Hard drive dead - reinstalling OS without CD's?

[elliolk]

Hi,

I have a HP Pavillion DV6 -6024TX which recently had the hard drive die. The laptop is out of warranty.

I have purhcased a new hard drive and will install shortly but I have no copy of the OS sytem (windows 7 32-bit) to install to the new drive. As the old drive is dead and won't boot Windows I cannot extract it from there.

IS there any way I can legally download the OS and use that to boot Windows and use my existing key or do I need to purchase some CD's (heard this from a few people around this site but cannot find the link).

Would appreciate some assistance.

Thank you.

[DavidPK · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Yes, you can use your existing Product Key to reinstall Windows 7 as detailed below.

You can create an installation disc yourself using another PC - just download the correct Disc Image ( this must be the  same version that originally came with your notebook - ie Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit ) from the link below and use an application such as ImgBurn to burn the ISO correctly to a blank DVD - a guide on using ImgBurn to write an ISO to a disc is Here.  These Images are clean and from a well-respected source, however there are only limited versions available.

Windows-7 sp1-iso-official-32-bit-and-64-bit

Use the disc to perform the installation, enter the Windows activation key found on the COA Label when requested and when the installation has completed, use the 'Phone Method' detailed in the link below to activate the OS - this method supported by Microsoft and is popular with people who just want a clean installation of Windows 7 without the additional software load normally bundled with OEM installations.

http://www.kodyaz.com/articles/how-to-activate-windows-7-by-phone.aspx

Any additional drivers and software you may need can be found Here.

Regards,

DP-K

[elliolk]

Thanks for your help David.
I have gone to download the IOS and the two options for Windows 7 Home Premium are:
English x86: X17-58996.iso
English x64: X17-58997.iso
How do I know which one to get?

[DavidPK]

Hi,

You're welcome

You need the 32bit ( x86 ) version on the following link.

http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-58996.iso

Regards,

DP-K

[elliolk]

Sorry to be a pain but now that I think of it I'm not actually too sure whether my windows was 32-bit or 62-bit. IS there any way of finding this out?

[DavidPK]

Hi,

The Specifications for your notebook show it as coming with the 64bit version - in this case, the download you should use is on the following link.

http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-59009.iso

Regards,

DP-K

[elliolk]

Thanks once again David, your service has been brilliant.
I have downlaoded the ISO and should be ready to go this afternoon. Just to make things harder, I have purchased an SSD to replace the HDD. Will this add any extra steps to the installation process you provided above? I believe I will have to first plug it into a working PC so I can update the drive to the latest firmware?

[DavidPK]

Hi,

You're welcome

As it happens, installing Windows on an SSD using the retail disc you've created is the best way to go anyway - Windows 7 is fully aware of how to install and configure to this type of drive and generally gives better results than say imaging an existing HDD and transferring this to the SSD.

Regarding the Firmware update for the SSD, you should find full instructions for the manufacturers preferred method are included.

Enjoy your new drive

All the best,

DP-K

[jreavis]

After installing the new ISO on a new hard drive, can I then run the recovery disks to install all the other software that came with the laptop?  It's a pavillion G7-1329wm.  The original hard drive crashed and cannot be recovered.  Someone else put another Windows in the new hard drive, not the original product key.  Will I need to format the new hard drive again to remove the bad version of Windows?  I know there are several questions and I will greatly appreciate someone's help. I don't want to do more damage to my friend's computer.

[anthony82]

Hello jreavis,

You need to install windows.

If you run the recovery disk it will wipe everything on the system and install the functional version of windows.

You should be able to run the recovery disks and you'll be fine.

Clicking the White Kudos star on the left is a way to say Thanks!

Let me know how everything goes.

Have a good day.