HDD died, New HDD needs to be setup. Need recovery media to get back a working C: with Windows 7

[plargent]

My HDD (1TB that came with the computer) on my died.   I have no recovery media.  I purchased a 3TB drive.   I need to get the recovery media to restore the computer ( Pavilion P6230Y) to its initial factory state or any functioning state.   How do I get the recovery media?   What other options to I have?

I have a Clonezilla backup of my C: partition but cant make the new 3TB drive have a "bootable" "system" partition when the 3 partitions that existed on the original drive are restored.  They are just 3 data partitions that cant be booted.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Your PC does not have a UEFI BIOS, which is why you can't use a 3 TB drive as a boot drive.

The maximum size HDD you can boot from in your model is 2 TB.

So, hopefully you will be able to format the drive in MBR-NTFS and have some usable space to boot from.

Here are your two options...

You can make your own plain W7 installation media assuming you can still read all 25 characters of the W7 product key.

Click on the Windows ISO Downloader.exe link to download the tool to create the W7 ISO file download.

Select the W7 COEM ISO file download version for the product key the OS is good for, which is the OEM operating system ISO file.

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-and-office-iso-downl...

I have zipped up and attached the Microsoft utility below, that will allow you to either put the file on a USB flash drive or burn it to a DVD.

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

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-compaq-8000-elite-convertible-minitower-pc/40658...

If the Microsoft tool doesn't work to burn a DVD, use this free DVD burning software to burn the ISO file to a DVD.

 Select the "Burn ISO file option."

https://cdburnerxp.se/en/download

Burn it at the slowest speed you can.

Your other option is to order recovery media for your model PC from this non-HP vendor...

http://www.computersurgeons.com/p-18140-windows-7-premium-64-bit-94nav6pra1-recovery-kit-gv405av-for...