HP m8400f, bought in 2008 and still running Vista. Original HDD configuration was two identical Seagate 360GB, for a total of 720GB. These are lettered C (with a small D recovery partition on the same physical HDD as C) and E.
I noticed some physical damage to the SATA connection on C. The plastic piece that supports the pins has broken off; only the pins remain. This situation is untenable long-term, especially with C being the one with the OS on it. So I bought a new 1TB drive last week, currently lettered as F, and for the moment, I am running three HDDs.
I want the OS to eventually be on the new drive (currently lettered F), and when that's done, I plan to zero wipe the current C drive and send it to Burkina Faso so the locals can retrieve like $2 worth of gold from the PCB. (Humor aside, I'm not planning to keep that drive around any longer than I need to get important things moved off of it.)
Here is my dilemma: all I have in the way of Windows installation discs are either (a) for Vista, or (b) a set of three system and recovery discs that belong to my father's Gateway laptop, which I believe to contain Windows 7. I'm not going to install Vista to the new drive because MS killed off support for it several months ago, but I seem to be running into issues with option (b) as well.
With the background story filled in, the following is what I think I might have to do to get Windows 7 on the new HDD. Please let me know if I'm missing any steps, totally off base, or if I should just go blow $109 I don't really have on Windows 10.
-- From within Vista, re-assign drive letters so that the newest physical HDD gets the C designation
-- Move the data on that drive elsewhere for its own protection
-- Reboot, stick the Gateway "system disc" into the DVD drive, and hope that when it tells me it's going to nuke everything on C, it means the newest physical HDD and not the one with the damaged connector that has been C since first boot back in 2008
-- Insert Gateway "recovery discs" as requested
-- Hope that the total lack of an OS on the new drive doesn't trip up Gateway's recovery software somehow
Sorry for the length. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
I noticed some physical damage to the SATA connection on C. The plastic piece that supports the pins has broken off; only the pins remain. This situation is untenable long-term, especially with C being the one with the OS on it. So I bought a new 1TB drive last week, currently lettered as F, and for the moment, I am running three HDDs.
I want the OS to eventually be on the new drive (currently lettered F), and when that's done, I plan to zero wipe the current C drive and send it to Burkina Faso so the locals can retrieve like $2 worth of gold from the PCB. (Humor aside, I'm not planning to keep that drive around any longer than I need to get important things moved off of it.)
Here is my dilemma: all I have in the way of Windows installation discs are either (a) for Vista, or (b) a set of three system and recovery discs that belong to my father's Gateway laptop, which I believe to contain Windows 7. I'm not going to install Vista to the new drive because MS killed off support for it several months ago, but I seem to be running into issues with option (b) as well.
With the background story filled in, the following is what I think I might have to do to get Windows 7 on the new HDD. Please let me know if I'm missing any steps, totally off base, or if I should just go blow $109 I don't really have on Windows 10.
-- From within Vista, re-assign drive letters so that the newest physical HDD gets the C designation
-- Move the data on that drive elsewhere for its own protection
-- Reboot, stick the Gateway "system disc" into the DVD drive, and hope that when it tells me it's going to nuke everything on C, it means the newest physical HDD and not the one with the damaged connector that has been C since first boot back in 2008
-- Insert Gateway "recovery discs" as requested
-- Hope that the total lack of an OS on the new drive doesn't trip up Gateway's recovery software somehow
Sorry for the length. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.