replacing hard disk

[James]

I have a two-year old [out of warranty] Dell which has a dodgy hard drive. It is now at the point where it goes to a BSOD most times I try and start it so I guess I'll have to get a new drive.
But... The Windows 10 OS that is on the drive came with the machine and installs from a hidden partition on the dodgy drive, rather than on external media. If I buy a new drive, how do I get Windows back on the machine? I've already paid for it with the computer so don't want to have to buy a new licence.

[twotwo22]

I have bough a license from eBay and downloaded Windows 10 onto a USB stick from microsoft.com Seems to work OK


...and seriously consider replacing the hard drive with an SSD....MUCH faster

[GeoffF100]

I have a two-year old [out of warranty] Dell which has a dodgy hard drive. It is now at the point where it goes to a BSOD most times I try and start it so I guess I'll have to get a new drive.
But... The Windows 10 OS that is on the drive came with the machine and installs from a hidden partition on the dodgy drive, rather than on external media. If I buy a new drive, how do I get Windows back on the machine? I've already paid for it with the computer so don't want to have to buy a new licence.

There should not be a problem. If you have access to another machine, download the appropriate W10 ISO, and use the Media Creation Tool to create a bootable DVD. Boot your Dell from that and install W10. It should recognise your machine and activate automatically. You also may benefit from downloading and installing Dell drivers and utilities from the Dell website. I would also recommend an SSD rather than a hard drive, if you do not have too much data. If you have a lot of data, a hybid SSHD drive would be cheaper.

[Breelander]

I have a two-year old [out of warranty] Dell which has a dodgy hard drive...
But... The Windows 10 OS that is on the drive came with the machine and installs from a hidden partition on the dodgy drive, rather than on external media. If I buy a new drive, how do I get Windows back on the machine?

As others have said, you can download the install USB or ISO from Microsoft and use that. As your PC has a Digital Licence for Windows 10 stored on Microsoft's activation servers you do not need to provide a key, it will activate automatically from the digital licence providing you install the same edition as you had before, Home or Pro. There should be no problems using the Microsoft supplied media, I have a 4 year old Dell that I installed Windows 10 on that way and it works perfectly.

However, the Microsoft install media will install a 'plain vanilla' Windows 10 with none of the Dell-specific utilities or drivers. If you want to do a factory reset to exactly as it was before you need the Dell OS Recovery Image specific to your model. You can download that from Dell. Instructions here...

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us ... ws?lang=en

Note that the Dell OS Recovery Image will be for an older version or Windows 10, probably 1607, maybe 1511. You will then have to update that to the current version which is 1809, either manually or by letting Windows Update do it automatically for you.

[Breelander]

However, the Microsoft install media will install a 'plain vanilla' Windows 10 with none of the Dell-specific utilities or drivers...

Just to be clear, windows update will find and install all the correct drivers, but they will be downloaded from Microsoft's own catalogue of drivers rather than direct from Dell.

[James]

However, the Microsoft install media will install a 'plain vanilla' Windows 10 with none of the Dell-specific utilities or drivers...

Just to be clear, windows update will find and install all the correct drivers, but they will be downloaded from Microsoft's own catalogue of drivers rather than direct from Dell.

Thanks everyone for the replies.
The last time I had to do reinstallations was back in the days of CD-supplied OSes. I was always fearful of losing the x-digit long code needed to install Windows. I'll order a new disk and burn off a DVD from my work computer.

I' m okay with a vanilla install. I don't like all the McAfee and other nonsense Dell dumps onto its consumer PCs so it won't be missed.

I'll look into an SSD. I store very little on my laptop, and rely on my NAS and various cloud services. But my NAS is now playing up too, so I'm wondering if a bigger local disk might be wise too.

I'll start another thread to see if the collective brilliance here can help with the NAS.

[Breelander]

...The last time I had to do reinstallations was back in the days of CD-supplied OSes. I was always fearful of losing the x-digit long code needed to install Windows. I'll order a new disk and burn off a DVD from my work computer...

You don't need to make a DVD, you can make a bootable USB to install Windows 10 by downloading the Media Creation Tool from here...
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/softwar ... /Windows10
...and using its option to 'Create media for another PC'.

You also don't need to worry about loosing the key to install Windows 10. Since Windows 8 all PCs supplied with an OEM pre-installed windows have a key embedded in the firmware. When you boot from the install usb Setup will read this key from the bios, use it to determine the edition to install (Home or Pro) and use it to activate Windows.

When I clean installed W10 on my Dell (which had never had W10 installed before) Setup found and used the W8.1 Home key from the bios to install and activate W10 Home.

[Itsallaguess]

I'll look into an SSD.

I store very little on my laptop, and rely on my NAS and various cloud services.

Mymemory are selling 120GB SSD's (AData) for about £20 delivered at the moment -

https://www.mymemory.co.uk/integral-120gb-p-series-5-sata-iii-ssd-drive-560mb-s.html

The 240GB model is available for £40 delivered from the same site.

If you prefer a more well-known brand, then Amazon are selling a 120GB Kingston SSD for about £23 delivered -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N6JQS8C

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Itsallaguess]

Just noticed that Amazon are selling the SanDisk 480GB SSD Plus for £66.54 delivered, if anyone is looking for a good sized SSD currently -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01F9G46Q8

Looking at CamelCamel, it's just about the lowest price it's ever been -

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/SanDisk- ... B01F9G46Q8

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[kiloran]

Just noticed that Amazon are selling the SanDisk 480GB SSD Plus for £66.54 delivered, if anyone is looking for a good sized SSD currently -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01F9G46Q8

Looking at CamelCamel, it's just about the lowest price it's ever been -

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/SanDisk- ... B01F9G46Q8

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Wow, that's cheap!
I've been vaguely thinking of going SSD, but I need 500GB and haven't seen any prices that have enticed me so far. But £66? A no-brainer.

Many thanks

--kiloran

[Itsallaguess]

The 240GB model is available for £40 delivered from the same site.

Actually, Amazon are now selling the 240GB Adata SSD for £34 delivered, which gives some really good cheap options at the moment for a few different sized SSD's on this thread -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075R9X8BR

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[DiamondEcho]

Oh crikey, take your IT symptoms as a mega and urgent warning IME!!!! Previously in such shoes, living with such issues, not taking them too seriously for 'a week or two' has twice led to major MAJOR issues, from which I've later been relieved to recover any files. First step, try and create a full back-up of the HDD, and 'Do it NOW!' - that's my non-expert but past-victim of similar experience and tip.

Once you've got the data, get a chip in your computer i/o a physical HDD/disc-drive and work from that to get your system back to how you're used to it functioning.

[James]

A quick follow up..
I managed to download the Windows image onto a USB drive that I used to reboot my dodgy machine and it all installed properly on my new disk.
In the end I opted for a £35 240Gb disk rather than the more expensive 480Gb. Given that I've reinstalled just about everything I use on my PC and have only used up c.20Gb, I could probably have gone for an even smaller one!
Separately, I managed to fix the issue with my 2Tb NAS - which is why I use so little of my disk. It needed a firmware upgrade that took a few attempts to get done through firewalls etc, but is now working as it should be.
Thanks for all the help and advice.
J