After exhibiting several problems over the last few months, my HP laptop finally died. Well, at least the hard disk drive went out. It won't even boot up, and performing a diagnostic test gives the result code "10008-replace hard disk drive."
Luckily, I backed up all my documents onto two external sources just before it went out. I plan to purchase another HDD tomorrow and install it. However, I'll now be without an operating system, as my computer came preloaded without a disk.
Am I going to have to buy another OS or is there some downloadable version I can get if I can prove I was the original owner? Oh, and I was running Vista. I might just go ahead and buy W7 instead. Any advice on getting back up and running?
Luckily, I backed up all my documents onto two external sources just before it went out. I plan to purchase another HDD tomorrow and install it. However, I'll now be without an operating system, as my computer came preloaded without a disk.
Am I going to have to buy another OS or is there some downloadable version I can get if I can prove I was the original owner? Oh, and I was running Vista. I might just go ahead and buy W7 instead. Any advice on getting back up and running?