Clean Install on damaged laptop? Confused

Hello everyone. My wifes laptop has recently been damaged internally. It has the infamous problem of booting up to a black screen with just the cursor. I tried going into safe mode but I've learned that the system has no points to do a system restore too. I tried the Repair process and it found no problems. I'm looking to just wipe everything and do a clean install to start off fresh and my wife would like to do that as well.

I have a Windows CD that I used on my own computer. It's a Windows 7 Prem x64 and the laptop is also Windows 7 Prem 64x.

The product key for the laptop is on a sticker under the laptop. Can I then use my Windows CD, slip it into the laptop, boot the laptop from the CD and then just do a install while using the activation key on the laptop?

As in, can I just follow a clean install? Clean Install Windows 7

I assume I can re-enter the product key to activate the laptop during install again correct? Would really like some info on this as soon as possible as my wife wanted to bring it to a shop today to get a clean install but I know that would just be a waste of money since I can do it at home.

Thanks everyone!

MrEroticSushi said:

I have a Windows CD that I used on my own computer. It's a Windows 7 Prem x64 and the laptop is also Windows 7 Prem 64x.

The product key for the laptop is on a sticker under the laptop. Can I then use my Windows CD, slip it into the laptop, boot the laptop from the CD and then just do a install while using the activation key on the laptop?

As in, can I just follow a clean install? Clean Install Windows 7

I assume I can re-enter the product key to activate the laptop during install again correct? Would really like some info on this as soon as possible as my wife wanted to bring it to a shop today to get a clean install but I know that would just be a waste of money since I can do it at home.

Thanks everyone!

Should work fine as far as I know. I'm guessing these are both OEM licenses, but you appear to have a valid Product Key for the laptop and are installing to its original hardware. That's what matters. You have 30 days to activate.

I'm assuming her laptop has no "damaged" hardware and that this is just a software issue of some type that would be resolved by a clean installation.

Everything is here including the latest official installer for your licensed version to do a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums.

However its rare that a damaged laptop has software instead of hardware damage. Does it detect the installation when you do Startup Repair? What does it report?

Normally a dropped laptop will have hard drive damage. The first thing to check in that case is whether HD shows up in BIOS setup under Storage or SATA devices.