Ernie’s afraid that replacing his hard drive is going to be a huge hassle. “One of our laptops is a Dell, that came with Windows 8 that was upgraded to 8.1 and then upgraded to windows 10. The hard drive has now failed and needs to be replaced. I have been backing up my pictures-document files etc… to an external hard drive, so they are safe. Once the hard drive has been replaced, I assume I’ll have to start over with Windows 8 once again (via a disk that came with the Dell), and assume I can update that to 8.1… I also assume I’m going to be stuck having to buy Windows 10 if I want to continue to use it now that the ‘free’ upgrade program is over with?”
Good news Ernie! Windows 10 remembers the product key in a different way. The key is embedded into the system. So unless your motherboard blows, all you should need to do is a clean install of Windows 10 and it should activate. You can get a copy by clicking here. Follow the instructions for creating an installation media. Or, if you’re having a tech professional do the hard drive replacement, they can install Windows 10.
~ Cynthia
This is a Great tip! I did not know this….
I’m sorry to say that Christmas wiped out the hard drive replacement budget, but will be giving this a try in about a month… THANKS big time Cynthia!!!
Hi great info, but can the info on the failed HD be recovered? Can the HD be removed to do so? Thanks for further info, Trish
Had held on to this tip just in case, and needed it 2 days later. i went to the link and followed the directions and after downloading their tool, i installed the tool and ever since then it has been checking for updates. that is for the past 2 days, any thoughts?