Windows 10 installation on old hard drive

[Vindex]

I dropped something heavy at my laptop while it is open and the HDD under the surface of impact was affected. The BIOS cant detect it anymore, thus preventing it from booting Windows(No Bootable device). Having an extracted internal HDD from my previous laptop, I tried to replace the HDD of my laptop with my previous one. But it still shows No Bootable device error perhaps I have deleted the OS in the past.

So my question is, can I install Windows 10 on my installed previous HDD by making a bootable flash drive and still keep my personal files in it? Can I just boot Windows 10 from flash drive and not install it, thus letting me view the files in my HDD?

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Colif]

try making this on another PC: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/ Use it to copyn the files off your old hdd and then use the other Win 10 flash drive to install windows on it. Its likely it might want you to reformat drive to install win 10

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

On the screen where you choose where to install win 10, if it gives you an error about GPT drives, delete all the partitions on the hdd and press next. If it still gives error, cancel out of the installer and restart PC and start installer again, it will accept next on that screen this time (some PC just need a restart here)