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May 7th, 2014 18:00
Replace hard drive & reinstall OS
I have an older system, and the hard drive failed a couple of the Dell diagnostics tests, even though I am not having any problems. I've never changed a hard drive before.
I have the Windows Vista Home Basic reinstall disk that came with the computer, along with the MS Office Home & Student disk and a couple other program disks that came with it.
Unplugging the old hard drive and changing it out is the easy part; I'm confident about that.
My fear is that when I try to reinstall the OS and other programs on the new hard drive, Microsoft (and the other companies) will "think" I am trying to pirate the software onto a different computer.
How do I make this as quick, smooth, and painless as possible? I can't afford to spend a lot of time trying to straighten out a screw-up.
If you can, please help. Thanks!
RoHe
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May 7th, 2014 19:00
If you use the Dell Vista Reinstallation disk and it's a Dell PC, you shouldn't have any trouble. The reinstall shouldn't even ask you for the product key.
But if it does ask, you should have your unique Microsoft product key on a sticker somewhere on the outside of the case.
And make sure you have product keys for all your other software, like Office etc. If you don't have them, use the free Belarc Advisor to find them and print out the Belarc report so you're ready to reinstall everything.
Read this for a thorough guide to reinstalling Windows on a Dell PC.
Good idea to download all the latest drivers from Dell's support site for your system and burn them on a CD or DVD so you have them ready to install, and in the correct order. You can download them on any PC and burn on a disk.
And back up all your personal files on external media asap, in case the old drive is about ready to die. :emotion-5: