Help in deleting data to give laptop

[SuperDumbKid]

Hey guys im giving my HP Pavilion Notebook-15-p214dx laptop to my  new brother in law, however, I wan't to delete everything on it except for the windows. However I don't if this laptop came with any disc because I can't seem to find any. Other threads people have recovery O.S reinstallation disc but I do not. So I was wondering what I should do, thanks for your time.

[WAWood]

SuperDumbKid

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

I read your post about resettting your laptop and wanted to help.

IF this laptop came preinstalled with Win10, you should do a full reset following these instructions: HP PCs - Performing an HP System Recovery (Windows 10) | HP® Customer Support

Good Luck

[SuperDumbKid]

What if it came with windows 8, then it auto applied windows 10 months later?  Can I still use the same procedure?

[lasvegaswireman]

The HP Pavilion 15-p214dx Product Specifications indicate that your computer shipped was Windows 8.1 installed. Since the computer has been upgraded to Windows 10, the previously noted procedures no longer apply... except for using the HP Recovery Media. If you didn't create the HP Recovery Media when you first setup your computer, you can purchase is from HP at DVD - Windows 8.1 64b Recovery Kit. This media will return the computer to a factory like state.

Additionally, there is another procedure that may work... however, it involves using the Windows Disk Management console to "MARK" the HP Recovery partition as ACTIVE and then rebooting the computer. If this works, the computer will begin the recovery process. If it doesn't work, you will be left with an unusable until you mark the original ACTIVE partition as active again. This will require the use of a bootable partitioning tool.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

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[SuperDumbKid]

Thank you for the replay, I cannot do the first option and the second option sounds too complex for me. Are these really my only options?

[SuperDumbKid]

Also I see the Recovery Manager in front of me, it lets me perform a HP Recovery Environment and it ask me If I want to continue and if so click OK, so is this program completly usless now?

[lasvegaswireman]

You can try it, however I have never seen it work properly after an OS upgrade.

[SuperDumbKid]

And I assume update and security in which I see a reset this PC and then it says Restore Factory settings including my original windows 8 will not work either? I simply just don't know what to do, because I can't do any of the first two options in your suggestion.

[lasvegaswireman · Accepted solution]

Again, you can try them... however after an OS upgrade those option typically reset or restore the new OS and not the.original.

[SuperDumbKid]

Thanks for your help, appreciate it a lot. I"ll just have to buy the disc oh well, thanks though.