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Installing replacement hard drive Samsung

pen-y-jen
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Posted March 8, 2013 at 9:19PM

I broke my internal hard drive (non SSD) by dropping my laptop - confirmed by PC shop who want to charge £150 to replace it.

I'm happy with how to physically replace the hard drive (screws etc) but the hard drives I've seen online do not have an OS on.

Will I be able to fit the drive, partition and format, THEN install windows? All the forums I've seen talk about partitioning and formatting via windows but I won't have windows installed on it when I buy it.

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pen-y-jen

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Posted March 8, 2013 at 9:19PM

.

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lotvic

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Posted March 8, 2013 at 9:45PM

So you didn't burn your recovery dvd's I guess. Tell us the Make and Model of the laptop as there may be an easy way to put it right/install op sys.

What Op Sys did you have on laptop? There will be a sticker on the bottom of laptop or sometimes it is inside underneath the battery (take battery out to see it) this will have your Windows 25 alphanumeric Product key on it (5 groups of 5 letters and numbers with a - inbetween. With this product key you can install the Windows op sys that the key is for. (Do not post your product key on here) You will need to borrow a dvd from a friend or if it is W7 you can download an .iso file from Official Microsoft link on ClickHere and burn your own dvd. And you can go to the Manufacturers website to download the drivers you will need to install after you've done the op sys.

First let's make sure the laptop is working okay without the hard drive.

What are the symptoms that makes you and the shop say it is the hard drive broken? What happens when you switch on and boot up?

If you take the hard drive out and then switch on and boot up do you get to the screen where it says it can't find a bootable drive? (to switch off you just hold in the power button for 5-10 secs until it powers down)

You can follow the screenshot guides to installing op sys on http://www.windowsreinstall.com/ have a good look at them and you'll feel more confident about doing it, it's not as hard as you might think :)

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pen-y-jen

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Posted March 8, 2013 at 10:33PM

HI, thanks!

Samsung NC110 The product key is on the bottom of the laptop so no problems there.

I dropped it one too many times, it was a cheap non SSD drive. It fails to boot completely, can't even boot from external drive. I can't remember what PC shop said exactly but they said a new HD would solve the problem (they even said that when I told them I was going to do it myself and not pay them!).

Followed your instructions - boots as stated above without hard drive. So if I fit the new one then boot from Windows externally via USB then partition I should be on the right track.......?

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lotvic

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Posted March 8, 2013 at 11:44PM

Is product key for W7 Starter? This is important to know as you will need to alter the W7.iso file before you can install it. Instructions on answers.microsoft.com from Andre, Community Moderator

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lotvic

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Posted March 9, 2013 at 12:03AM

Tell us what the op sys is. XP or W7 Starter?

After you've installed the op sys - For any Drivers you need for your hardware (look in Device Manager for yellow triangles) you can download them from Samsung support

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pen-y-jen

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Posted March 9, 2013 at 10:13AM

W7 starter

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lotvic

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Posted March 9, 2013 at 11:00AM

When you bought the Samsung N110 didn't you get a Recovery DVD with it? Like this one on ebay that would make installing on new harddrive easiest.

Also I note you said it had a SDD drive, but on Samsung site it says that netbook laptops use a standard 2.5” SATA hard drive, so look carefully at what you have.

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