Ot dead hard drive
TSasha Smith
Posts: 27,348
in The Commons
My hard drive died on me during the night. Trying to figure out if it would be worth it to try to replace it and get Windows on it. Or save up to get a new desktop.
How do I put Windows on a new hard drive when I have no os disc?
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did you make a backup? No? Will you ever do that again?
died as in sectors gone bad or died as in wont boot to windows and checkdisk took over and you're waiting for it to repair?
what version of windows? You may need to call MS with serial and get your HD deserailized or iff oyu have a name brand computer call the company.
if the drive died once it should not be used in production any longer. Drives are inexpensive but data is not, replace (HD or SSD) and get another to backup (HD, don't bother with SSD for backup)
Without a recovery disk (CD or DVD) or without use of the recovery partition of the dead hard drive you'll have to rely on a new copy of the OS ($$)
HOWEVER, if you're lucky and if the machine is a few years old you MIGHT be able to contact the manufacturer and purchase a new recovery disk for 1/4 the price of a new OEM copy of just the operating system itself. A recovery disk from the manufacturer is the better way to go because it will have all the correct drivers for the various devices that comprise your machine and the original 3rd party applications that came with your machine. UNFORTUNATELY, most modern computers don't provide recovery disks anymore and instead have a recovery partition on the hard drive and they advise you at the beginning to "Make a Recovery Disk" from that recovery partition as one of the first actions on your new computer. In other words, don't leave your parachute on the ground when you take off in your balloon.
But as in the previous reply, how dead is your hard drive? What makes you think it's dead? Any possibility that an expert might be able to revive it? Have you driven a wooden stake through it's heart yet?
I can't remember the link off-hand but you should be able to find it off microsoft's site.
Anyways, MS has a page where you can download many of the windows versions, all you need is your serial number when you install.
Yes and no, not all legal serials will work.
Google for 'Media Creation Tool' for Windows 7, 8 or 10, depending what you need. Only download from Microsoft site, do not download from 3rd party sites. Take care you get the correct version you need (32 or 64bit, Home or Pro, I think only for Win10 MS offers a 2in1 media, not sure on that though). You'll need an empty DVD or USB stick next to prepare the boot media, depending on what your PC can boot from. Download might vary in size, but usually is something around 1-3GB I think. After that you need to boot from that media and can install Windows again.
BUT..
You need a valid serial, though not all OEM serial will work. Good thing is it will not let you prepare the installation media if you have wrong serial, so no huge download then (at least I remember it that way). If you don't know your serial, check computer for a MS sticker, notebooks usually on the bottom side. Or if the computer isn't too old and has UEFI bios, there's a good chance the serial is stored in BIOS, in this case you don't even need to enter the serial at all, it will read it from BIOS and activate Windows later.
So finally it's a bit trial and error..
Edit: If you want to go for Win10 you can try to download and install with your old Win7 or Win8 serial, latest Win10 version allows Win7/8 serials for upgrade - or at least it should. But that's trial and error again, as many keys don't work and need the usual upgrade path from a previous install of Win7/8. Still you can try..
Not sure but it will not pass the welcome page and the os will not run. I can run diagnosis thingie which said hdd was bad.
No, the site I'm talking about is not 3rd party, it's directly from MS and it has ISO files for winxp, win 7, win8 and others. No serial key's provided, you must have your own.
If you can borrow a friend's pc, you can download the OS you need to a bootable disk or flash drive and use that to boot your system and reinstall the OS on a good hard drive.
You create a bootable USB Flash Drive with Windows 10 or whatever version of Windows you have that's new enough (Windows 7+). If you have written down somewhere, like on a sticker on the computer, the Windows 7 or Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 Activation Key you'll have no trouble downloading and activating Windows 10. However you'll need to install Windows 7, 8, 8.1 before upgrading to Windows 10. :-(
Alternatively you can join Microsoft Bizspark, if they still do that, and get a free download of Windows 10 along with the needed activation key. If you have ever considered being a PA or a game or app publisher it's completely legit to join BizSpark if they still have it.
Bad but connected or not connected? It may be worth checking the connections (with anti-static precautions) before doing anything else.
I just thought of something maybe the hdd is not dead but the os is corrupt or not working. I asked my dad for a copy of ubuntu to see if that will work. I do not have a way to make an ubuntu CD or sub but my dad does.
What does it do when you turn it on?
Just a splash screen and then black.
found CD that has a memory test that I am performing right now but it busts takes forever.
Depending on verison of o.s. you are running, based on what you said this is a corrupted o.s and possibly a failed hdd, due to bad sectors.
i'd recommend first trying to boot in Safe Mode.
While the system is booting, Press F8, before any windows stuff pops up.
This will bring up the various start up options for windows, Safe mode, safe mode with networking etc.
If it won't start in safe mode then it's definitly a corrupted o.s.
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE
Remove the hard drive from the computer and use either an external connection cable or box to connect the hdd to a second computer to try to recover any important data.
This may not work depending on the corruption level. But in most cases you'll be able to recover some if not all the data on the drive.
Download a copy of your windows version if you don't have it available.
I'm just going to provide the link to win 7, it does require a COA(serial number), this should be on the housing of your computer if a major manufacturer, or should have been provided to you by the builder. If not, you probably don't have a valid(legal) install.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7
You'll either need to burn to dvd(the images are usually to big for cd) or use a bootable usb drive. The usb method isa bit more complex than simply dropping the dvd in the drive.
After you've recovered what you can, then first try doing a repair operation via the the iso disk.
IF that doesn't work you'll probably have to reformat and reinstall.
Short of a drive clicking when operating, or a motor failure, you can usually reformat them and use them for a bit longer.
It Actually is significantly cheaper to buy a new hdd than to buy a new computer.
There's a company on ebay that sells 2tb internals for right at 50 with a 1yr warranty on them.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121260489711?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
You can spend more for a longer warranty from the manufacturer, toshiba internals have a 2 year on average, but you'll be able to buy 2 of the refurbs for the cost of one with the longer warranty.
It is almost surely a bad video driver from your description and very likely your HD is not dead.
Have your father go into Windows Recovery mode (F8) and scan the HDD to test and mark bad sectors and when done with that boot into Safe mode. In all the HDDs I've had, say 50 in 25 years only 5 or less have went bad or had bad sectors and the obsoleted by new tech (yes, there were 10MB, 20MB HDDs and a 40 megabyte harddrive used to be considered huge and expensive). HDDs with bad sectors are usable if the bad sectos get marked bad, but plan to replace them anyway with SSDs. If once booting in Safe Mode it boots OK then it is just a driver. With newer versions of Windows (I think 7, 8, & 10) it's easy to roll back to a prior configuation of Windows before the changes that corrupted Windows.
One other remote possibility:
Did windows try to upgrade to Windows 10? I had this happen on my old computer and the Windows 10 installation failed. Then Windows wouldn't start. Fortunately I was able to use restore functions. This took a couple of hours but then I could get Windows 7 to start up again.
Yeah I was trying to install win 10. It failed during the middle of the night but I think I turned it off and had not been able to turn it on since.
f8 did not work. Actually the next thing I did was to take a well deserved nap and no one disturbed me until twenty or thirty minutes ago. I am trying to see if the hdd will run in an older box.
Aha, I bet that is the cause rather than HDD failure. Can you get to a black screen (dos) with a choice of options one of which is restore?
The F8 you have to do very, very early in the boot process and fast too, before you see a hint of the Windows boot screen.
Since it now sounds like a failed Windows 10 upgrade you can boot from a Windows 7, 8, or 10 Install USB flash drive and act use the recovery tools to get back your pre-Windows 10 upgrade PC. You'll see that you'll be offered access to those tools as you procede through an upgrade/install procedure very near the beginning.
The repair tools that you use are the same, whether accessed via F8 or the USB Flash Windows Install drive. Well there will be minor difference between the Windows 7, 8, & 10 version of those Repair Tools but not a big difference.
As soon as you hit the power button to turn it on press F8 and keep pressing it till it goes through. You have to do it really quick.
There is another thing that may cause f8 to not work:
Where is your keyboard plugged into? If it is plugged into a usb hub such as on your monitor then it may not be recognized until windows is running. So, you need to unplug it from the hub and plug it directly into a computer USB port.
I had an odd failure on my computer about a year ago. It wouldn't boot in normal mode and the diagnostics said the hard drive was bad. It did sometimes start up in safe mode but ran very slow and often crashed.
I replaced the hard drive and re-installed windows from DVD and it never asked me for the serial number. I assume it had stored it somewhere in flash memory or the BIOS but not on the hard drive. I then put the failed hard drive into another drive bay and I could read it. It was slow and tended to stop working every now and then but I did manage to copy most of files I wanted from it.
I got my computer to say wait but now I am waiting for it to do something else.
Don't get impatient and just keep waiting. If it is trying to do a restore it may be a awhile. When I had to restore from a failed windows 10 installation It was in 'Please Wait' mode for several hours
Thanks. It has been over an hour and it still says wait.
That's caused almost everytime by one or more bad sectors. It's trying to re-read them to get the data.
My computer is Windows 10 and about three months later after I installed it there was a new improved Windows 10 that I downloaded to upgrade but it failed. It also rolled back to the prior version of Windows 10 but took several hours.
Does anyone know how to do a check disk on Ubuntu? I got my computer running from an Ubuntu usb thing.
From what I've read they still have no problem way to fix an NTFS via Linux utilities. The ones that do only check and correct very basic things in the NTFS and nothing like making bad sectors.
It's best if you get someone to make you a bootable USB drive with Windows 10, boot off of that, and from there when you go install Windows 10 say you want to upgrade and save your old personal documents and files. The most likely reason the prior upgrade failed was the video driver but that's not for certain.
You can also swap HDDs and install to the new HDD and then copy your personal data from the old HDD to the new install. If you make sure to keep the path names and such the same you shouldn't have to re-download all the DAZ products and such.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/file-folder/fl/burn-iso-usb.htm
If you really do think it's bad sectors (I don't) then exit to a DOS cmd prompt from the Windows Install shell and do:
chkdsk /F /R
http://windowsreport.com/bad-sectors-windows-8/