HDD Crash but no disk to reinstall on new hdd

E

edfle66

New Member
Hi All

sorry if this is dumb but I'm a newbie at this.

I have a PC with vista on it and the HDD has failed completely. I have the licence key for the vista that came with the HDD but no install disks, cheapskate manufacturers. :brows:
I have a second PC ( exactly the same as one with failed HDD, bought at same time ). Is it possible to use vista files from that PC to re-install to new HDD on failed PC as a fresh build?

If so, is there an idiot's guide to the process? :scared:
 
Hi Ed, welcome to NST.
If your OEM didn't provide you with portable installation media, there should be a recovery partition on the HDD, and the user manual should have recommended that you make a backup copy of that facility on your own optical media.
Is the HDD completely defunct or just the Vista installation on the C:\ drive ?
If the latter, your user guide should tell you how to "factory reset" the PC.
If the former, and you never made back-up disks, try making some now on the duplicate machine, and use them to reinstate the broken PC with its own key.
 
Back
Top