Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here goes. I have been given a 'dead' asus laptop (HDD failure) that i would like to repair/refurbish by replacing the HDD. I feel confident enough to do this and see it as a cheaper way of getting a laptop than buying a new one. Replacing the hardware seem easy enough and poses no fears for me - i have in fact already had the machine open and removed the old drive. What i am concerned and need advice/help on is what happens once i have installed a new HDD, How do i go about installing an operating system and basicaly getting the new HDD talking to the rest of the machine? I have A set of windows vista and 7 recovery DISKS which i am told should install windows onto a new HDD as well as reinstalling onto the old one. I am also thinking of using this opportunity to ditch windows and try a LINUX based OS. I have install discs for several of these.

The other problem i have is that i am not sure if the optical drive on themachine is working properly so may have to load the OS using a USB connection (flash drive or external HDD). How would i install windows using this method? (LINUX OSs no problem).

Can anyone help or advise me with this. Phlease ask if you need more info. ThanksDoes the laptop have a valid Windows key?  If so, you can GRAB the official ISO from here.  This is better than using the Windows restore disk as it's a clean installation, no added rubbish, and it won't rely on anything else (some restore disks still rely on a recovery partition on the HDD which of course will be missing).  You can then burn this to a disk to install, or put it on a USB drive as linked below.
To create a USB drive which you can boot and install Windows 7 from, you can follow this guide - there's a link at the bottom for an alternative method which is easier, and uses the ISO file which you can download from my earlier link.

All you should need to do is boot from the install media, whether that's DVD or USB, and install the OS - it's as easy as that, no other setup should be required. 

If you install more than one OS, you will need to install the oldest first - so if you install Vista and Windows 7, install Vista first, and partition the hard drive appropriately before beginning, then install Windows 7 afterwards.  I'm not overly familiar with Linux as it's been a while since I've installed or used any distributions, but I believe Linux should be installed afterwards as its bootloader can handle Windows as well as Linux, whereas the Windows bootloader only handles Windows.Begin
Let me make a general observation. At one time I felt very confident about repairing computers myself. However, when it came to laptops, I was not as successful. There are so many variations and laptop design that it's quite easy to make a mistake and damage something. However, replacing the hard drive in the laptop is not a major chore.
Based on my own experience, this is what I generally recommend for anybody that wants to work on a dead laptop.
First of all find out what the computer is worth and replacement parts and make a judgment. You may also find a perfectly good used computer of the same make and model with a warranty that sells for LESS than the cost of the parts. Do the math. Let me say that again, do the math. In my opinion you could buy a used or refurbished laptop from a vendor that will offer you at least a 90 day warranty on the computer. If it doesn't break in 90 days, it probably would last even a year. The computer you have probably has some value as parts. You may find a buyer this willing to buy your computer and pay you for the parts. That will offset your cost of buying a used refurbished computer. I am estimating that you end up saving more money by buying the refurbished computer and then selling the parts of the old computer.
 My reasoning for this is us as follows: the people who do refurbishing do it in such a large scale that they have the advantages that you and I don't have. They have access to equipment, they have access to suppliers, and they have on hand trained technicians that have already done this before. They can refurbish the computer and sell it for profit for less than what you can. In my humble opinion.
I have purchased refurbished computers on eBay and all of the computers I have bought over eBay did work and were as described by the vendor. Now some of the other things I have bought on eBay were not always that well represented, but the ones that sell refurbished computers usually are straight dealers and they will not sell you junk.
So that is my recommendation. Go find the same make and model on eBay, locate a vendor with a reputation, and buy from him. Then try to sell the parts you have. There are some people that will buy the parts off of eBay thinking that they can repair a computer themselves. People who are just as confident as you are. But you have an advantage, you consulted with other people and got their opinion and you know better now.
Note to moderator: I did this on speech recognition, and if there are some really bad mistakes, please correct the mistakes.
 Microphone off.
Thanks.

To 'Geek-9pm'. Your post confuses me. if replacing the HDD and installing windows is as straightforward as Calum says in his post, why would i need to go through all the business of sourcing a 2nd hand laptop and then selling my current one for parts? While i appreciate the help it does sound a lot more time consuming and potentialy costly than just repairing my current machine. At the end of the day if really got suck with repairing my machine i could always take it to a repair shop and let an EXPERT take a look at itIf I were you I would ignore the bulk of it...replacing the HDD and installing the operating system is very straightforward.  Perhaps if you were proposing to replace the motherboard, LCD, inverter and other parts, I might agree - as it stands, just go ahead with your original plan because it makes perfect sense. Quote from: Calum on June 26, 2013, 05:53:45 AM

If I were you I would ignore the bulk of it...replacing the HDD and installing the operating system is very straightforward.  Perhaps if you were proposing to replace the motherboard, LCD, inverter and other parts, I might agree - as it stands, just go ahead with your original plan because it makes perfect sense.

Set up a USB stick with the Windows 7 ISO and put it into the machine (HDD removed) and switched on. Went straight into windows based setup/installer screens rather than DOS based setup screens. Not sure if this was because no HDD was installed and it will revert to DOS when the new drive is put in or whether this means reinstalling windows on a new HDD will be even easier than expected. I am hoping the latter is the case!!

Looked into SSDs and while i like the idea, was put off by cost per GB. Would have only got 32GB for the same price as i paid for 500GB with a conventional HDD. Might try one as a secondary drive sometime though. For now i want the storage space.

Feeling frustrated. New HDD not expected to be delivered until 28th July. Expected it sooner. Want to get on with things.