Gateway NV53A eRecovery? - Replaced Hard Drive - Reinstalling Win 7

I recently was given a Gateway NV53A laptop. The screen was smashed but I got it working with an external monitor. (YES!) It didn't come with a hard drive so I slapped in one of my old ones. (Works, yes!)

Now here's my problem, I want to wipe the hard drive and start with a fresh install of Windows 7, but I didn't get any recovery discs with the laptop. I also don't have a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. It's much cheaper to buy a recovery disc from Gateway for this laptop but I'm wondering if I'm going to have problems because I don't have the original HD in there. Suggestions?

 

The replacement hard drive shouldn't be a problem. My concern is whether the recovery disc will give you a full Windows 7 install. There's also the matter of device drivers. Are you able to get them from the Gateway support site?

 

It would be alot easier just to reinstall Windows 7. It will cost more
but so much easier. I have and older Gateway laptop (M305) sieres
and the recovery disc did not help me. I had to manualy reinstall
drivers for sound, vidio, usb, mouse and the DVD drive.
Reinstalling Windows 7 is your best bet.

 

Well I own an eMachine and two Acers which are owned by the same company as Gateway. In addition to the recovery disks, my computers under Recovery Management, also allowed me to burn the App and Drivers disk, which I did. With the recovery disk and the App and Drivers, you do not need to manually install anything.

That's on my 4 year old desktop; the other two netbooks are newer.

 

Since it's not the original HD, you can obtain W7 .iso files from Digital River, and yes it's legal.

Here is the link for Home Premium, specs say 64-bit:

http://msft-dnl.digitalriverconte...-65733.iso


Download and save the file to your hard drive. You will need freeware such as ImgBurn and a DVD to burn the .iso to disc, and get rolling. You should also download all the drivers you will need to a USB stick before you do, especially the Ethernet/WiFi adapters.