ASUS Laptop HDD problem

[esmond300]

The HDD for my S550CM-CJ115H laptop has malfunctioned and it is unable to get boot up to the OS (only shows up in SATA connection in Bios but not in boot priority).

I've tried removing the drive and connecting to my Desktop. My Desktop OS will either, won't boot or load for a very long time when this hard drive is connected. And when I connect this HDD after the OS is loaded. It will detect and display the device name but it doesn't show the capacity. Is it a hardware failure or is the drive corrupted?

I'm planning to get a replacement drive for it and use the same license key but I'm unable to retrieve it.

From what I've learnt, the Windows license key is embedded in the motherboard and will automatically detect when I install the correct version of windows?

Is that correct?

Is there a way to know which version of Windows I'd need?

Will a generic version of Windows 8 or 8.1 ISO downloaded from Microsoft automatically detect the Windows license key during installation?

TYIA!

 

[jq75]

The HDD for my S550CM-CJ115H laptop has malfunctioned and it is unable to get boot up to the OS (only shows up in SATA connection in Bios but not in boot priority).

I've tried removing the drive and connecting to my Desktop. My Desktop OS will either, won't boot or load for a very long time when this hard drive is connected. And when I connect this HDD after the OS is loaded. It will detect and display the device name but it doesn't show the capacity. Is it a hardware failure or is the drive corrupted?

I'm planning to get a replacement drive for it and use the same license key but I'm unable to retrieve it.

From what I've learnt, the Windows license key is embedded in the motherboard and will automatically detect when I install the correct version of windows?

Is that correct?

Is there a way to know which version of Windows I'd need?

Will a generic version of Windows 8 or 8.1 ISO downloaded from Microsoft automatically detect the Windows license key during installation?

TYIA!

And when I connect this HDD after the OS is loaded. It will detect and display the device name but it doesn't show the capacity. Is it a hardware failure or is the drive corrupted?

my gut feel is HDD has physical error, can't read proper, thus u can't back up contents too

 

[esmond300]

And when I connect this HDD after the OS is loaded. It will detect and display the device name but it doesn't show the capacity. Is it a hardware failure or is the drive corrupted?

my gut feel is HDD has physical error, can't read proper, thus u can't back up contents too

That make sense. Do you have any recommendations for boot drive? I am looking at some 240GB SSD or maybe a 1 TB HDD. This laptop seems to have 24gb SSD cache. I wonder if it will be slow if I pair the 1 TB HDD with the SSD cache?

 

[esmond300]

Also, the SSD cache doesn't show up on my laptop bios. Is that normal?

 

[86technie]

Also, the SSD cache doesn't show up on my laptop bios. Is that normal?

Cache is meant for Intel Smart Response.
It can only be configured through Intel rst software.
However this feature is best use with HDD, SSD wise you don't need this.
Just download Windows 8.1 than reinstall fresh CD keys are embedded onto the motherboard.
So don't need to enter license key.

 

[esmond300]

Cache is meant for Intel Smart Response.
It can only be configured through Intel rst software.
However this feature is best use with HDD, SSD wise you don't need this.
Just download Windows 8.1 than reinstall fresh CD keys are embedded onto the motherboard.
So don't need to enter license key.

I see. Thank you for explaining Any idea if it helps with boot time if I use with HDD?

 

[narkizy]

I see. Thank you for explaining Any idea if it helps with boot time if I use with HDD?

Ssds are so cheap now that you can get a good 240gb SSD for the same price as a 1tb new HDD or even less during sales. 860 evo 500gb SSDs recently went on sale for 100 bucks, imagine cheaper brands. SSDs are abt 10-20 times faster and yes, your OS boot time will drop to abt 20secs or less

 

[esmond300]

Ssds are so cheap now that you can get a good 240gb SSD for the same price as a 1tb new HDD or even less during sales. 860 evo 500gb SSDs recently went on sale for 100 bucks, imagine cheaper brands. SSDs are abt 10-20 times faster and yes, your OS boot time will drop to abt 20secs or less

Just bought a new 240gb Crucial TLC SSD for $40. Will be receiving it in a few hours. Hope that my activation for the OS goes okay. Will update again.

 

[86technie]

I see. Thank you for explaining Any idea if it helps with boot time if I use with HDD?

In a way yes, that was the time before Hybrid SSD + HDD came about.

 

[esmond300]

In a way yes, that was the time before Hybrid SSD + HDD came about.

Interesting.

Anyway, I have reinstalled Window 8.1 on my new SSD. Like you have confirmed, it auto detects the embedded product key when I click on activation. Then, I proceed to download Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and I was able to upgrade to Windows 10 with activated digital license.

I wonder if the system would have been able to detect the embedded product key and provide a digital license if I only do a clean install Windows 10 on the new SSD on my laptop.