Dead hard drive - need to replace and reinstall without recovery disks

Hi all,

I think my brother has killed his hard drive on his toshiba satellite laptop. He got frustrated and hit over the touch pad and since then the computer cannot boot and shows a message of checking media and failed. I can get into bios and it is not listing a hard drive. I tried another hard drive (formatted) and bios recognises the drive so I am hoping that it is just the drive that is dead.

My real problem starts because my brother has lost his recovery disks (broken marriage - not approachable) and windows 8.0 was pre-installed. I contacted microsoft but they can't help, I don't have the product key because on this system it will be stored in the UEFI firmware. I contacted the manufacturer but they are asking £40 just to provide usb installation media which I consider ridiculous!

Is there any way that I can download the files needed so that the original windows that is already paid for can be used on this laptop?

That computer probably has an OEM Windows installation. Your best bet may be a manufacturer supplied installation media, especially since you don't have the original product key and the old hard drive is dead. That key should always be written down, and backup installation media created when a new off-the-shelf computer is purchased. Of course, manufacturers and Microsoft don't want anyone to know this or take the needed steps, since they make more money that way.

I agree that they are businesses and are only in it for the money, but I think it is totally unfair that they will charge for access to the operating system that has already been paid for. They have stopped putting product key labels onto products now and store them in the firmware, this should be accessible when trying to repair a laptop.

Question? would a rescue disk made for a different laptop work on the newly installed hard drive? I am thinking that it won't work, I am sure they have locked that door too.

Have you looked on Toshiba's web site? Dell and HP will send a dvd for the cost of shipping. ($16.00 USD)

Yes I have contacted Toshiba and they offer recovery usb for £40 + postage. I don't see why we should have to pay to get something we already paid for?

For the last many years the reset OS is built into the hard drive AND most of the time you have an option to create your own set of dvd's. Getting dvd's at the time of purchase is usually an extra expense.

Technically and legally you can borrow Toshiba dvd's from a friend as long as its the same version Home/Pro.

Thank you for the information Steve. We don't have the original disks as he had a messy break up, but it's good to know that I can start asking around friends to see if we can find a set of DVD's to try with.

Thought the link is for Dell, it will give you the way to download windows iso from the Microsoft website: http://dellwindowsreinstallationguid...l-and-oem-iso/

That option only works if he has the product key, correct? And he said above "I don't have the product key."

He will need a key to download the iso, he won't need a key to do the intallation/activation of windows, as the key will be retrieved from the bios.

To get the windows 8 key, whicih is imbedded in the bios, he needs to use RWEverything. The following link, will show how to get the key and the link to rWEverything: http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-...key-from-bios/

That's why I put my first part, sentence as a question. Thanks for the info.

You are welcome, though have included that last bit of information with my first message.

Thanks for the help and information - off to look into the RWEverything so that I have my much sought after product key :)

Excuse me if I am misinterpreting the instructions - but don't I need the operating system to be working in order to use this software? I only have access to the bios and the hard drive is dead.

Oups, yes you need a working o/s to use that software. I'll try to find you another way.

With the following link you won't need a key to create your bootable usb key to download the iso. Once you install windows 8.1, the key, which is imbedded in the bios, will be picked-up as soon as you get your network connection up and running.