Replacing hard drive with the same copy of windows

Hello,

Recently, my Laptop which is running a student offer Windows 7 Home Premium decided to mess up on me by telling me that "Windows detected a hard disk problem" asking me to start the backup procedure and replace the hard drive. The problem began occurring when I started to install my old Sims 2 collection. Whenever I start the laptop and log-on, I receive the message about the hard drive every time. I also get a Blue Screen Of Death when trying to install the rest of my Sims which I'm halfway through installing.

I do have slight suspicions that the problem is malware related but I've checked using:

Kasperski's tdsskiller application;
Malwarebytes' Anti-malware
And AVG Free 2011
None of these applications really indicate that the cause is malware so it's probably safe to say the hard drive really has met its premature end. Especially seeing as its only a year old. However I need to find out if I still have a warranty and that the hard drive is covered under it.

It would also be useful to know if there are any good diagnostic tools to check the hard drive with. I've used SeaTools by Seagate and It failed a "short DST" test. The information from other diagnostic tools would also be useful to know to determine the cause of the problem.

I have selected a hard drive replacement which has a better storage capacity and I think the same interface type. Samsung HM500JI 500GB 2.5" Hard Drive SATAII 5400rpm 8MB Cache:

Samsung HM500JI 500GB 2.5" Hard Drive SATAII.. | Ebuyer.com

The next problem is actually swapping the hard drives and putting my copy of windows on the new one. The copy of windows I'm currently running was one bought with a student offer online and the product key was emailed to my old college account which has now been removed from their databases. However, it may be on record with my bank and with Microsoft that I bought it. Is it possible to retrieve the product key and deactivate windows, replace the hard drive, then reinstall windows with that same product key? If possible I intend to swap the product key so I can have a key for 64bit windows if required then possibly put the old hard drive in an external enclosure.



Specifications:

Laptop Model: Samsung R560;
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium x86;
HDD: Western Digital - WDC WD2500BEVT-35ZCT0 (stock hard-drive).


Any help is appreciated and I hope that this thread can help others with a similar problem! :)

ahuns said:

Hello,
The next problem is actually swapping the hard drives and putting my copy of windows on the new one. The copy of windows I'm currently running was one bought with a student offer online and the product key was emailed to my old college account which has now been removed from their databases. However, it may be on record with my bank and with Microsoft that I bought it. Is it possible to retrieve the product key and deactivate windows, replace the hard drive, then reinstall windows with that same product key? If possible I intend to swap the product key so I can have a key for 64bit windows if required then possibly put the old hard drive in an external enclosure.
:)

Keyfinder | Magical Jelly Bean Retrieve product key but they charge for Win 7 now.

First buy another hard drive. Same size or larger. Make sure it's 7200 rpm. it's faster.

Get a copy of Clonezilla (free) and it works great. Now you need to find a desktop to clone the old drive to the new drive.

Or swap out the old drive with the new and reinstall Win 7. Then buy an external enclosure for your old drive. Connect the USB cable and copy all you data to the new drive.