First of all let’s make it clear that my computer knowledge is practically zero, I can use a computer to search the web dnd that’s about it!
I have an Acer E5-571 series laptop which was dropped and now I suspect the hard drive is borked, upon loading all I got was preparing automatic repair which hasn’t worked,and now when I start up all I get is no bootable device.
After a quick scan of the net I’ve done the hard reset by holding the power button 3 times, and reset the bios to
default.
Nothing now longer seems to work so I’m assuming new hard drive time.

Pretty much aware I’ll lose everything on there as not backed up (doh!!) but photos I should be able to save from
google and the cloud.
Question is, am I capable of swapping the hard drive myself? I’ve already opened it up and taken the hard drive out and replugged the ribbons back in just in case it was that, so the mechanical side of it shouldn’t be a problem it’ll be the software side of it
where I’ll fall down, I’m assuming it’s going to be a bit more than swapping the hard drive and turning it back on.(I
wish!)
How would I go about reinstalling windows? And which hard drive do I even buy? The current one was a 1TB WD blue
2.5” sata if that helps. T.i.A and don’t get too technical with me! ;-))

The easiest thing to do if you have access to another pc is to download the windows 10 installation files onto a usb stick. Plug it in, power up the laptop and then follow the instructions. It should do that automatically if it cant find an OS on the hardrive it works thorough the usb and dvd drives in sequence. If not you may need to go into the bios and set it up to boot from usb.

Do you need 1tb? A small ssd will be a lot faster to boot up. Ive got a stack of 120gb drives i recovered from some old business laptops if you want one for a charity donation. Use that as the internal drive for documents and stuff youre working on, and get a 1tb rugged esternal drive for photos etc, or just use onedrive, dropbox, icloud etc.

Missing details:
The windows files are free tondownload off the microsoft site.

You’ll need an activation key, which are often sold on ebay for about £1.20 (something to do with OEM licences and dubious legalities, but it works).

Thanks for the reply. Ok, so this is where my lack of knowledge on tech comes into play.
I would have discounted a 120gb drive straight away as too small,not powerful enough, obviously this is not the case?
Tbh though, I think I still prefer the idea of an ‘all in one’ solution where I don’t have to start plugging in external hard drives.
I’ve had a look on Ebay at the ssd drives would these just slot in as a replacement then I proceed as above?
I’ve never been truly happy with the computer anyway, so the fix will be so it can get given to the kids as homework/school computer with maybe a few games thrown in.
I’ll then wait for Black Friday to see what pops up in the sales.

Depends how much stuff you want to store on the laptop itself. I have a 120gb drive in my laptop which is plenty for the OS, software, document’s, and anything I want to hand. And just store everything else on a cloud drive. 120gb is about 50,000 copies of the bible, so no danger of running out of space for homework type stuff.

As you’ve just found, having all your eggs in one mobile, dropable basket is a really bad idea!

The big advantage of an SSD is speed and reliability as theres no moving parts so even my ancient laptop boots up in a few seconds and if you drop it then unless the drive is actually destroyed it will still work.

You’ll need an activation key,

You will NOT need an activation key if your machine was running Windows 7 or later. You can download the Win10 installation files from Microsoft and make a bootable USB stick (or a DVD, but a USB stick is much simpler). It must be bootable, just copying the files to it will not work. Then, boot the machine with the USB stick inserted and it should initiate the installation process.

Yes, but once its booted it then asks for a key. Or at least the last couple I did have asked for it and puts a watermark on the desktop untill you input one. TBH I didnt try too hard to get past it, for £1.20 I just put a new key in.

Go to Scan, get the biggest Samsung Evo SSD you can afford. Unless you’ve got a shedload of data, 250GB will be more than ample. It’ll be a different machine.

Yes, but once its booted it then asks for a key.

If you’re coming from a previous W10 then it shouldn’t unless you’ve swapped the motherboard.

From W7 it’ll ask for a key, but you can use the W7 OEM key.

Cougar has it – don’t but a cheap SSD, just buy a Samsung EVO and beware of eBay fakes.

If you’re coming from a previous W10 then it shouldn’t unless you’ve swapped the motherboard.

One was my laptop (which got the free w10 upgrade ages ago but needed a new hdd). The other was zotac mini pc i was setting up run sufferfest on a tv in the conservatory, think it had w7 previously. Must be something Im doing wrong.

Thanks all. I’ll get a new ssd drive ordered, and as I was running Windows 10 previously, installation sounds straight forward enough even for me, I hope!
Look out for my next thread, Help I can’t install windows! 😆

Media creation tool and a USB pendrive. Hither and thus.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

beware of eBay fakes.

Precisely why I suggested Scan (other reputable dealers are available). It’s fairly trivial to take say a 120GB solid state storage device, hack the firmware and write “1TB” on the box. Which will all work hunky-dory until you write 121GB to it, at which point you’re going to have a bad day.