Hardrive and OS

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papitohead

New Member
My WD Scorpio Black 500gb is dead. I am planning to replace it with a new one. My question is, what about my OS? I have Windows 7 in my Dell but now what. I have never replaced a Hard drive before.

I am editing this because I just found the re-installation disc. So if you guys have any pointers, I will appreciate it.
 
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Boot to the install dc and it will start the install process. If you need more help let us know.
 
You may need to call up Microsoft if it says you can't activate, but if your serial number is valid you should be able to explain the situation and have them activate it over the phone. As John said, simply replace the hard drive, and boot from the install CD. Hopefully that CD contains everything you need and isn't dependent on a recovery partition on the original drive.
 
Ok, just got the hard drive installed and booted to my disc, but I get a popup BEST DOCTORS WINMAGIC DATA SECURITY asking me for user and password.

Seller says he forgot to format. He asked me If I knew how to force format the hard drive.

Can anybody help me out plese, thank you in advance.
 
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When you start the computer up and boot to the cd, what screen pops up? Are you sure its booting to the cd or is it booting to the hard drive? Can you post a screenshot of what you are talking about? Something isn't right. Sounds like the cd is labeled wrong.
 
Well, just took the Hard drive out and am sending it back. The seller says someone forgot to format it. It has a "BEST DOCTORS WINMAGIC DATA SECURITY" system previously installed. He told me that can be force format if I know how to do it or send it back. I looked around for information but could not get anything that would help me.

The disc I have is original and is the first time I have taken it out of the package when I got the computer about 3 years ago or so.
 
Then you weren't booting to the install cd. Go into your bios and set your cdrom drive as first boot device. Once the install starts you can format the drive from there. Or you can download dban or killdisk and wipe the drive totally.
 
I did that several times. I went to setup, then selected DVD drive. It then sends me back to the same screen of BEST DOCTORS WINMAGIC DATA SECURITY
 
Sounds like that software is on the dvd and not an actual windows installation. Do you have an actual microsoft install cd or a burnt dvd? Can you put that disk in another computer and see what comes up?
 
Got the hard drive blocked issue erased. Now, the hard drive is completely clean. I do have a copy of Windows 8.1 and was wondering if I could just go ahead and install it instead of bothering with Windows 7.
 
papitohead said:
Got the hard drive blocked issue erased. Now, the hard drive is completely clean. I do have a copy of Windows 8.1 and was wondering if I could just go ahead and install it instead of bothering with Windows 7.
Click to expand...

That's totally your choice.
 
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