Replace Windows 8 (or upgrade to 10) on a computer with a damaged/dead hard drive?

J

JMSliker

Hi; I am trying to help a friend whose computer (hard drive) has died. (She's not in a position to buy a new one).


It is an HP Pavilion which came with Windows 8, (which she never upgraded). I've tried a new power supply (did not help), and removed the hard drive/tried it on a different machine: it starts to spin up, makes some horrible sounds when the read/write heads attempt to swing into place, and then stop spinning. It never registers in the system as a drive. Seagate's SeaTools cannot even see that it's there.


I have some spare drives and could format one to replace in the system for her. Is there a way to download either Windows 8 (or, hopefully, Windows 10), install it on the drive and have the computer recognize that it ought to be appropriately licensed/activated? Again, the original drive is corrupt and unreadable, but the rest of the computer (processor, motherboard, etc.) have not changed.


Thanks for you help!

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