URGENT help!! Hard drive help

Drewster2018 · Jun 24, 2014

i have a desktop and a laptop, i scred up my laptop drive by installing 3 diffetnt os's. i can plug my laptop sata drive into my desktop and it becomes a secondary drive, while its connected to my desktop (windows 8) how can i reeforamt the laptop drive and install just 1 os on it so its back to normal? thanks

TechyInAZ · Jun 24, 2014

Connect the laptop drive to your desktop then format it (backup any files that are important too before you format it). After put the drive back into the laptop and install windows with either your disk or USB drive.

JobCreator · Jun 24, 2014

Do you have a product key somewhere on the laptop for the operating system that came pre-installed? If it's a Windows 8 laptop, the product key is most likely embedded in the BIOS and you won't have to activate it. If it's Windows 7 or Vista, or even XP, you'll need to find that Microsoft sticker on the back of the laptop.

Rookie_MIB · Jun 24, 2014

Not only will you need to reformat the drive, that's actually going to be the second step. First step is you need to repartition the drive, but you should be able to do that during the installation process depending on your OS.

Assuming Win7:

Put the installation in the drive (or plug in the media if installing via USB stick).
Boot the computer.
Get into the bios before any make sure the removable drive/dvd/etc are set to bootable.
Reboot.
Win7 Installation should start.
There's a point where it will ask which disk/partition you're installing to.
Click 'advanced'. This will open up more options.
Click each partition and hit the delete icon until there is only raw space left.
Select that empty raw partion and hit next (or install, can't remember exactly which it is).

If you're using a different OS (Linux/Win8) there's a different process, but the basics are roughly the same in that you're going to need to remove all partitions out, then install.

Drewster2018 · Jun 24, 2014

JobCreator :

its windwos 7 and i have the product key as i bought it seperaterate for them computer

Drewster2018 · Jun 24, 2014

Rookie_MIB :

Not only will you need to reformat the drive, that's actually going to be the second step. First step is you need to repartition the drive, but you should be able to do that during the installation process depending on your OS.

Assuming Win7:

Put the installation in the drive (or plug in the media if installing via USB stick).
Boot the computer.
Get into the bios before any make sure the removable drive/dvd/etc are set to bootable.
Reboot.
Win7 Installation should start.
There's a point where it will ask which disk/partition you're installing to.
Click 'advanced'. This will open up more options.
Click each partition and hit the delete icon until there is only raw space left.
Select that empty raw partion and hit next (or install, can't remember exactly which it is).

If you're using a different OS (Linux/Win8) there's a different process, but the basics are roughly the same in that you're going to need to remove all partitions out, then install.

thanks! ill have to try that

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URGENT help!! Hard drive help

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