How to put Windows 7 on a new hard drive, and it be genuine?

[Cityscape]

So my computer currently has a 600GB hdd with Windows 7 on it. I just bought a new 240GB SSD that is now on it's way. My question is what is the best way to get genuine Windows 7 back on there? Yes, I know a lot of people would say get a cracked copy from the internet, but I honestly don't want to do that.

The copy of Windows 7 on my computer now is just the one the manufacturer preinstalled years ago. It's honestly not the cleanest well-functioning system anymore and I would greatly prefer reinstalling the OS from scratch, if that's an option. I don't know if reinstalling it and just putting this key in would work or if it would then be genuine.

What is my best bet? I actually don't know how this all works with Windows, I've never had this type of situation before.

[strollin]

Do you have the Win 7 install disk?  If so, you should be able to use it to do a clean install of Win 7 to the ssd and use the key to activate it.  Changing out the boot drive is OK, it's when you do something like change out the motherboard that you will have problems reusing the key.

[DaveLembke]

What is make/model of the computer and have you created the system recovery media set yet which most off the shelf computers come with? If you havent created this yet you should get like two 8GB Flash Drives ready or ability to burn about 4 DVD-R's with the recovery media. In your system usually under the manufacturer name in Program Files etc such as Toshiba, Dell, eMachine, HP, etc you should find a tools, utilities, or other option to create the system restore or recovery media. Some systems its a 1 time shot where you can only create the set 1 time and then your in trouble if you created it but lost the media that was created. Some warn you not to make extras of them but they allow you to do so such as my Toshiba Netbook that I lost 1 of 2 USB sticks with the recovery media, it allowed me to create a new set and just warned me that your only suppose to do this once even though it was my 2nd time running that media creation utility and the media worked to perform the 160GB  5400RPM HDD to 120GB SSD upgrade.

[Hacker007]

Do you have the Win 7 install disk?  If so, you should be able to use it to do a clean install of Win 7 to the ssd and use the key to activate it.

Should be legit.

[Cityscape]

Do you have the Win 7 install disk?  If so, you should be able to use it to do a clean install of Win 7 to the ssd and use the key to activate it.  Changing out the boot drive is OK, it's when you do something like change out the motherboard that you will have problems reusing the key.

No, I don't have the Win 7 install disk. So if I was to get a Windows 7 Home Premium disk I could do a fresh install from that, put my key in and then be able to activate it resulting in Genuine Windows?

What is make/model of the computer and have you created the system recovery media set yet which most off the shelf computers come with? If you havent created this yet you should get like two 8GB Flash Drives ready or ability to burn about 4 DVD-R's with the recovery media. In your system usually under the manufacturer name in Program Files etc such as Toshiba, Dell, eMachine, HP, etc you should find a tools, utilities, or other option to create the system restore or recovery media. Some systems its a 1 time shot where you can only create the set 1 time and then your in trouble if you created it but lost the media that was created. Some warn you not to make extras of them but they allow you to do so such as my Toshiba Netbook that I lost 1 of 2 USB sticks with the recovery media, it allowed me to create a new set and just warned me that your only suppose to do this once even though it was my 2nd time running that media creation utility and the media worked to perform the 160GB  5400RPM HDD to 120GB SSD upgrade.

It's a Toshiba L655D laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium. I don't have the recovery image from when the system was purchased (because I bought this PC from a friend) and I'm not sure how much point there is in doing it now since the system is messed up. I have a recovery partition, but I don't know if it's actually possible to reinstall Windows from that.

[patio]

Toshiba will sell you the factory restore CD;s which will take it back to Day 1 condition for a minimal price + shipping...
I suggest you contact them...