No, I'm running 64 bit.

Thank you :) Sorry, I didn't mean to press, I thought you may have known of and been referring to a specific possibility.

Just as an aside, it was in this panel that Windows said the partition was...

In what way *could* it cause issues?
I'm guessing it would be recommended to have some kind of restoration partition?

It was a brand new drive, so there shouldn't have been anything on it. According to the "computer management tool" in admin settings, that un-allocated partition was the only other one.

Here's...

Ok I'll get that picture later today.

If it was something windows did, should it have been an actual volume and not an unallocated space?

Oops.

I was pretty sure that partition was made when the first attempt at installing windows screwed up. It wasn't allocated, or even a volume, and my main partition details in Computer Management...

I believe I may have just got it to work using a mini partition program.

I'm not sure if hard drives *need* some kind of minor offset? I managed to get rid of the entire thing it seems.

I had...

If I make the unallocated space (501mb) a volume, I can shrink it, but only by ~ 280 mb. Presumably I could add that to my main.... is there some way to get rid of the whole thing?
I can start over...

Ok, so I didn't insert a key, but according to the system page in the control panel "Windows is activated" but it's not a standard key, but some "product id" ?

Second, and a new issue - if someone...

To respond to this more directly; I wasn't able to get it with ShowKey, it said that there was no OEM in the firmware in the backup - I also tried running the executable from the bad drive, with the...

I'll probably get a drive today and try it out. I'll report back!

The result said it was win 10, if that's what you mean. I called MS and asked if they could verify my key, they said there was an error, but the language barrier was brutal.

Also, I can burn the tech bench iso to a disk and boot into the new HD and install windows that way?


Edit: I got the product key! (or a product key, not sure if it's guaranteed to be accurate...)

Huh... how does it know if the drive that had windows on it is gone though?

Ive already tried the builder unsuccessfully - I never considered that the key may be salvageable...

I had one - apparently the place that built the PC didn't put the sticker on, so I'm out windows as well. :(

Ok, thanks all.

At the moment I'll need to by a HD and windows again, so the whole thing is probably being packed away for now. I am copying stuff through a rescue media to the HD that has no OS...

Here is an imgur album to show what I mean, perhaps these are the error codes?

You can see I have no fix option - however, it didn't exist when I scanned my other hd, which is a Seagate, either....

Ya, that fix menu doesn't exist for me. I just have basic, advanced, etc...

I also saw no way to fix or repair after, it just gave me a window with all those numbers (the error codes?) and that it...

That's why I assumed- apparently WD no longer has an iso available, unfortunately.

It seemed to just say that the long test failed, at the end of yeh test. There were many strings of numbers (I...

I'm finding some people online say you can use seatools for WD harddrives... so now I don't know anymore.

Is there another reason that I wouldn't have any of fix options show up?

Does my drive have to be a Seagate? Maybe that's why I don't have the Fix menu

Edit: dumb question.

It says "test result failed".
There was some dialogue box that mentioned repairing stuff, but I don't see that functionality anywhere.

Thanks novhak!

Short test completed in main drive. Started long.

This link - in Option 2 - is telling me to accept and download something in the "SeaTools for DOS | Seagate" link, I'm not seeing an iso download link on that page though :sarc: