Windows 10: Free Windows 10 - Getting Back After New Hard-Drive Installation or Hard-Drive Erase.

Hello,


I have a laptop that came with Windows 8.1 installed, so I took the FREE Windows 10 upgrade when it became available.


As the FREE Windows 10 upgrade is no longer available I want to know the steps on how to get my FREE Windows 10 back in the event I need to install a new hard-drive or erase/format my existing hard-drive? Several people have asked similar questions but I cannot find a clear and simple step-by-step guide provided by the community or Microsoft Support, so feel the need to raise this issue again for the benefit of myself and other community members.


If Microsoft provided users with a FREE licence code after downloading the FREE Windows 10 upgrade it would have made things more simple!


Thank you.

:)

 

How to wipe a hard drive

Killdisk is a good hard drive eraser if you are still looking for suggestions.
http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

 

Install Windows 10 on new hard drive.

Hi Arzlo,

Thank you for being a part of Windows 10.

I appreciate you for providing details about the issue and we are happy to help you.

Please be informed that you cannot install the activated Windows 10 on to the new hard disk.

If you are replacing the hard disk then you may get Windows 10 activation errors.

If you are purchasing a new hard disk then, you may have to install genuine Windows 7 (SP1)/8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10 to get Windows 10 activated.

I suggest you to run check disk on the hard drive to see if there are any corruptions.

Follow the below steps:

• Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
• Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press
  ENTER:

chkdsk /f

Disclaimer: While performing check disk on the hard drive, if any bad sectors are found then check disk will try to repair that sector. Any data available on a bad sector might be lost.

Once Check Disk completes, boot the computer and then check.

Reference: Refer to the following Microsoft article on Windows 10 Q&A.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq?ppud=4

Kindly let us know if you need any further assistance with Windows. We are glad to assist you.

Thank you.

 

Need help installing a new hard drive

Basically what I'm saying is I want to install windows onto my new hard drive and boot from it
But for windows 7 to recognize that it's a two drive system, as opposed to just replacing the old hard drive entirely with a new one