a free upgrade from W7>W10 back in 2015 when W10 came out.

 

If you did not upgrade from W7>W10 you would have to buy a W10 product key if you want to install W10 on the SSD.

 

If you had upgraded to W10 previously, then just follow the instructions I posted.

 

There are plenty of YouTube videos which provide step by step instructions to install W10 such as this one:

 

Windows 10 Clean Install Guide | The ENTIRE process | How to Install Windows 10

HP Recommended

My laptop's standard hard drive has Windows 7 installed. I've never upgraded.

HP Recommended

OK, then perhaps you will want to reinstall W7 instead of spending a lot of money to install W10 since you would not be able to activate it without paying for a valid W10 product key.

 

If you don't have W7 installation media and you saved the hard drive, you could clone the old hard drive's contents to the new SSD by purchasing a SATA to USB cable and use cloning software to clone the old drive's contents to the new one.

 

You would have to install the old drive back in the PC and attach the SSD to the SATA to USB cable.

 

Amazon.com: BENFEI SATA to USB Cable, 2in1 USB-C/USB 3.0 to SATA III Hard Driver Adapter Compatible ...

HP Recommended

No. I don't want to keep Windows 7. I want to upgrade to the latest version of Windows 10 if possible.

HP Recommended

That's fine.

 

Just know that you will have to find and buy a genuine W10 product key or your installation will only work for 30 days.

HP Recommended

Yes... Can you help me with that?

HP Recommended

Unfortunately, I would not be able to help you with that.

 

Micrrosoft ended support for W10 and quit selling product keys quite a while ago.


You will have to find a PC retailer that can sell you a W10 product key.


Maybe check on Amazon or eBay but you have to be able to trust the seller that they don't send you a bogus product key.

 

That is why I think you should just live with W7 until you can buy a new PC.

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