Recovery Media for DeskPro 400

[T_Wayne]

I'm attempting to restore the O.S. on a ProDesk 400 I purchased at an equipment auction. The hard drive had been removed. When I attempt to register or recover the product, the product ID returns a null results. However, I can find the original configuration by product ID and serial number. Please advise at your earliest convenience. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

What is the product number of the Prodesk 400 you have?

[T_Wayne]

E3U17UT#ABA

[Paul_Tikkanen]

The HP ProDesk 400 G1 Small Form Factor PC is too old to have been supported by any online HP recovery media downloads.

What I suggest you do is to enter the PC's serial number at the link below and see if the version of Windows the PC came with is listed.

HP PartSurfer

According to the specs for the model series, the PC could have come with any of the operating systems listed.

HP ProDesk 400 G1 Small Form Factor Business PC Specifications | HP® Support

There is a possibility that since the PC is from around 2013, that the previous owner had taken the free upgrade to W10 when it was available.

If you can find out what version of Windows the PC (W8.1 Pro/W8.1 standard, for example). came with from the serial number in the part surfer website, let me know what version of Windows came with the PC.

[T_Wayne]

It has a Windows 8 Pro sticker on it. I may just purchase a Windows 10 Home installation for it. 

[T_Wayne]

The PartSurfer site indicates this PC was available with Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8.1 Pro. I've printed the specs but not vetted it for Windows 10 yet. Do you think it would perform relatively well with Windows 10?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

The PC is fully supported by HP for W10.

Here's what I suggest you do...

Make a bootable USB W10 installation flash drive with the Media creation tool from the link below.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

Boot from the installation media and when you get past the Install Now screen, you will be asked what version of W10 you want to install.  Select W10 Pro.

Then you will be asked to enter a product key.   Select the 'I don't have a product key' option and W10 will install.

If the PC had previously been upgraded to W10, the Microsoft activation servers will have a record of that, and W10 will activate, and you are good to go.

Then you can install the drivers and available software from the PC's support page.

HP ProDesk 400 G1 Small Form Factor PC Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Support

If Windows 10 is not activated, you can install W8.1 for free since there should be a W8.1 product key in the BIOS.

To install W8.1, download the 64-bit ISO file from the link below.

Download Windows 8.1 Disc Image (ISO File) (microsoft.com)

Use the free Rufus utility to transfer the ISO file to a USB flash drive so that it is bootable.

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Set up the Rufus installer the way you see it in the illustration for Windows installations.

You should not be asked to enter a product key during the installation because W8.1 should detect the key in the BIOS.

You will now have an activated copy of W8.1 that you can continue to use, or if you want to install W10, you'll have to pay for a license and product key.

Hopefully, the previous owner had upgraded the PC to W10.