How do I install 7 home premium on new hard drive

[Boylo]

Ok so here goes. I'm having major problems with my laptop (Dell Inspiron N5030). All was well and good when I was running windows 7 home premium, but then I upgraded to 8 via Microsoft's online £24.99 upgrade offer. Since then the laptop has crashed several times and I don't have the product key to reinstall and activate despite numerous attempts at contacting Microsoft and every other method of recovering the product key. Now my hard drive has failed and I have to replace it. What I need to know is how do I put windows 7 home premium onto the new hard drive? I have the disc to do this, and the driver disc from my original dell package.

Please keep this as simple as possible as I am not great with computers and can't afford to bring it to the shop to get fixed!

Thanks!

 

[Boylo]

Also have my original 7 product key sticker on laptop

 

[bigmck]

It sounds like you have everything. Just follow this and check back if you have any questions.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html
It is pretty easy. Just put the disk in and you get prompts on what you should do. == Don't put your Product Key in until you are happy with the way it is working. You have 30 days to do that.

 

[Boylo]

Simple as that? Guy in the computer shop told me to bin the laptop! It also won't charge but it's not the battery as I tried it in my brothers identical laptop, and not the charger as I tried it in his too.

 

[bigmck]

Simple as that? Guy in the computer shop told me to bin the laptop! It also won't charge but it's not the battery as I tried it in my brothers identical laptop, and not the charger as I tried it in his too.

If you can get the laptop to Power On, then get your Windows 7 installed and we can discuss the charging problem after that.

 

[gregrocker]

Everything needed is here to get and keep a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

How do you know you HD failed? Did you test it with manufacturer's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan?

 

[Boylo]

I ran the on board diagnostics and the hdd came up as a fail. If I format it will I be able to still use it or should I replace it?

 

[gregrocker]

You can confirm the diagnostics by running them again, and by running the HD maker's HD Diagnostic
extended CD scan. If it confirms it's failing then it should be replaced.

 

[Boylo]

Simple as that? Guy in the computer shop told me to bin the laptop! It also won't charge but it's not the battery as I tried it in my brothers identical laptop, and not the charger as I tried it in his too.

If you can get the laptop to Power On, then get your Windows 7 installed and we can discuss the charging problem after that.

Ok so I have formatted the hard drive and it is not failing the diagnostics anymore, have installed Windows 7 Home Premium, all my Dell drivers from my driver disc, created a restore point, installed all the programs I need including AVG 2014, and have ran windows update and everything is working 100% so far (haven't entered my product key yet).

The laptop is still not charging showing a message box;

Also in my computer I see only the local disc (c), no recovery, is this an issue?

How can i fix the charging issue?

Thanks!

 

[bigmck]

Not having a Recovery File is not a big deal. Instead of that download Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download and make an image of your drive. If there is a problem in the future, you can just do an Image Restore and in 20 minutes you are in business again. I make a new image every week so that it has any changes that have been made since the last one. Here is a tutorial on it http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html == Now to your battery problem. I believe you said you had checked the charger and the battery in another PC and things were good. I am going to do a little research on this and get back to you. Hang in there. Thanks,

 

[bigmck]

Give this a try. == Go into your Control Panel under Power Options. This will bring you to the Power Options screen. Click on the right "Change Plan Settings". At the bottom you will see "Change Advanced Power Settings", click on that. You will see a lot of settings on here. At the bottom is "Battery". Click on the "+" and it shows a lot of battery settings. Check those out and see if any have a strange setting. It is possible a setting is causing this. Let me know how it goes. Thanks,