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#1
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Hard drive failing in laptop
My sister has a Toshiba laptop. She is getting a message saying that
the hard is detecting problems. Is there a place on the hard drive that shows the Win 7 key? If she takes it into a shop, can they replace the hard drive where it will be able restore the OS like you can with the original hard drive? |
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#2
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Hard drive failing in laptop
On 01/12/2015 07:09 AM, Seymore4Head wrote:
My sister has a Toshiba laptop. She is getting a message saying that the hard is detecting problems. Is there a place on the hard drive that shows the Win 7 key? If she takes it into a shop, can they replace the hard drive where it will be able restore the OS like you can with the original hard drive? To find the "key" you can use this https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ If the drive has not entirely failed the best thing to do would be to stop using it and have the shop clone the old drive to a new one |
#3
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Hard drive failing in laptop
On 1/12/2015 9:08 AM, philo wrote:
On 01/12/2015 07:09 AM, Seymore4Head wrote: My sister has a Toshiba laptop. She is getting a message saying that the hard is detecting problems. Is there a place on the hard drive that shows the Win 7 key? If she takes it into a shop, can they replace the hard drive where it will be able restore the OS like you can with the original hard drive? To find the "key" you can use this https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ If the drive has not entirely failed the best thing to do would be to stop using it and have the shop clone the old drive to a new one Being that it is a laptop, have you checked the bottom of the beast or inside the drive door (hatch) for the license. Might even be time to consider replacing the drive with a SSD. No more worries about minor bumps while using it as long as they are not hard enough to break the case or screen. |
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Hard drive failing in laptop
On Mon, 12 Jan 2015 08:09:39 -0500, Seymore4Head wrote:
My sister has a Toshiba laptop. She is getting a message saying that the hard is detecting problems. Is there a place on the hard drive that shows the Win 7 key? Check on the back of the laptop. It should have a sticker. -- s|b |
#6
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Hard drive failing in laptop
Seymore4Head wrote:
My sister has a Toshiba laptop. She is getting a message saying that the hard is detecting problems. Is there a place on the hard drive that shows the Win 7 key? If she takes it into a shop, can they replace the hard drive where it will be able restore the OS like you can with the original hard drive? There are two license keys. Toshiba is an OEM. They use a bulk license key (same key) on each laptop. In Windows 7, a SLIC table in the BIOS ACPI tables passed to the OS, contains the "I'm a Toshiba" information to match the "I'm a Toshiba" OS information. That automatically activates the bulk license key. But the machine will also contain a COA sticker. My Acer has the sticker on the bottom of the machine, where it can get scratched up. Or the sticker can even be inside the battery bay. That sticker is intended for retail DVD re-installations of the OS. So if the hard drive was destroyed this very instant, and you had no copy of the Toshiba-branded OS, you could use a regular DVD installer (matching version level). The COA sticker would provide the necessary license key. The COA sticker license key value is unique per machine. If your daughter burned her recovery DVD set as instructed by the computer when it was new, then the Toshiba-branded OS is ready to be put back on a bare new hard drive. If she didn't burn the discs, then you need to clone that drive *soon*, before it is toast. If the drive dies 5 minutes from now, you can try to contact Toshiba support and get the disc set from them. Charges for disc sets range from $0 to $50 or so. If the machine is over 3 years old, no more disc sets are avaiable, then you get them off Ebay for $50. I used a Windows 7 retail disc, the COA sticker, and reinstalled a cruft-free Windows 7 OS, using that COA sticker key. I had to use the phone method for activation. So while you're provided with a COA sticker, the activation server still sees the mismatch between an OEM machine using a retail DVD. And the extra step is your "punishment" :-) Let's hope your daughter had a clue, and burned the three or four DVDs needed for this repair job. As otherwise, cloning the drive could be a hair-raising experience, depending on how sick it is. Macrium Reflect Free can clone a drive, if you need software. I would do the cloning on another computer (run SATA cables to the old laptop drive and the new laptop drive). For me, that's the easiest way to do such things. Paul |
#7
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Hard drive failing in laptop
Seymore4Head wrote:
My sister has a Toshiba laptop. She is getting a message saying that the hard is detecting problems. Is there a place on the hard drive that shows the Win 7 key? If she takes it into a shop, can they replace the hard drive where it will be able restore the OS like you can with the original hard drive? There are key finder utilities available by searching on the Internet. But....it is very important to note...that if her laptop was provided by Toshiba, her product key is either on the bottom of the laptop, inside the memory or battery or hard drive access panel, or on package information that was provided with the computer upon delivery. Using key finding software will return whatever value is in the registry. - If the machine has never been reformatted with Windows reinstalled using the Toshiba provided key (on the bottom, inside unit, etc.), the value found in the registry will not be useable....it is the key that Toshiba used to burn multiple machines and only valid for their (but not your) use. If you need to replace the hard drive and reinstall Windows you will need to find the valid product key (not necessarily the one in the registry with key finding sofware) -- ....winston msft mvp consumer apps |
#8
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Hard drive failing in laptop
On Mon, 12 Jan 2015 08:09:39 -0500, Seymore4Head
wrote: My sister has a Toshiba laptop. She is getting a message saying that the hard is detecting problems. Is there a place on the hard drive that shows the Win 7 key? If she takes it into a shop, can they replace the hard drive where it will be able restore the OS like you can with the original hard drive? Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I will pass the info on to her. |
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