HP Recovery Manager

[Sheri52]

I read in another board that HP Recovery Manager can be accessed from the start menu. But it cannot be accessd from the Start Menu on my Windows 10 system! I haven't tried this recently, but can I still access it by pressing F11 immediately after switching on my PC?

More importantly, can I still reset my PC to Factory Settings using the HP Recovery Manager now that I have Windows 10? If not, I might as well delete the HP recovery partition to free up space....

[WAWood]

Sheri52

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

I read your post about HP Recovery Manager and wanted to help -- but need more information.

You said "now that I have Windows 10" -- which implies that this PC did NOT come with Win10 preinstalled, but instead, with an older version of the Windows.

We need to know if that is the case, as that directly affects the answers.

We can proceed once you provide the information.

Thanks

[Sheri52]

Yes, the HP Pavilion 500-141ea came with Windows 8 installed.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

Sheri52

Thanks for the reply.

While Microsoft tells you that there is no risk in the Win10 Upgrade, because they let you believe that you can always revert back to your original OS and setup within 30 days, the ugly fact of the matter is that the Win10 GoBack function has proven to be unreliable -- and when it fails, it can leave machines in a corrupted state -- which doesn't always happen, but it does happen often enough to be a problem and you won't get any warning in advance that it is going to trash your PC!

If that is not bad enough, the Win10 Upgrade is know, in some cases, to corrupt the Recovery partition stored there by the OEM that built the original machine. This pretty much guarantees that no HP Recovery is going to work: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Video-Display-and-Touch/HP-Recovery-Manager-Blocked-After-Windo...

So basically, the Recovery partition will do you no good now -- so you might as well remove it.

However, I strongly recommend you consider using a third-party product to make an image backup of your PC, known as Macrium Reflect.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR)
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 10 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry. This allows you then to boot into WinRE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

Good Luck

[Sheri52]

Thank you so much for confirming that the HP Recovery Partition cannot be used after upgrading to Windows 10! I thought as much but I didn't want to delete the HP recovery partition until I knew for certain .... now I will go ahead and delete it.

BTW I have used Macrium Reflect for a long time.  I try to remember to make a new image after I've started from scratch and re-installed all my programs and Windows Updates. Trouble is I usually forget to use it if my OS starts playing up 😕 Must try harder in furture obviously. LOL

Update 24 Oct 2016: Windows couldn't create HomeGroup on this computer today and not even a Microsoft Support Agent could fix it! She advised me to reset my PC, which reluctantly I did - but after doing so I had no sound and nothing I tried worked, including HP Support Assistant 😞 SO this time I remembered to run a Macrium Reflect Restore from an image I created on 13 Oct 2016 🙂 It required me adding Macrium boot options to Windows Recovery Environment - but it worked 🙂 Now I have sound again - but Windows couldn't create HomeGroup on this computer again! I wish I had never accepted the Windows 10 free upgrade now......