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C. C
C. C asked in Computers & InternetSoftware · 8 years ago

I'm running Win 8 upgrade, have no disks for Vista, and my HD is dying. Now what?

I purchased a used desktop computer running Windows Vista, and immediately bought and installed the Windows 8 upgrade. I did not use the 'media' option when purchasing Win 8.

Now my HD is dying, and I'm not sure what to do. Putting a new HD in the desktop is no problem, but I can't figure out what I need to do to get the OS on a new drive. I don't have a copy of Vista to install so I can re-install the Win 8 upgrade, and neither does the former owner - it came pre-installed (although I DO have the Vista product key, as well as my Win 8 product key). What do I need to do to get my new HD running Windows 8? Is taking it into a shop and getting them to do it my only option, or is there some way I can manage this on my own?

Backups are not an issue - there's nothing on the dying drive I need to keep; I'd barely gotten the new OS on when I realized there were problems. I have an external HD, blank CDs, and flash drives I can use if they would be helpful.

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  • Dominic
    Lv 7
    8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    You can do a clean install with the Windows 8 upgrade on a blank hard drive. Once you have Windows 8 installed, it won't activate. Just pop in your upgrade media again while you're in Windows 8 and do an upgrade install. It'll activate fine after that.

    You can download a copy of Windows 8 by entering your product key into the Microsoft site linked below. Burn to to DVD or create a bootable USB stick so you have a hard copy of the OS if you ever need to install it again.

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/upgra...

    - Dominic

  • That Guy
    Lv 4
    8 years ago

    Well there are 2 things that can be done

    1. You can get a new hard drive and reinstall the OS and start clean. You will have to activate Windows again because it thinks it's a new computer

    2. You can backup everything with system backup. You can access it by going to Control Panel> System and Security> Backup and restore. Select set up backup and backup everything on an external device. I'd suggest backing up on an external hard drive but you can back up on DVD's, but it will use alot of DVD's to back up. After you backed up everything, install the new hard drive and restore the backup on the new hard drive

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