Bad hard drive, no restore or backup, but the hd can be read externally.

Bburkard53

Commendable
Apr 6, 2016
5
0
1,510
After recently jumping to uprade from Windows 7 Home Premium to windows 10, my machine worked for about two weeks, and now it boots into a blank screen. It appears to be booting, and then, nothing. My local computer shop offered to install a new hard drive, and clone as much of my drive as possible. He was willing to do this for north of four hundred bucks. I politely declined his generous offer and ran home. Now here I sit with a spanking new 1T drive, added 2G of ram, now 8G total. I also bought a "Recovery, reinstall for Windows 10, all on a flash drive. The flash drive gets to the part where it wants my key, but I only have the key for Windows 7, like the bone head that I am, I never wrote down the windows 10 key, DUH!
The machine is a Dell XPS 17, I7 processor, Blu Ray burner, etc. It was a beautiful machine, but now I am stuck. Should I get a windows 7 disk, install 7, and then do the upgrade again? I don't know what it would cost for a windows 10 disk, but I bet even if I bought one, I would still be under $400.00. "HELP, PLEASE HELP, I HAVE CRASHED AND I CAN'T BOOT UP."
 
Solution

Bburkard53

Commendable
Apr 6, 2016
5
0
1,510
Hi, and thank you for the input. Unfortunately I can not do anything with the computer. If I could get it on line, that would be the way to go. I did buy a flash drive that was supposed to boot the system, and the add the windows 10 files. The problem is still no operating system is what happens when I attempt to boot. Since there are no files on the drive, and apparently not enough control from the flash drive. Sometimes I miss dos, at least with that, you can use the old check disk, easily create partitions, and control what goes where at the install. I will continue to wrestle with it as I always do, so far I am undefeated, just some fights have to go the distance. I really want this thing up and happy, so I can keep myself busy in the hospital, while I adjust to a new hip.
Again, thanks for the info.
 


Not sure what you are doing. Go to the website I provided on a DIFFERENT windows computer and make an installer for Windows 10 (dvd or USB) using the tool and instructions on the site. Remove anything but your new disk, put in the installer disk, and start the computer. Follow the instructions on the website I already gave you and reinstall Windows. Do NOT "repair" or "recover" it. You want to install.

 
Solution

Bburkard53

Commendable
Apr 6, 2016
5
0
1,510


 

Bburkard53

Commendable
Apr 6, 2016
5
0
1,510
Thanks again. I was able to load windows 10, and all is falling into place. Fortunately I am able to recover almost everything from my original drive. Once I get my apps all set up, I can erase all of the old windows files on my old drive, then I can run fix disk or something, and now I have three times the storage, a couple of gig more ram, and a nice uncluttered main drive. Thank you for your patience, and great instructions.

B.B.