Windows 10: Laptop HD failed, not long after upgrading from windows 7 win 10

I've got a Dell Vostro 3750 laptop, it came with Windows 7 and a month or so ago I upgraded it to windows 10.

Just yesterday I've discovered that the HD has failed, the laptop was not being used after the upgrade. I've even taken the drive out of the laptop, hooked it up to my computer via a USB 3 adaptor. The computer was unable to deal with the drive so I'm SOL it seems like.

I've going to purchase a new drive and install it and since I have all the original disks that came with the laptop, I can use them to reinstall the Windows 7 that came with the laptop.

How do I then get the windows 10 upgrade again is what I'm wondering, and for free. Is there a process to follow?

Thanks much,

Gene

:)

 

Problem upgrading from Win 7 to Win 10 on my PC

Finished upgrading my laptop from Win 7 to Win 10. After a few issues over the past month, finally succes. I started to upgrade my PC from 7 to 10 and after going through trying for 12 hours, I ended up with 2 upgrade fails with the following: Failed Upgrade
and codes-C1900208 and WindowsUpdate_dt000. I hope that someone has some answers to this dilemma. Thanks.

 

Win 10 HD went BAD and now cannot dual boot after attempting restore image

HD Fail, need to restore dual boot system Win 10 and Win 7

1) Installed Win 10 from iso in April 2016.

2) Original system was Win 7 Home Premium so this resulted in a dual boot system which has had no problems.

3) A few days ago received notification in POST that the HD containing Win 10 OS was bad.

4) Made image of Win 10 partition on external USB HD. Also tried to use Paragon Back Up and Recovery to create an image but this failed with Disk I/O error.

5) Used Hiren to test HD with HD regenerator which showed multiple bad sectors which were recovered. But due to long time, only tested the first 140GB which should have covered OS partition.

6) Installed SSD and formatted from Win 7 system.

7) Tried to restore Windows Image from 4). But image not locatable and worked through all the options to try to restore.

8) After installing Win 10 originally, I made an image using Paragon which was the bare bones Win 10 immediately after installation. I used this to restore Win 10 onto SSD. Network was disconnected for the remainder of these steps since I did not want to complcate
the issue by Win 10 trying to instal updates.

9) System would not dual boot and had to choose "Use another OS" which took me into Win 7 which was OK.

10) Removed Win 7 HD so only system was the restored Win 10 on SSD. But this failed to boot into Win 10 with File \Boot\BCD missing.

11) Used win 10 recovery CD to repair Start Up and Win 10 finally booted up and seemd OK.

12) System then shut down with Critical Process Died error. Rebooted back into Win 10 and seemd OK but eventually another critical process died message.

Questions :

1) What is best way to get back to dual boot system ?

2) If I do a clean install from the Win 10 iso (which seems to be the only option left), will this incur a charge from Microsoft since I am past the date for the free upgrade.

 

Hi.
You should be able to install W10 directly, and it should activate, because you would have had a digital activation once you upgraded. Once W10 has been installed and activated on a machine, it can be clean installed as often as you like/need. If the laptop had not been on long enough to activate for some reason, then you still can activate the W10 installation by using your COA key (usually on the bottom of the laptop, or under the battery).

 

Thanks for that Simrick,

How do I get windows 10 into a position to install it as the computer with clean empty hard drive? I have other computers available, I presume somehow I have to download Win10 and put it on a USB or DVD maybe?

Thanks,
Gene

 

Sorry about my reply, I think I found what I needed at:

Windows 10

Appreciate the help,
Regards,
Gene

 

yepp, that is what you need. The media creation tool will make an ISO or directly on a USB stick. If you want to do an ALL-IN-ONE, you need a 8GB stick to fit on it (so you can choose between 32/64bit and/or home/pro). If you dont, just download the one you need. Remember: for Windows 7 pro and Ultimate you will need the Windows 10 pro version, otherwise the Home version.

 

Just to follow up, I used the media tool, downloaded the ISO and was able to burn a DVD and after installing a new drive in the Dell laptop, the install of Win10 went without a hitch. It's up and running real sweet.

Thanks again all, these forums are a HUGE resource for me and others I'm sure and to all who contribute, my thanks many times over.

Gene

 

Cheers Gene. Thanks for posting the results. Please mark the thread as solved.