Laptop hard disk fail

saleda

Hi, hope you can help me. Daughter's Dell Inspiron 3520 hard drive has failed. I am happy to buy a new drive and install myself. However, we didn't make a recovery disk. I contacted Dell today and they told me that I have to buy a recovery disk from them for nearly €60. My son has the exact same laptop. Is it possible to make a recovery disk using his laptop? Or is there anywhere online I can download another copy of Windows 8 and reinstall on daughter's laptop? Where would I find the original product Key?

Sorry lots of questions, hope you can help, would be much appreciated.

advertsfox

Yes, you can use a Microsoft Download Tool that prompts for your current license key and will download the appropriate ISO and copy to a USB / DVD.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=271128

saleda

Thanks for your reply. Where can I find my current license key?

bonzodog2

Usually on a sticker on the underside of laptop or under the battery. If your disk isn't totally wrecked you may be able to use https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

saleda

Nope, not in any of those places. The guy in Dell tells me it is contained within the BIOS so that when you insert a Dell recovery disk it reads it from the BIOS. Which brings me back to my first question... is it possible to make my own recovery disk using my son's laptop which is the exact same model etc.?

ZENER

Have a look here to see how to reinstall without the COA. The Key is embedded into the UEFI of the machine and is read directly by the installer during installation.

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com

Ken