You will need 2 things (3 probably)
1. a flash drive 8Gb minimum
2. another working computer
3. your windows 10 installation key
In my case I could not find the key, but will share 2 ways to find it. In my case the dead computer simply had a corrupted partition table/boot file (exact verdict pending.) but was readable.
1. Go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
Don't choose the options around recovery, you want a download for another machine - choose the media creation tool option. this downloads a 20Mb application , run it, and plug in your flash drive. point it to the flash drive, and it will start downloading. This bit took about 5-10 minutes. Then it starts copying the files, also takes about 10 minutes. During this time, rip the hard drive out o the dead machine and put a shiny one in, and check the bios settings are still looking sane and can see the new disc.
2. Boot the computer from the flash drive, and start installing. While this is going on, you want to rescue your data off the dead disc, I used a drive caddy, since the only problem was corruption. In the past I used to plug the bad disc right into a secondary IDE channel on my good machine. But now we are all SATA, so cabling is simpler, but still a major mission to find power. My experience of the faffing with screwing the drive in temporarily so that it does not come to more harm, so the caddy is slower, but less trouble.
Go to http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html#DownloadLinks
scroll down and download the 64bit version.
Point it at the dead disc, and viola.
Oh, a second way to get your CD key back, is to have written it down someplace, like in a document on google drive, which you forgot you had didn't you?
1. a flash drive 8Gb minimum
2. another working computer
3. your windows 10 installation key
In my case I could not find the key, but will share 2 ways to find it. In my case the dead computer simply had a corrupted partition table/boot file (exact verdict pending.) but was readable.
1. Go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
Don't choose the options around recovery, you want a download for another machine - choose the media creation tool option. this downloads a 20Mb application , run it, and plug in your flash drive. point it to the flash drive, and it will start downloading. This bit took about 5-10 minutes. Then it starts copying the files, also takes about 10 minutes. During this time, rip the hard drive out o the dead machine and put a shiny one in, and check the bios settings are still looking sane and can see the new disc.
2. Boot the computer from the flash drive, and start installing. While this is going on, you want to rescue your data off the dead disc, I used a drive caddy, since the only problem was corruption. In the past I used to plug the bad disc right into a secondary IDE channel on my good machine. But now we are all SATA, so cabling is simpler, but still a major mission to find power. My experience of the faffing with screwing the drive in temporarily so that it does not come to more harm, so the caddy is slower, but less trouble.
There are many many ways to do this, this one was fastest
3. Find your key, this is the good bit.Go to http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html#DownloadLinks
scroll down and download the 64bit version.
Run the tool as administrator.
run 3 cool math
ReplyDeleteJohnny Upgrade
bgames