A family member's xps 8700 HDD lost its brain and sadly, they attempted a restore on their own before asking for help and wiped the original image.
I have ordered a new drive, and it should arrive in a day or so, but I've read a bunch of horror stories restoring win 8.1 OEM images.
They did not make restore disks, however I have access to identical hardware and the system restore discs I made a year or so ago for that system, I have a running system with nearly identical hardware except for a different GPU and HDD, and I have a full Win 81 pro installer ISO from another system I built.
Question:
What is the easiest path to installing Win 8.1 on this 8700 with a new HDD?
Is it using the system restore disc's I created from my system?
Or can I simply install the Win 8.1 and have the product key simply detected from the BIOS? I have the driver's and utilities CDs and know where to get drivers from Dell if I need them.
Replacement drive arrives Monday so I'll likely try the second option if I don't get any other advice.
Thx
Dan