Need help with install on new hdd from backup

T

tdcarter72

New Member
System:

Gigabyte ma785gm-us2h motherboard
8 gigs of ram
ADM Athlon II x2 240 processor
windows 7 64-bit
320 gb seagate hdd - OS and all other programs
500 gb seagate hdd - storage (internal)

I have been having a problem with my hdd that my OS is on for sometime now. The hdd has some bad sectors on it and is causing a disk read error.

I backed up the OS hdd onto the storage hdd using windows backup and restore.

My question is can I restore this backup onto a new hdd without any problems or will I have to do a new install of the OS and all my programs.

If the backup can be used, can someone point me in the right direction on how to do it.

If you need more information, please let me know what other information you need.
 
You really don't want to take the chance of backing up from a bad drive. You should do the clean install and only restore your personal data for the backup if need be.
 
You probably won't be able to just restore the backup and keep going. You'd need to either clone the old drive to the new drive (may or may not work with a damaged disk) or install Windows from scratch, reinstall all your applications, and copy your files (pictures, music, docs, etc.) back over.
 
Well the problem is I don't have (can not find) the windows 7 disc. So I was looking for a way to keep win7.

I also was not looking forward to reinstalling all the programs either.
 
So I downloaded the ISO that I need to my hdd. So all I need to do is burn it to a dvd and install on new hdd?

I am guessing that I can use the product id # that I found in system properties for the activation key when prompted for one?
 
You're correct, except the product ID shown in system properties is not the product key. The product key is located on a sticker on the side of your computer. It will say what version of Windows it is and have the product key below it. It will look similar to this:

windows-sticker.png


Although it looks like you may have a custom machine you or someone else built. In that case the sticker would hav come with the windows disc you bought when you first installed Windows. You may want to run a key finder and see if it can pull your Windows key. http://m.download.cnet.com/Keyfinder-Thing/3000-2094_4-10491989.html
 
Last edited:
voyagerfan99 said:
You're correct, except the product ID shown in system properties is not the product key. The product key is located on a sticker on the side of your computer. It will say what version of Windows it is and have the product key below it. It will look similar to this:

Although it looks like you may have a custom machine you or someone else built. In that case the sticker would hav come with the windows disc you bought when you first installed Windows. You may want to run a key finder and see if it can pull your Windows key. http://m.download.cnet.com/Keyfinder-Thing/3000-2094_4-10491989.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link to the key finder.....I lost my disk with the the product key several months ago and was not looking forward to buy another OS.


It will be a couple of days before I am able to get this done, so I will update then.

Thanks for the help.
 
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