Still not sure

[miata54]

After reading the "Sticky's", I'm still not sure which Win7-64 edition I need to solve my problem. Hope someone can help. Here is my situation.

Four year old HP Pavilion running Win7-64 Home Premium OS for which HP no longer provides Recovery Discs. I believe my HD is failing as access times after clicking to open any program are running between 3 & 5 minutes and then very erratic operation from what does come up. Assuming this is a typical symptom of HD failure, I am shopping for a new HD. No problem here. What I don't know is what Win7-64 edition I need to simply install to a new, blank HD. From reading the "Sticky's", I'm going to guess it is the "Full Packaged Product (FFP)", but I'm not absolutely sure. I'm am not looking for any addon programs such as "Office", etc, as I have the programs I desire backed up on a 2nd HD. Any advice and links would be greatly appreciated.

 

[nymzy]

If you are going to do a clean install use an OEM version of win7, thats what i used. Office is not included but that's not important to you.

Make sure you have the drivers for your hp as well otherwise the hardware with the new win7 won't really function because the drivers are still on your old hdd

 

[nymzy]

You could also try to clone your old hdd to a new 1 so you dont have to buy a new win 7 and you won't have the problems with the drivers

 

[miata54]

If you are going to do a clean install use an OEM version of win7, thats what i used. Office is not included but that's not important to you.

Make sure you have the drivers for your hp as well otherwise the hardware with the new win7 won't really function because the drivers are still on your old hdd

Thanks. I have the installation disk for my printer. Would I also need drivers for the keyboard, mouse and monitor?

 

[nymzy]

It goes beyond that, i'm also talking about the motherboard drivers/wifi drivers

There might be a possibility that after you install the new win7 some components in the pc it self won't function like the internet adapter or usb ports because all the data for these components are installed on the old hard drive

 

[nymzy]

So before you begin installing make sure you can get all the drivers, usually on the website of the manufacturer.

 

[nymzy]

What i reccomend is adding the new hdd to you pc and copy everything from the old hdd to the new 1.
After that remove the old hdd and everything will work like nothing has happened

 

[blazorthon]

When he says copy, it's not a simple copy/paste from Windows. You need to get a drive cloning software (there are free programs available, such as Minitools partition wizard home edition) and use that. Link:

http://download.cnet.com/MiniTool-Partition-Wizard-Free/3000-2094_4-10962200.html?part=dl-&subj=dl&tag=button

 

[jsmithepa]

HP is not a fly-by-night company, they can't supply you with recovery discs so you don't have pay for new OS?

 

[miata54]

According to HP, because the PC is 4 years old, recovery disks are not made any longer for this CTO.

Thanks everyone for your comments. From the "Sticky" here on Win 7 versions, it looks like I will be safe if I purchase the Full Retail Version. I've got to assume that there are drivers on the Win 7 Full Retail Version that will allow the motherboard to function on a basic level in order to get Win7 installed. Would this be correct? I have already D/L'd drivers from HP for this PC, for other peripherals such as mouse, keyboard, video & audio.

 

[blazorthon]

Yes, Windows should be able to install itself before you need to use the drivers. To be safe, you can give it a wired internet connection for it to try pulling what it needs and to be extra safe, you can put the drivers on a USB flash drive and have it plugged in for Windows to access while installing.