Need new hard drive and question about software

I have a Dell Inspirion desktop that is 4 years old. I have a virus that I cannot get rid of (that's another story). I am thinking of just replacing the hard drive with a new one. My question is this. If my computer ordered from dell had Windows 7 home premium installed on it at the factory, am I able to reinstall this operation system on to the new hard drive or will I have to purchase a new version of this software?

tmr91

Yes, but you will need the Dell OEM W-7 Reinstallation DVD, that was/may have been shipped with the computer package.

Bev. 

Follow my Windows Reinstallation Guide/A Clean Install of Windows 7:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/a-clean-install-of-windows/a-clean-install-of-windows-7/

My guide takes you through all the steps including many additional steps which other guides and official Dell documentation don't cover.

This includes:

• Securely Wiping Your Hard Drive
• Downloading Windows 7 and Applying Dell OEM SLP Activation
• Downloading Windows 7 Updates Offline
• Windows Installation
• Office Installation
• Applying Windows Updates Offline
• Driver Installation in the Correct Order
• Creating a New Recovery Partition with Dell Backup and Recovery

Although you can securely wipe your drive and re-use it is probably a good idea just to replace the 4 year old drive with a solid state drive. As its a desktop I would install a 256 GB SSD and put Windows on it and add a 1 TB conventional hard drive if you need additional storage.

I've looked and can not find the reinstallation CD/DVD. Since Windows was preinstalled on the Dell computer when we got it, can I download this from Dell somewhere or will I have to purchase a new version?

 tmr91   

If you reside in the US, or Canada and are the registered owner of the computer, with an active warranty, a disc containing the factory-installed operating system specific to your system, can be requested from HERE.

Note: Dell may make a charge for the disc.

If you don't reside in the US, contact Dell's Support that's located in your country. 

Bev.

You can download a Windows 7 .iso from Digital River:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-microsoft-windows-and-office/download-microsoft-windows/windows-7-sp1-iso-download/