New hdd in windows 8 laptop with bios based key

[Brent_G]

Alright so I have a newer HP laptop with windows 8 and the hdd just died without warning. Right now I can't get into windows and when I try to do anything in the recovery menu it says the drive is locked. I have chkdsk running via command prompt trying to correct any errors and unlock the drive.

I have another drive I would like to use however it is smaller than the current one. My questions are the below:

If I do get back into windows, can I just shrink the main partition, copy the image onto an external hdd, and install it onto the new one?

If that doesn't work I can use a windows 8 usb drive and install a fresh copy on the new drive, but will it recognize the key from the bios?

My goal is to retain the factory image and recovery partition on the new drive. If that isn't possible at least have the new install working fine with the factory key and I can recover the files they need another way.

Thoughts? Ideas?

 

[PandaBear]

Yes, you can shrink the main partition. Most HD companies have software you can download to migrate old to new drives. These software will work as long as you have at least one of their brands' drive in your system. I do these kind of migration all the time, and most of these software are based on Acronis' and feature removed to make it "free" to you.

 

[Brent_G]

No problem with the serial key for windows?

 

[dparm]

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windo...d0851bc6?auth=1

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted By: Brent_G
No problem with the serial key for windows?
I just did a clean install of Win8 and everything went fine. You have to find the software through "other" sources since M$ no longer will let you download it for some reason to use with your valid key.

 

[Rand]

did you make a recovery usb or dvd set
when you got the laptop?

trying to backup a whole partition off a damaged harddrive may result in data loss or corruption.

also the recovery data is on your damaged hdd.

 

[Brent_G]

Originally Posted By: Rand
did you make a recovery usb or dvd set
when you got the laptop?

trying to backup a whole partition off a damaged harddrive may result in data loss or corruption.

also the recovery data is on your damaged hdd.


The laptop is actually a coworkers and unfortunately they did not make a backup of anything.

 

[Rand]

have them order the recovery set from HP.
=fixed.