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[#1]

Planning Win7 upgrade onto new HDD

Last time I replaced hard drive in Toshiba laptop (SatPro 6100 I think) I had to pay to have it (Toshiba brand HDD) tatoo'd for my machine before orig Win dist disk from Toshiba would install

Currently have Sat L305-S5911

Not planning to use orig Toshiba Win dist disk this time, which should make a difference

Have not been able to find much info about what's needed to ID the HDD for Toshiba use.

Will I be able to just install Win7 (maybe FDisk 1st) ?

I know 1st step includes Toshiba install mgr for Win7, which assumes I can already boot laptop (need to re-read that detail before starting)

[#2]

Satellite L305-S5911 

Most any laptop SATA drive will work just fine.

If you wish to install from a retail W7 DVD, there's no need to do anything special prior to installation. Simply choose Custom Installation and follow the directions. You will have an opportunity to partition and format during installation. Then you will need to install the Toshiba drivers and utilities for Windows 7 from this site.

Possibly a better approach is to restore the hard drive to it's original 64-bit Vista Home Premium and upgrade to a 64-bit version of Windows 7 using Toshiba's assistance. You will probably want the Upgrade Assistant for that.

   Toshiba Upgrade Assistant for Windows 7