Replacing a faulty HDD for a downed system (and possibly reinstalling the OS)

[Windows 10]

This is a continuation of my prior thread (which I've admittedly let languish for too long). Summary to this point is, that system (W10) has apparent hardware failures in the HDD (persisting through CHKDSK, and DISM errors out) which precludes W10 from starting. I can still access the HDD if booting from a separate USB drive (i.e. WinRE), and am not aware of anything on the drive (personal files, etc) that I have not at some point made a backup of.I've been using an alternative system in the meantime, but it has its own issues (fan noise at low temps, 4GB RAM bottlenecking performance, and d

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