How to Make a System Recovery Disk of Windows 10

[Margo1]

Hello.

I will be purchasing a Windows 10 computer soon and I would like to know if I want to make a copy of the Windows 10 operating system only (no personal files or my installed programs), would I go through the Update & Security page, then Backup and Restore (Windows 7), and then Create a system image or  do I go to the Microsoft website to download the Windows 10 Disk image? (I am researching this issue and the more I read, the more confusing this gets.):smileyfrustrated:

Thank you.

[mdklassen · Accepted solution]

> I will be purchasing a Windows 10 computer soon and I would like to know if I want to make a copy of the Windows 10 operating system only  (no personal files or my installed programs), 

If you purchase the computer from HP, there should be a "hidden" partition on the disk-drive, that you can use to reinstall Windows. Also, there should be a utility program pre-installed to let you write a copy of that partition onto a USB device, so that you can, if needed, boot from the USB device, and install Windows 10 onto a "blank" disk-drive.

If you use that utility, the contents of the USB device will contain all the software that HP pre-installs.

If you (foolishly) purchase the computer from some other manufacturer, you're on your own -- this is a forum for HP experts. 

[TheOldMan]

As @mdklassen notes there would be a way to make a Recovery disk or USB with the HP Recovery Manager.  There is also a Windows 10 download on the Windows Media Creation Tool page.  Scroll down to the "Using the tool to create installation media".  This will create a Windows 10 OS only media.