CFC Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 I just fitted a new hard drive in a dell machine. It had Windows 7 installed on it before. I was expecting to have to use the CD'S to install Win 7 on the new hard drive but it was installed on it automatically after I followed the prompts. Can someone explain how this is possible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KittenKong Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 It isnt possible, unless your hard drive was not new. Or did you perhaps have some bootable disk or USB key in place? What exactly did the prompts say? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicog Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 Are you sure it doesn't have a hard drive and an SSD containing the OS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFC Posted October 20, 2016 Author Share Posted October 20, 2016 2 hours ago, KittenKong said: It isnt possible, unless your hard drive was not new. Or did you perhaps have some bootable disk or USB key in place? What exactly did the prompts say? I cant remember exactly what the prompts were as I did it 2 weeks ago but it definitely loaded Win 7 on the new hard drive without any CD'S or data stcks being inserted into the machine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFC Posted October 20, 2016 Author Share Posted October 20, 2016 2 hours ago, Chicog said: Are you sure it doesn't have a hard drive and an SSD containing the OS? I will look into this later on today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianinbangkok Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 What model is the Dell ? Looks like it has a small SSD for the OS in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFC Posted October 21, 2016 Author Share Posted October 21, 2016 20 hours ago, Chicog said: Are you sure it doesn't have a hard drive and an SSD containing the OS? I have looked for the SSD but cant find it, if its got one how would I find it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFC Posted October 21, 2016 Author Share Posted October 21, 2016 17 hours ago, brianinbangkok said: What model is the Dell ? Looks like it has a small SSD for the OS in it. Dell Precision T3500 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianinbangkok Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Dell Precision T3500Thats a desktop tower.Should be easy enough to spot a small ssd drive.Make few photo's of the inside and lets see if we can spot it :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KittenKong Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Apparently some models of that series have sockets for M.2 drives. These are attached directly to the motherboard and dont look like normal SATA SSDs. If you have an M.2 drive attached this amounts to having a bootable disk or key, and it could contain your operating system. If your machine is like that then adding a new hard drive would not normally involve reinstalling Windows at all, but there might be prompts relating to the creation of a new user if the default user location was on the second (new) drive. It's also possible that if this machine has an M.2 drive it could contain a restore partition which was launched when the new drive was fitted and which then automatically restored Win 7 to that second drive. That would be an unusual way to use an M.2 drive though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeHere Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 probably some kind of recovery hard drive image in a hidden system partition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianinbangkok Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 probably some kind of recovery hard drive image in a hidden system partitionOP replaced the hard drive with a new empty drive.Previous post about a tiny M2 drive seems likely and indeed that could hold the hidden system recovery partition that you mention.So again look inside and see if you can find the small ssd or indeed the M2 drive.A M2 drive with the OS on it would explain what OP said and would make system faster then OS in the conventional drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gk10002000 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 defaulted to the internet and loaded the OS from there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianinbangkok Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 defaulted to the internet and loaded the OS from there?Doubt it , but that would be cool :)It's possible on business networks however if server is setup for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinisaan Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Are you sure that the hard drive was empty when you did the change? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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