Computer help: I know this is not a computer forum, but most are good with computers too. I have two Dell laptops, and the one I want to use, the hard drive is not working. So I took a...

Tedge Loc: NC

I know this is not a computer forum, but most are good with computers too. I have two Dell laptops, and the one I want to use, the hard drive is not working. So I took a hard drive from another laptop that was running windows 7. I bought an enclosure and hooked it up to my desktop. How can I format it so I can install Windows 10 on the laptop that had the bad hard drive? I don't have a Windows 10 disc yet, or I would have formatted it while it was in the laptop. Appreciate any help!

letmedance Loc: Walnut, Ca.

Tedge wrote:

I know this is not a computer forum, but most are good with computers too. I have two Dell laptops, and the one I want to use, the hard drive is not working. So I took a hard drive from another laptop that was running windows 7. I bought an enclosure and hooked it up to my desktop. How can I format it so I can install Windows 10 on the laptop that had the bad hard drive? I don't have a Windows 10 disc yet, or I would have formatted it while it was in the laptop. Appreciate any help!

When you install win10 the installation program or disk will handle the format and partition for you. Just follow the instructions.

Tedge Loc: NC

Thanks. I don't have a Windows 10 disk yet, but have image from the computer I want to use. Thought if I formatted this drive I could install with that, not sure.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

If you have a drive that would be suitable for the "new" system, you can clone that drive and use the clone image to get your "new" hard drive to be exactly like the other one, if that made sense. I've used clonezilla for this sort of thing. https://clonezilla.org/
--Bob

Tedge wrote:

Thanks. I don't have a Windows 10 disk yet, but have image from the computer I want to use. Thought if I formatted this drive I could install with that, not sure.

Tedge Loc: NC

Thanks Bob. The hard drive in the computer I want to use, is dead, but I have an image on a flash drive (I think) that was for that drive. I took the hard drive from a windows 7 laptop that still has the operating system on it. I have it in an enclosure hooked up to my desktop. I was hoping to format it, and use the image from flash drive, or find a windows 10 disk to install on it. I thought I might could right click on it on my desktop and format from there??

scallihan Loc: Tigard, OR

You shouldn't need a Windows disk. If you have a Microsoft account and your original Windows Product Key for Win10, you should be able to download it. The Product Key is a 25-digit alphanumeric code. If you bought the computer with the dead drive on it with Windows installed, the Product Key should be on the computer somewhere. You can Google "How to find windows Product key" for other ways to find it in your operating system.

letmedance Loc: Walnut, Ca.

scallihan wrote:

You shouldn't need a Windows disk. If you have a Microsoft account and your original Windows Product Key for Win10, you should be able to download it. The Product Key is a 25-digit alphanumeric code. If you bought the computer with the dead drive on it with Windows installed, the Product Key should be on the computer somewhere. You can Google "How to find windows Product key" for other ways to find it in your operating system.

I know of a short utility that can activate registration for Win10.

BebuLamar

You first need to put a good hard drive in the laptop you want to use. Use a thumb drive or any usb drive connect to your desktop. Download Windows 10 installation on to it. Then connect the thumb drive to the laptop and boot it up with the thum drive then you can install Windows 10 on the laptop.

Tedge Loc: NC

scallihan wrote:

You shouldn't need a Windows disk. If you have a Microsoft account and your original Windows Product Key for Win10, you should be able to download it. The Product Key is a 25-digit alphanumeric code. If you bought the computer with the dead drive on it with Windows installed, the Product Key should be on the computer somewhere. You can Google "How to find windows Product key" for other ways to find it in your operating system.

Thank you! Will give that a shot when I get a hard drive to work.

Tedge Loc: NC

letmedance wrote:

I know of a short utility that can activate registration for Win10.

I would love to have that! Thanks

Tedge Loc: NC

BebuLamar wrote:

You first need to put a good hard drive in the laptop you want to use. Use a thumb drive or any usb drive connect to your desktop. Download Windows 10 installation on to it. Then connect the thumb drive to the laptop and boot it up with the thum drive then you can install Windows 10 on the laptop.

Thank you, thinking I'm going to need a good hard drive.

letmedance Loc: Walnut, Ca.

If you need it please PM me.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Some considerations:

1) Unless the spare win 7 disk you are trying to use is an SSD, just use it as a data disk in the enclosure you bought and purchase a 500GB SSD and use that instead for the laptop you are planning to use it in . It will be the best $50 you ever spent on a computer

2) Does the candidate Laptop for the Win 10 installation have at least 8GB DRAM? If not, and it can’t be brought up to at least 8 GB, don’t waste your time - it will be severely limited.

3) download a win 10 ISO (from the Microsoft site) to a thumb drive and insert it in the candidate laptop and install it.

4) when it asks for an activation code, chose “activate later” and after the installation of Win 10 is finished, try the activation code from your Win 7 machine (if you have it). If that doesn’t work, you can resort to calling Microsoft or trying to recover it from the Win7 disk by running BelArc advisor or similar utility on it.

PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

burn the image to a cd then format the hard drive in the laptop

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

BebuLamar wrote:

You first need to put a good hard drive in the laptop you want to use. Use a thumb drive or any usb drive connect to your desktop. Download Windows 10 installation on to it. Then connect the thumb drive to the laptop and boot it up with the thum drive then you can install Windows 10 on the laptop.

BINGO!!!