SOLVED Busted hard drive. Need to buy Windows 10, or not?

[Rosenight]

Ok I converted that ISO into bootable media, and am stuck on this window. No amount of clicking anywhere produces any result, Odd how it just says Windows instead of Windows 10...

 

[Old Guy Geek]

No. Is that the only program that works to burn Windows 10?

While I understand the desire to burn a DVD with the ISO, Microsoft has pretty much abandoned that approach in favor of creating a bootable USB. They regularly update their install tool with the latest version of Windows 10. During the download and creation of the USB, they will warn you that it will be formatted. Also the program will tell you if the USB is big enough to store the installation. You can download the 34bit, 64bit or both.

Here's where to get it from:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

[Trouble]

stuck on this window. No amount of clicking anywhere produces any result

First of all, my immediate suggestion is to be patient, when installing from an optical drive, things don't always happen at light speed, and multiple clicks aren't going to make things happen any faster.
Second, I would ask, what are you using for an input device?
Maybe try plugging in a wired USB mouse to see if that changes anything and in the case of a laptop, I would expect the trackpad and click buttons to work normally, although there are multiple factors that I can't account for, like for instance the bus architecture that may require a particular driver and may not work with the native default drivers used by the installer.
All I might suggest is to try different things to move the process forward..... avoid wireless input devices and in a pinch use the tab, arrow and enter keyboard buttons.

 

[Rosenight]

I get being patient. My devices are not wireless. I can see the mouse pointer moving, just can't do anything with it. I waited about an hour...

 

[Rosenight]

Ok here's a laugh for everyone - I didn't push the harddrive in all the way! It's installing now. Thanks again.

 

[Trouble]

That was going to be my next question.....
Are you certain that when you installed the new drive that all the connections were seated firmly.
Although I am not at all sure why that would have caused your clicking problem.

 

[Tully]

My Acer Aspire desktop computer was specifically made with Windows 7 installed. I did the free upgrade to Windows 10. My hard drive then stopped spinning, so I have to get a new one. I have recovery discs for both Windows 10 and Windows 7. Am I correct to believe that neither of those will now work with a new hard drive and that I must get a new version of Windows? If so, does anyone know how much longer Windows 7 will be updating security features like Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Update? I heard a rumour that both were going to be stopped soon for Windows 7. If I have to buy a new OS I would prefer Windows 7 but if it won't be worth my money I will get Windows 10.

 

[Stevekir]

On the question of re-installing Windows 10 on a computer which has 10 already installed and which has a proper licence key, that happened to me a couple of months ago when W10 was installed (using MS Media installer) on an SSD (it was previously on the internal rotating HD). That worked without any difficulty.

However, with my previous machine which was running Windows 7, the motherboard had to be replaced and Windows 7 re-installed. I had to activate my MS Office 2013 after a day after the installation of W10. This involved visiting a MS site when I was put through the hoop of replying online to questions about some special numbers they sent me. My comp. guy said that MS will allow a computer to have up to 5 major changes to its hardware (HD, memory etc.). If they detect more they think the computer is a different one and that the reinstallation is on another person's comp. via a pirate copy. You can see their concern.

Apparently, a motherboard using W7 counts as over 5 items changed, hence the re-activation, whereas the addition of an SSD in W10 is accepted. I suspect the two versions of Windows are the same in this respect.

 

[Snuffy]

Windows 10 once accepted by MS as a genuine UPGRADE OS, it will have a Digital License.which is stored in
MS cloud, you can do everything except change MOBO. and it should still be good, License,
this means if you Windows 7 upgrade to Home then you only are authorized Win 10 Home (unless you buy a Pro or Enterprise Key. the easiset method to get a DVD is use MediaCreationTool, DL the proper version and burn to DVD or USB then insert the DVD or USB into the Old system with NEW HDD or new SSD and it will install and activate. I have done this on more than 2 Windows 7 OEM laptops and had NO ISSUE. even added a 250GB SSD to one Acer 5231 laptop.