Help with new hard disk, before it's too late, please!

[SylviaJoe]

My laptop has been reporting SMART events about my hard drives. First, my 2nd hard drive reported a SMART error, so I contacted HP and received a new hard drive to replace it. Now my 1st hard drive is reporting a SMART error. I contacted HP again, and they sent me a new hard drive . . .but (like the last hard drive) I am required to send them my old hard drive back, as collateral. I've already tried installing my new hard drive, but when I start my laptop, it tells me "Operating System not found", and I'm not sure what to do about it.

I thought that I could transfer my OS from the old hard drive to the new hard drive, but now I'm not so sure. I do not have a Windows Vista Installation disk, so I'm not sure of how I am supposed to get my OS onto the new hard drive.

I NEED HELP BEFORE I HAVE TO SEND MY OLD HARD DRIVE BACK!

Please, if you have any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate them!

 

[Brink]

Hello SylviaJoe, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Since it was HP that replaced the drive for you, check using the link below starting at the Restore the PC to its original condition with the HP Recovery Manager if Windows Vista is not accessible section to see if you may be able to do a factory recovery of Vista from a recovery partition.

HP Notebook PCs -  Using HP Backup and Recovery Manager 

If not, then you will need to recontact HP about replacing your copy of Vista for you for free since they should have with the new hard drive.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[ghost]

My laptop has been reporting SMART events about my hard drives. First, my 2nd hard drive reported a SMART error, so I contacted HP and received a new hard drive to replace it. Now my 1st hard drive is reporting a SMART error. I contacted HP again, and they sent me a new hard drive . . .but (like the last hard drive) I am required to send them my old hard drive back, as collateral. I've already tried installing my new hard drive, but when I start my laptop, it tells me "Operating System not found", and I'm not sure what to do about it.

I thought that I could transfer my OS from the old hard drive to the new hard drive, but now I'm not so sure. I do not have a Windows Vista Installation disk, so I'm not sure of how I am supposed to get my OS onto the new hard drive.

I NEED HELP BEFORE I HAVE TO SEND MY OLD HARD DRIVE BACK!

Please, if you have any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate them!

An easy way to transfer your current hard drive to your new drive would be to use Acronis True Image or Paragon Drive Backup, however you would need to be able to connect both drives to the laptop at the same time.