Solved: How to install W7 on new Toshiba HD

Dear Tech Guy,

Sorry if I’m not posting in the right place - I'm a bit of a rookie. Anyway my Toshiba a505-6005 laptop has significant hard drive issues and an expired warranty. I would like to replace HD with a new [“TOSHIBA MK5065GSX 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive] from NewEgg for about 60 bucks. I’m not savvy in such matters hence not interested in fixing existing drive. My question is this . . . . since Toshiba doesn’t provide a W7 DVD install disk, how would I go about installing Windows 7 on the new drive.

Please Advise and thank you in advance,

Jet B

 

Most manufacturers will provide you with an original media disk, upon request (some charge, some don't). These days most computers that ship without install media have utilities built in to burn the Recovery Disk; check the Toshiba website if you can't spot the program on your computer. Also, you can burn a Recovery Disk directly from Windows; just search for Recovery in Help and you'll find instructions.

 

Thanks for the tips gyclone - I will explore your suggestions - might not be able to get around to it for a couple of days - will provide an update when I do - would love to hear if anybody has additional thoughts.
best regards,

j blu

 

had planned on ordering a replacement hd today as mentioned in another entry - unfortunately an unexpected car repair took precedence for now - been doing a bit of research in the mean time - soooo many different approaches -will try to sort through the do’s and the don’ts - hopefully avoid potential dilemmas - also considering installing W7 w/o DVD, USB Devise or other External Devise in the manner described below:


1) Use a free program like ImgBurn to extract the downloaded ISO to a partition or drive on which you are not going to Install Windows 7.
2) Make sure you have around 16GB of free space on the partition you wish to install Windows 7.
3) Go to the folder where the ISO is extracted.
4) Run Setup.exe and Follow the instructions.
5) The installation Runs Like Usual.
6) If you installed windows on a partition where another version of windows was already installed, Just Delete the Windows.Old folder by using Disk Cleanup.
7) You have a new build of Windows.

Any thoughts or opinions ?????
Thanks
j blu

 

Those instructions sound valid for installing Windows without using a CD/DVD, but if you mean that you want to install Windows onto a removal drive, like a thumb drive, and to be able to run Windows from that drive as your main operating system, that is a whole different can of worms, so to speak. I think it is possible, but Windows is meant to run on the C: drive and the C: drive is meant to be a hard drive, so there would definitely be some hurdles. I highly recommend you do significant research on the topic and get opinions from a few different people before you try to implement such an approach.

However, we might be overlooking the obvious here. If your reason for replacing your drive is that it is showing signs of imminent mechanical failure, that's one thing, but if you are just experiencing poor system performance, then there are many, many steps you can take to increase performance. I list a few that you might find helpful in this post: http://techguy.org/975413

Another relatively cheap and easy option, especially easier than replacing a hard drive, for most laptops, anyway, is to add RAM, if you have available slots. You can also increase the size of your Virtual Memory and set your system to give more resources to programs and less to Services and the System Cache, all through, Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Performance Options (settings on both the Visual Effects and Advanced tabs) (path might be a little different in Win7, use the Search function in Control Panel if you can't find some of these options).

There are many things you can do. I'm not sure the exact nature of your hard drive issue, so I won't bother listing more, but you can google "increase performance Win7" or "tweak win7", etc., and you'll get lots of info.

Hope that helps!

 

Also...many units also have the software to create disks ..useful for an HDD replacement or if the recovery partition becomes damaged or missing.
Last toshiba I did took 5,,so be sure you have plenty of disks before starting the project.
I dont have a toshiba in front of me to find the path...but with a little hunting you should be able to find it

 

And you *might* run into problems with a downloaded ISO. I'm not certain about Windows 7, but previous versions had special OEM editions and the keys weren't interchangeable. If you used the wrong disk to install (e.g. a retail disk) then you couldn't activate with the key on the PC.

IMO you're better off either using the Recovery program to burn recovery disks (which should have been the 1st thing you did after getting the computer) or using a backup program to image the hard drive after which you should be able to restore the image to the new hard drive. I'm not sure whether it'll restore already activated or not, but even if it doesn't it'll be the same version & thus compatible with the key on the computer. (My understanding is that this does *not* work if you restore the image to a different PC-but I'm not sure if this is because it doesn't restore already activated or if the activation code is tied to the hardware.)

 

The oem wont have to activate if it sees a toshiba motherboard.
Restoring an image will be the same ,,no activation needed.

W7 has imaging software included on most versions....one creates a system image and sends it too an external hardrive.

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore

Then in the left pane is create system image.

 

The potential or running into OEM issues as to the interchangeability of the W-7 product key working on a new bare drive defiantly concerns me. Your tips have been very helpful and it makes sense that I not make any “hasty” attempts that potentially won’t work - will be quite busy in the coming days- will try nonetheless to give an update when I can.

Thanks

 

I would get my recovery disks made...first and foremost.
Get another hdd....then clone it.
Install new hdd in the unit.

If the old hdd isnt reliable enough to pull it off then use the recovery disks to put the OS on the new hdd.

In all seriousness if you are having hdd issues..I would do only what i needed to do with the unit to make the disks and do a clone..The more you use the unit with the failing drive the less chance of creating the disks or doing a clone

 

Was able to make recovery disks via a500 manual (Toshiba), pg 67- OS is about 9GB, wanted to put on two thumb drives initially , didn't work - have to put it all on one apparently - had no problem installing on five DVD disks ---- next step is to install on new hd (which I've ordered from newegg) - WILL defiantly clone it first thing Brett.

Also had an interesting idea ---- Would there be any harm if I were to experiment with the old by writing over the entire drive, partitions in all, as laid out in the Tashiba500 manual, pg 71 - seems relatively simple- then again, perhaps I should just clone the new, destroy the old, be happy, end of story. Unless anybody cares to comment I'll mark this thread as solved in the next day or two.........

 

I would clone the old Hdd to the new hdd...this keeps the custom mbr etc intact so one can use the recovery partition on the new hdd.
Install the new hdd..wait a few days to make sure there are no errors etc before doing anything to the old hdd....you had indicated it had some problems,so I wouldnt trust it to much..you could try using it as an external hdd to store some files that you arent overly concerned about...stuff that is easily replaceable such as linux distro ISOs etc

 

Man Oh Man is it ever cold (-15 below or so) up-hea n Maine right now.
Anyways, thanks so much for your insightful responses resulting in successful conclusion.


Take Care,
j blu