Hard drive crashed. I replaced it and now am stuck. How do I reinstall Win 7?

[akcmommy]

Hello,
My daughter's cheap HP laptop (G42-415DX) hard drive crashed yesterday. I ran the HP diagnostics an confirmed the HD failed. I bought another exactly like it and installed it. Now, I'm stuck. I have 2 disks that I made when I bought the computer. One is labeled "Repair disc win 7", the other is the name of the computer "backup". Neither have disc images on them. The computer asked me if I wanted to install drivers and showed me the X drive. I don't know which drivers it wants. So I tried "Startup Repair". It's been attempting repairs with the blue status bar moving left to right for hours.

I don't know what to do now. Help please!

If this is not placed in the right forum, please move it.

 

[jojot197]

As far as I am aware the repair disk will not do a complete fresh install, just holds the start up files and drivers to copy over, not the actual installation files.

The HDD that failed - any chance you could put it into an external drive caddy and see if it has a sectioned recovery drive? this is prob the easiest option for you if it has and is accessable,

other than that I think you're going to need to do a windows install from a windows disk - but remember if you have a legitimate product key for windows 7 (may be printed on a sticker somewhere) that you can borrow a copy of the install disk from someone, as it is the licence to use the product you buy not the actual product.