HP Recovery Manager

[jpmackay1]

I have a question about HP Recovery Manager in my desktop. I was surprised to see that the first pane of three on HP Recovery Manager with " Help! " and two are grayed out with the top -- Reinstall drivers and/or applications  (Disabled: HP Recovery Manager no longer supports this feature after Windows upgraded.) and with the bottom -- Restart and enter Windows Recovery Environment to restore the system (Disabled: HP Recovery Manager no longer supports this feature after Windows upgraded.) Are these a reason why I can't use this anymore? I know the only one with the middle is working --  Windows System Reset Refresh your PC without affecting your peronal files  Guess that I can use Reset This PC on my desktop, Omen #870-119.

Thank you,

John

[Grzwacz · Accepted solution]

Greetings,

Welcome back to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

Subsequent Windows 10 updates modify the disk partitions containing the data needed to allow a fully functioning HP Recovery Manager even though your PC shipped with the current version of Windows 10 available as of this PC's manufacturing date. Microsoft is providing drivers for the updated Windows version you are now using.

Windows 10 gives you many recovery options not requiring HP's Recovery Manager.

The Refresh, Reset, or Clean Windows installs can be done using Windows 10.

Windows 10 has disk imaging options in Control Panel, Backup and Restore.

You really don't need the HP Recovery Manager anymore.

Regards

[krzemien]

Uhm, interesting, as me - being in the same boat, i.e. having kept original HP configuration since early 2017 (so from Windows 1607 onwards) and having been continuously upgraded up to 1809 recently - still have both options available:

 EDITED TO ADD: See also last post in this thread:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/HP-Recovery-Manager-s-Reinstall...

[Grzwacz]

Hi Krzemien,

I guess you could get HPRM fully functional again.

This software was very useful prior to W10.

I don't use it on W10 because this operating system gives you so many baked in recovery options. Plus W10 usually gives you all the drivers needed to have a reasonably functional and stable system. HP normally includes a folder on the root drive called SWSETUP. This folder contains the factory drivers for the latest version of W10  available when the image was created by HP and most software HP installed in the OS image at the factory.

I usually only manually install graphics drivers, chipset drivers, networking, WIFI, and SATA drivers from the manufacturer.

I exclusively use Macrium Free Reflect for imaging and copying operating systems from disk to disk. The disk volume is about 80 GB and contains the operating system and program installations. Data is stored on a different disk.

It takes about 15 minutes to create a Macrium backup image on external media. It takes about 6 minutes to reimage a drive with Macrium.

Regards

[krzemien]

All very valid points, obviously, thanks for adding them here for completeness. Worth pointing out that some folks might not be so technically-minded and prefer one-stop-shop type of application that will restore everything back to the factory state.

Please also remember that this is what HP Support will always recommend as a final resort (why is that it's another story but I digress) and the moment they get a whiff it cannot be done, their ultimate help will conclude either...

Still, it would be interesting to know what triggers these messages withing the HP Recovery Manager exactly - and what version (if there indeed were/are many) does support Windows 10 upgrade process along the way?

[Grzwacz]

Hi Krzemien,

You're very welcome.

I don't know the specifics on why W10 updates sometimes deprecates the HP Recovery Manager.

Clean Windows installations will wipe the storage device, re-partition the disk,and re-format the drive.

The problem with restoring a HP PC back to the HP factory image on Windows 10 (W10) is Microsoft will push a newer version of W10 to the device unless you can delay this update by running W10 Pro or Enterprise versions.

I don't use HPRM or HPSA on any HP PCs I support.

This is my approach. I am not saying it is the right way to do this, but it works for me.

Regards

[krzemien]

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@Grzwacz wrote:

The problem with restoring a HP PC back to the HP factory image on Windows 10 (W10) is Microsoft will push a newer version of W10 to the device unless you can delay this update by running W10 Pro or Enterprise versions.

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Or unless you disconnect it from the network / Internet, mind - which is perfectly valid scenario that allows further troubleshooting based on the software version as if coming straight from factory.

[jpmackay1]

Thank you for your reply and never thought of this to disconnect from network / internet. Will try this to see if that works.

John

[krzemien]

Apologies for confusion: I meant the scenario AFTER PC was restored to the factory state, to allow possible troubleshooting based on the as-supplied-software configuration, but not BEFORE.