Also just so you know you can reinstall Windows even if you wiped it clean. The Windows Product Key is married to Motherboard that it is used on. So you don't have to worry about getting a Product Key for Windows. All you have to do is get Windows OS installed and setup. Let's say you have a Dell Touchscreen PC and you have Windows 10 OS on it, and you active it with a Windows 10 Home Product Key. Lets say you update to Windows 11 you will still have it activated with a Home Edition Product Key, but it will just move it to work with Windows 11 instead of Windows 10. Let's say that you have done the same steps with this PC as you did the Laptop. To keep the same Product key it will have to be installed onto the hard-drive for it to work right. I suggest taking the HD/SSD out of the laptop in question. Then get another device that has Windows installed. I suggest going to amazon and searching HD/SSD to USB. You will need something that can allow you to access an HD/SSD via USB to do what I am suggesting. Once you have an HD/SSD to USB connector connect the HD/SSD, the one you took out of the wiped-clean laptop to the HD/SSD end. Then connect the USB end into a device with 2+ working USB ports, and that has a working install of Windows. Then connect the a USB drive with the same version of Windows that the Laptop had. Then in File Explorer go to the USB flash drive (If you plugged in the flash drive first then it will show up as (D:). If you plugged in the USB for the HD/SSD first then the flash drive will show up as (E:).) Select and copy all flash drive that has the Windows files on it. (best to put the Windows files on a USB flash drive with no files on it. Also best to get and run an installer for the latest update of that version of Windows.) Go over to the HD/SSD that is connected via USB and paste all the Windows files that you copied from the flash drive onto it. Reattach the HD/SSD into the laptop you took out of AFTER, all the Windows files have finished copying from the flash drive to HD/SSD. Try to boot up the laptop with the HD/SSD with the Windows files you copied onto it. This should allow you to now be able to boot the laptop up into Windows. You don't have to worry about activating it with a Product Key, as it should transfer the Product Key that it was previous activated with, over to the new install of Windows. Also you don't have to use a flash drive but it makes easier, since you already have the files you need and just have to move the files over. The basics of what I'm suggesting is try to put a Windows install on the HD/SSD through USB. Because it is not letting you install Windows with the HD/SSD in the laptop, so why not try to do so with the HD/SSD when it is being accessed as a USB. If Bit-locker was enabled when the old employee had the laptop then unless you have the Bit-Locker decyrption key then the HD/SSD is toast, since you will need the Bit-Locker Decyrption key to make changes to the HD/SSD when in Automatic Repair.
