How to reinstall windows 8?

[grahamg8]

My 2yr old laptops hard drive has died, I intend to replace the hdd with the same make and model.
My laptop came preinstalled with win8 I just had to do the setup, I therefore want to put win8 on the new hdd.
Where do I find my license number and as my laptop didnt come with a disc is there a way to create/download one?

Thanks in advance.

 

[COLGeek]

The product key info is stored in your BIOS. You should be able to go to either your OEM or directly to MS to get the needed install media and then re-install the OS. Windows will pick up the product key info for entry during the install process.

See here: http/windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

 

[photonboy]

http/www.cnet.com/news/windows-8-moves-to-bios-based-product-keys/

So the first comment is correct.

Basically burn a disc as per instructions and install using the key in your BIOS.

Other:
1) There's no requirement for the SAME make and model. Get whatever is cheapest and reasonable quality. I suggest using PCPARTPICKER to help.

*Some laptops use 7mm drives (height) and won't work with 9.5mm drives. You can use a 7mm drive if the bay supports 9.5mm but make sure you have the 2mm spacer but I would recommend just buying a 9.5mm drive in that case.

2) BACKUP your C-drive at some point to a USB hard drive if possible. I like Acronis True Image. If you'd done that you could have used the most recent copy and simply RESTORED it to the new drive.

3) Recommended drives (USA links):
750GB HDD: http/pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd7500bpvx
1TB HDD: http/pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10jpvx

1TB SSHD (hybrid): http/pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000lm014

The HYBRID drive will help a bit with bootup time and make Windows slightly snappier. It's also a bit more expensive. It contains only a small amount of SSD so it automatically copies bootup and frequently used files/programs to the SSD portion to make things snappier where it makes the most sense.

Note that the Hybrid benefits on a LEARNING curve so you need several bootups or start/close of applications for it to learn which files to move over to the SSD flash memory.

 

[grahamg8]

The product key info is stored in your BIOS. You should be able to go to either your OEM or directly to MS to get the needed install media and then re-install the OS. Windows will pick up the product key info for entry during the install process.

See here: http/windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

Thanks for the link, i'll create a usb boot drive once ive bought a new hdd.
Ive found where in the bios to change boot to usb so hopefully it should be straight forward.
Thanks again.