Hard Drive

[Martin T]

My Desktop PC gave up the ghost before Christmas. I purchased a Laptop as a replacement but I'm pretty sure it is just the Hard Drive that went as when digging around trying to give it the kiss of life the PC said there was problems with the file system.

I'm going to try and resurrect it from the dead by purchasing a new Hard Drive so my daughter can exclusively use it. I've still got the manufacturers branded recovery disc so would it be the case of just installing the drive, loading the recovery disc and away we go?

Cheers

Martin

[Undecided Adrian]

IF it is the hard drive that is broke then swapping it for a new one should be OK, and yes boot from the recovery disk and then it will guide you through the install process (note the new drive will need formatting from the installer program)

Note the only time that these makers recovery disks won't work is if the motherboard is changed as Microsoft registers that copy to the MAC code of the network controller on the motherboard.

[anakim]

Using the recovery disc may not work. Many manufacturers do not put a copy of your operating system on the disc. It is placed instead in a partitioned off section of your hard drive. The recovery disc is a tool to allow you to access this partition. If this is the case, when you replace the hard drive you also remove the operating system. You would therefore need to purchase a new operating system as well as a hard drive.
Check first with the manufacturer of your computer.

[Smithy99]

If you do not have your operating system then you can usually purchase it from the PC manufacturer cheaper and use your current serial printed on the sticker that should be on the case.

Failing that, now would be a good time to try Windows 7beta, just look at the other thread here, why not give it a go!!!

[Martin T]

Originally Posted by Undecided Adrian

(note the new drive will need formatting from the installer program)

Thanks.........excuse my ignorance but how do I format from the installer program?

and the hard drive is a Sata drive........is it alright to purchase a Sata 2 drive as a replacement?

Martin

[Ned Ludd]

Why not try to recover using the disks supplied with your PC?

Just because the file system is up the chute, it doesn't follow that the drive is. You have nothing to loose, give it a try and you just might be surprised!

[Martin T]

Originally Posted by Ned Ludd

Why not try to recover using the disks supplied with your PC?

Just because the file system is up the chute, it doesn't follow that the drive is. You have nothing to loose, give it a try and you just might be surprised!

Tried reformatting the hard drive twice but no luck hence search for a new one.

Martin

[Ned Ludd]

Sorry, but when I saw this: "Thanks.........excuse my ignorance but how do I format from the installer program?", I took it that you hadn't got that far! The format routine is part of re-installing/recovery from the manufacturers recovery disk.

[Ned Ludd]

If you know the licence number then you can do a clean install to a new disk with any copy of the correct Operating System. You may have to freephone MS when you enter your licence number, but that's a formality.
Can you borrow a copy of the relevent Windows install disk?

[Undecided Adrian]

It depends on what make it is, for Dell a "recovery" disk is an oem version of the operating system (same for alienware).

A SATA 2 is ok it just means it can go faster than the older sata drives, and even if your laptop can't take it the drive should drop down to the lower speed.

To format, when you turn the PC on you need to boot from the recovery disk and this should start the windows installer (if your recovery disk is a copy of windows)
This should start up the windows installer and from there you follow the instructions and at some point you tell windows where to install and then it will give you the option to format the drive.

If you don't have a windows disk as the recovery disk you can go to the manufacturers and buy one or pick up a fairly cheap OEM copy of windows from dabs.com or Amazon (OEM copy is a single PC copy and once you have installed it on a PC you can't use it on another PC and you don't get MS support for it.)