OS Replacing the Hard Drive

Redgun71

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My old laptop died 18 months ago it was the hard drive, I still got everything except for the hard drive.
Could I "refurb" my old laptop if I buy a new hard drive?
Would I just have to put in the new hard drive, turn it on with the OS (Windows Vista) disc inside the drive, wait for it to boot up and then see the log on screen?
Is there anything else I will need?
 
you'll need to change boot order so that it boots from optical drive first, personally i put ditch vista for win 7
 
as above but grab a Win7 iso
 
Also recommend 7 over Vista. (Not that I've anything against Vista, just 7 tends to run quicker on the same hardware and is currently still supported.)

If you want legit, you can get genuine Win 7 key for under £20 from the likes of g2play.net. Gives you the added bonus of Win 10 should your laptop be able to run it.
 
You would need to re-install Windows again and all your software you had beforehand unless you were lucky enough to have backed up your hard drive.
 
The hard drive is dead, nothing can be recovered on it, the only back up was personal files i.e. documents, films, photos, etc...
When I purchase the HP laptop, the recovery system to create the back up disc did not work, so I phoned them up and got send one disc only, I assume it just recovers the OS and nothing else, I assumed that the disc was suppose to be used when the hard drive fails to boot up.
I have a Windows 7 upgrade disc but assume it can only be used when Vista is the current operating system.
 
IANB: not post c'ing

A: would rather go for SSD rather than HDD. I managed to swap mine (2008) and boots up in approx 25 secs. System must be freshly reinstalled but would rather go for W7 rather than V as it works better with SSD's drivers - x64 is fantastic and never had any issues with that. Like old school XP. I pressume that B-side W7 would be widely available since W10 is on market.
 
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