New Hard drive: Help!

[dandypony]

So, my old hard drive was a SSHD, and after about 2 years it started giving me trouble. I just bought a new HDD SATA, but I am having trouble getting Windows on it. I got Windows 10 from the free upgrade a couple years ago, so I have the digital license instead of a product key. I tried installing Windows 8.1 from a disk I have lying around, but my PC doesn't seem to recognize the new HD. When I try to install Windows, nothing shows up in the box when it asks where I want to install Window. Can anyone help? Ideally, I'd like to get Windows 10 back on, but at this point I would settle for my Windows 8.1 disk.

 

[Colif]

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB or DVD

Nothing shows up? tried using a different sata connection on motherboard? Does bios see drive in a storage area?

Sometimes it helps to create partitions on the drive before the installer will see it - follow this to stage 11 where he exits diskpart, restart installer and see if it works - https://davidzych.com/install-windows-10-from-a-usb-flash-drive/

Best way to do it is remove sshd, only have new hdd in PC and do a clean install

change boot order in BIOS so USB is first, hdd second
boot from installer
follow this guide: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

when you reach the screen asking for licence, click "I don't have a key" and win 10 will continue to install and reactivate once finished. Details of your licence + specs of PC are kept on a Microsoft server, PC will check with server and confirm you have a license. You don't need to know it anymore.