"the hard drive of this computer is smaller than the original shipped hard drive" [ Edited ]

[Bathplug1]

Computer Model: p7-1058uk Hi I'm trying to reinstall my windows 7 recovery kit that I bought from best2serve my OCZ Agility 3 60gb ssd. But I get this error message "the hard drive of this computer is smaller than the original shipped hard drive. The recovery process cannot continue" I have actually successfully installed this recovery kit on this same drive before when I first bought it. Any ideas as to why its not working now? I've formatted the ssd, deleted the partition and created a new one with a program called gparted. I can't access my computer until I can reinstall this recovery kit again. Thanks

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I am surprised that recovery disk set even worked the first time.  Unfortunately the error you are getting is the norm. I know of no solutions other than to get a bigger hard drive of the approximate size as the original.

I have a workaround for you if you want to use it...

If you can read the 25 character Windows 7 product key on the Microsoft COA sticker on your PC, you can download plain Windows 7 ISO files to burn to DVD's for the version of windows (Pro, Home) that came installed on your PC, and that is listed on the Microsoft COA sticker on the PC.

You must also select the language of the installation that came with your PC, or the product key won't work.

Burn the ISO using the Burn ISO option on your DVD burning program, and burn at the slowest possible speed your program will allow.

Use the 25 character product key to activate the installation. It is good for either the 32 or 64 bit version of W7.

Then go to the support and driver page for your PC to install the drivers you need.

Link to the W7 ISO file downloads is below.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/

Paul

[Kuerten1]

Hi. I'm just wondering on what may have caused this issue?

I agree ISOs are very handy these days. 

[Bathplug1]

Thanks Paul. I'm going to try the iso now and get back to you. Would this be the correct driver page? http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=5136802&...

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're welcome.

I think this may be a better support page for you.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?product=5136801&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=228&query=p7-1058uk...=

Paul

[ComputerKurt]

I ran into the same problem with a 120GB hard drive.  Why do they make this so phreaking hard to move the OS from the hard drive to a SSD?  Unbelievable.  I like your suggestion as that will be easier than cleaning all the HP bloatware of the box...thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I don't understand it either.

They should make a recovery disk set to work on any size hard drive bigger than the OS + programs on the PC's hard drive, which means that more than likely, any disk over 20 GB should be able to use a set of recovery disks.

The recovery partition on my HP 8200 Elite CMT was less than 10 GB.

But...it is what it is.

...and yes, the plain W7 installs will make your PC run much faster, when you custom install only what you want.

[JeffSaidSo]

So, I fixed this today and thought I'd sahre how. Like you I was trying to put an SSD drive into an HP computer that previously had a much larger HDD. I found it so annoying that HP doesn't at least try to install the recovery software onto a smaller disk - especially when the disk is plenty big enough to work. Anyway, -1 for HP.

My solution...I used the recovery disk to re-install Windows onto the HDD that came with the computer. Next, I used windows disk manager to remove the HP Recovery partition because I could not afford to lose that space on the SSD. I then used two free tools, but likely just one was needed (mini-tool). I used this free partition tool called EaseUS partition Master Home Edition (http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm) to make the OS partition much smaller so it did not take up the whole drive (and I then had a lot of unnused space on the drive). I don't think I had to do use that tool to make this work though. EaseUS also makes a disk copy tool, but it did not work for me so don't waste your time.

I then installed the SSD as a secondary drive and made sure it had no partitions. I then used mini-tool drive copy (http://www.minitool-drivecopy.com/) to clone the HDD to the SSD. I used all the default options. When the cloning was complete, I removed the HDD and made the SSD SATA 0 (used the cable attached to SATA 0 on the motherboard). 

That's it - it booted up and worked perfectly. 

Good luck!