Reinstalling windows after hard drive upgarde --- Lenovo G780

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gdriveramiller

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Oct 22, 2012
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Hi all,

I have a lenovo g780 notebook, and with all my games and getting into more multimedia classes(adobe products) I am in the need of a bigger hard drive.

I am looking to upgrade to a 2TB drive, I know how to install it and backup everything, however I have on issue.

My laptop came pre-installed with windows 7, and therefore no disk came with it. Does anyone know how I would go about re installing windows after installing the new hard drive?

Thanks for the help!
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Look on the bottom. Is the activation key printed?
If so, you can download the official Windows 7 ISO for your version here:
http://www.w7forums.com/threads/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads.12325/

Install, and activate with your existing key.
 
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millwright

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You are going to need a disk, to reinstall Windows, as well as a key.

What you can do , is clone the old drive to the new one.

What brand are the 2 hard drives/
All hard drive manufacturers have cloning programs, free for download, on their sight.
 
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aldan

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it probably had a recovery partition on the old drive.if you can hook up the new drive in say a usb enclosure you could plug it into your laptop as an external hdd.then use a program like acronis true image or macrium reflect to clone your old hdd to the new one.nothing lost and no reinstall of the os needed.
 
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gdriveramiller

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I do have a product key underneath, as well as an ISO through my school. Will the ISO be tied to they key they gave me on the site? Or will the disk work with any key?


As for hooking up the second drive, I haven't bought one yet but I was thinking a Western Digital, the one installed is a Seagate. I have a western digital passport external drive, would that work for housing the second drive to transfer things over to? Windows is the main thing I was worried about as I've heard that the OS would be on the drive itself, if I have a windows 7 ISO and a key, would just a simple backup of the drive onto my passport work?
 
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gdriveramiller

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Good to hear.

Another thing I've been looking at, is getting a 2tb external drive, taking it out of the housing and then putting it into my laptop, as it seems like external drives are a bit cheaper than internals.

Are all external drives 2.5" SATAs?

Also, as I said above, if I have an ISO disk and key, will I even need to keep the old drive for anything post backup via a utility?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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External drives may be either 2.5" or 3.5" form factor.
For your old drive...keep it in a desk drawer in case of other drive fail.
 
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gdriveramiller

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One last quick inquiry.

All my games are digital right now, I hardly have any disc based games.

I've read places that you can replace the optical drive with another hard drive. Is this true? Will I need another bracket or is it ready to go and have a hard drive installed?

Also, is it easy to go back and forth if for some reason I need to use discs?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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With some laptops, yes that is possible. You'll have to investigate for your particular one.
 
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