Windows 10: factory resetting laptop after replaced old used hard drive: original OS was win7 but...

im asking what will happen and/or how to factory reset my current hp laptop.the current laptop in question, originally had windows10 but i dropped it & ruined the hard drive. i replaced the hard drive with an old used one out of an ancient laptop which had windows7, that i didnt unlocked to work on the current laptop.instead i purchased windows10 home & installed that over the windows7 on the current laptop that has the old used hard drive.im concerned about doing a factory reset, if its even an option to, because the RECOVERY D: drive files/folder has the "date modified" of 11/11/20

:)

 

Replacing an old laptop's hard drive

I have an Alienware 14 gaming laptop from 2013, that initially had Windows 7 and got a free upgrade to Windows 10 when it dropped. I've replaced its hard drive once about 2.5/3 years ago when I dropped it from a table and broke the original one. A recent
hardware test by the Dell SupportAssist app says that my HDD failed a SMART short self-test, Linear Read test, and a Targeted Read test and is in danger of failing soon again. Nothing else about the hardware or system seems to be wrong, but I have been experiencing
random blue screens and crashes, plus a good bit of slowing at times. The questions are:

a) does that seem normal

b) how would I go about replacing the hard drive given that the only system recovery CD's I have are for the original system with Win7 instead of 10

c) what should I look into for an actual replacement disk; does it have to be the same thing I've had because the laptops old and compatibility could be an issue? Should I be trying to get an SDD instead?

 

Replacing an old laptop's hard drive

The current HDD is a Western Digital 2.5" 750GB SATA III internal hard drive, 7200 rpm 16MB cache. You're saying though that I can just buy a compatible replacement drive, boot it with the original Win7 recovery disk, and then re-upgrade it to
Win10 with no issues? Or did I misunderstand you.

 

Replacing a laptop hard drive with a SSD

I have a Dell Latitude E5420 laptop which has a Windows 10 Pro O/S. I would appreciate a step by step guide on the procedure to replace the hard drive with a Solid State drive; specifically dealing with the transfer of all the software from the old drive to the new. I have an external hard drive I use for backups and a free version of the Macrium Reflect program on the hard drive. The SSD is brand new. I have just 50 GB in total on the 231 GB hard drive. The SSD has 250 GB capacity.