Repairing disk errors

GunJack

Pescur wrote: »

I am trying one more thing on the old hard disk before I give up, I put HD back in laptop and am trying to clone it onto external HD of same size with partition software.

Is going very very very slowly so not sure if it will work or be reliable.

Unlikely to work without corruption..... if they've got photos/docs/music on the old drive, you may have more luck recovering them if you boot your machine with a linux cd/dvd/usb, and leave their hdd in the caddy. Linux is better at reading even a failing hdd than windows is

Hoogle

your license key is not stored on the hard drive it is stored in the bios however some windows 8 machines will ask for a key when installing windows 10 direct from usb but if you just click try or continue without a key you will find it will activate automatically.

Ask for a hard drive when it first started with errors is the time to clone not after several hours of disk repair attempts. you will find a clean install will be a lot better for the machine and run faster.

Pescur

It is a util on a linux boor disk, I think the utik is more important than the OS

System

Pescur wrote: »

Thanks for these, download in progress...

This machine does not have a Windows Key on it, have manufacturers stopped putting these on machines?

It seems that the machine originally had Win 8.1 but was upgraded to Win10.

You don't need one. As it has already been activated it will have a digital key generated from the various hardware IDs in the computer stored with Microsoft's activation servers. Just install the correct version (Home or Pro), selecting you don't have a product key link below the box where you're asked to put in the product key. Once online it'll automatically re-activate it.

Product keys are a thing of the past with Windows 10.

Pescur

Thanks for clarifying this.

Pescur

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Normally not necessary, assuming it was verified before, new motherboards are trickier.

What would you say would be issue for new motherboard?

I have a PC of my own that was on Win7, motherboard died and hard to find replacement on eBay at a decent price, seems better to get a new MB which uses less power.

I will probably be happy if I can get Win7 to work, but in the event I can't is there a way to install Win10 fresh?

unforeseen

That may need a quick call to MS, however there is still the Windows 10 assistive technology route

esuhl

Tarambor wrote: »

Product keys are a thing of the past with Windows 10.

That's not true.

When you first install Win10 on a machine that previously had an activated installation of Win7/8, you can enter your Win7/8 product key associate a new Win10 upgrade licence with that key.

were

To copy that faulty disk you want to use 'testdisk' or 'test disk'.

from track 0 upwards to the final track, and then in reverse from - final track to track 0. This way when errors occur there is less of a chance of bombing out leaving unread data behind.