MBR or GPT Options

[nopejo]

The Recovery Media I have obtained from HP will restore the original OS for this PC which was Windows 8.1. The support page for using Recovery media for this PC mentions nothing about an option to choose MBR or GPT for the 3TB Drive HP supplied with this PC. It seems there is no option in the Recovery Process to do so? Must it be done prior to Recovery. Did HP originally supply a 3TB Hard Drive with this PC with MBR partition which can only have 4 partitions and utilise 2TB leaving a huge chunk of unallocated space? Once Windows 8.1 is restored I understand Windows 10 can be reinstalled. I understand the licence key is embedded in the recovery software on the cd media. However I don't want to go through this laborious process if I can't make the 3TB Hard Drive GPT.

[mdklassen]

> Once Windows 8.1 is restored, I understand Windows 10 can be reinstalled.

Since Windows 10 was installed & activated, you were granted a "digital license" to reinstall Windows 10, at any time, at no cost, onto the same computer. 

There is no need to reinstall Windows 7/8/8.1 as a prerequisite to installing Windows 10.

See: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

to download Windows 10, and to create "installation media".

When installing, and prompted for the 25-character product-key, click "I do not have one".

Windows 10 will continue to install, and will automatically "activate" as soon as you have an Internet connection.

If you install to an "empty" disk-drive (no defined partitions), the Windows Installer should default to GPT.

-----------

Welcome to this forum.

Please click the purple/white "Thumbs Up" icon for every response that is helpful.

Also, please click "Accept As Solution" for the best response.

[nopejo]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure what sought of Windows 10 installation the original owner put on this PC. I think it was a business PC. How does one tell? Can a digital license expire?

If not then Ican just wipe my hard drive and install Windows 10 from a USB Stick. I don't want to stop getting windows updates in a couple of years time if the digital license expires. 

[mdklassen]

>  I'm not sure what sort of Windows 10 installation the original owner put on this PC.

If you know that it is Windows 10, it is either "Windows 10 Home" or "Windows 10 Professional".

It does not matter whether it was 32-bit or 64-bit.

> How does one tell?

If Windows 10 is running, use the WINVER command, and read the output.

> Can a digital license expire?

Yes, digital technology makes that possible -- "a small amount of programming".

Will Microsoft's digital license for Windows 10 ever expire?  Very unlikely.

> I can just wipe my hard drive and install Windows 10 from a USB Stick.

Yes.  During that installation, you will have to choose between "Home" and "Professional".

If you make the wrong choice, then it will not automatically activate.

If that happens, start all over again, and choose the other option.

That is what I had to do, for a friend's computer.

> I don't want to stop getting windows updates in a couple of years time if the digital license expires. 

Me, too, along with millions of other people who took the "free upgrade" during the 12 months ending in July 2016 when Microsoft offered that upgrade.

-----------

Welcome to this forum.

Please click the purple/white "Thumbs Up" icon for every response that is helpful.

Also, please click "Accept As Solution" for the best response.

[nopejo]

I have the Windows 10 pro version. How can I confirm it has a digital license and is not activated with a hack tool or that it is not an Enterprise version?

[mdklassen]

>   I have the Windows 10 pro version.

> How can I confirm it has a digital license and is not activated with a hack tool or that it is not an Enterprise version?

Reinstall the same version ("Pro" or "Home") that is currently running, installing onto a "spare" disk-drive.

If it activates automatically , you have your answer.

[nopejo]

Thats not a viable solution. The same hardware configuration is a requirement and that includes the same hard drive for this PC.

[mdklassen]

> That's not a viable solution.

Are you sure? 

Have you actually tried putting a "spare" disk-drive into your PC, and reinstalling?  Did it work?

> The same hardware configuration is a requirement, and that includes the same hard drive for this PC. 

I have never seen that definition of "same" on Microsoft's web-site.

In fact, both with Windows 7 and Windows 10, I have changed the disk-drive, and reinstalled Windows.

In both cases, I had no problems with the Windows Activation process.

I have also "cloned" an existing (but failing) disk-drive, swapped it in, and booted from it, without any "complaint" from Windows Activation that I was using a "different" computer.

Windows 7 used a "points" system. 

Score 3 points for changing to a different network adapter.

Score 1 point for swapping-out a broken CD/DVD drive. 

Score 1 point for different amount of RAM.

If you scored "too many" points, Windows 7 forced you to repeat the activation by "talking" to an automated voice-response system, to get a new activation key.

[nopejo]

I'm not sure. It may be correct that the same hard drive is not included in the Hardware ID for a free reinstall of Windows 10. In any case the problem is the license key. Microsoft don't have a way of instantly verifying their keys and if down the track they find a business has resold more than the allocated number of keys they bought from MS they may or may not stop updates to all using that key. I have talked to Microsoft regards this and that is their reply.

I don't know if the key I have is from HP or somewhere else as I am not the original owner of this PC and don't know who is. I am the third owner. 

You are probably aware you can buy a key for Windows 10 on sites for as little as $5 and they will work but you risk MS stopping updates to them at some time in the future.

I was hoping HP might have a way of verifying the MS license key that they load on their PC's. It would seem the Recovery Disc option is a 100% sure way, or fresh installing Windows 10 with a legitimate retail key.

[mdklassen]

>  I'm not sure. It may be correct that the same hard drive is not included in the Hardware ID for a free reinstall of Windows 10.

That's not what I wrote.  In Windows 7 (and probably in Windows 10), changing the hard-drive scored '1' point.

By itself, that score is not enough points to trigger Windows to prompt you to repeat the activation.

> In any case the problem is the license key.

There are at least two "classes" of product-keys.

There is the "Volume LIcensing Key", when a company (or a university) licenses a quantity of keys, and they are given just one key that can be used on the quantity of computers specified in the contract.

There is the "retail" product-key, that can be used on one computer, and is valid until that hardware "dies".

That "points" system allows the user to do "small" upgrades (e.g,. more RAM, different CD/DVD, different disk-drive, different graphic adapter, et cetera), without needing to repeat the activation.

> Microsoft don't have a way of instantly verifying their keys.

They do.  It is embedded in every copy of Windows.

To prove that your computer is checking your product-key: 

1. Launch the Windows Event Viewer, via running 'eventvwr.exe' at a command-line prompt.
2. Under "Windows Logs", select the "Application" log.
3. Click the column-heading labelled "Event ID", to sort the column into ascending order.
4. Scroll-down to where the Event ID is '1003'.
4. Click on that entry, to see:

   The Software Protection service has completed licensing status check.

Yes, it checked, by "calling home" to Microsoft.

> if down the track they find a business has resold more than the allocated number of keys they bought from MS

Are you talking about a business that purchases several units of the "retail" product, for individual resale to customers?

In that case, each unit has a unique product-key.

Purchasers of that Volume License Key are *NOT* allowed to resell the key.  Period.

> they may or may not stop updates to all using that key. I have talked to Microsoft regards this and that is their reply.

Beyond that, a "failure" to validate the product-key causes Windows to change the Windows "wallpaper" to 100% black, and to show a "Get Genuine Windows" pop-up window in the bottom-right corner of the display.

> I don't know if the key I have is from HP or somewhere else as I am not the original owner of this PC and don't know who is. I am the third owner. 

If Windows 10 was installed and activated by the first owner, then Microsoft granted a "digital license" to install the same version ("Home" or "Pro") onto the same computer, at any time, at no cost to you.

When reinstalling, you have to choose between "Home" and "Pro".

If you make the wrong choice, activation will fail.

In that situation, repeat the installation, choosing the other value, and activation will be successful.

> You are probably aware you can buy a key for Windows 10 on sites for as little as $5 and they will work ...

There is no guarantee that the key will work.  It may activate. Maybe.

> but you risk MS stopping updates to them at some time in the future.

True.  Some updates will fail to install on a "non-activated" copy of Windows.

> I was hoping HP might have a way of verifying the MS license key that they load on their PC's.

HP has licensed MIcrosoft Windows for each PC that they sell.

HP includes the cost of that license in the purchase-price of the HP computer.

> It would seem the Recovery Disc option is a 100% sure way, or fresh installing Windows 10 with a legitimate retail key.

If you are using the HP-supplied Installation Media for your specific model-number on your model-number of HP hardware, it will install and activate. 

if you have used software pre-installed on your HP computer to create your own "System Recovery Set", installing from that set will automatically activate.

If you download the latest version of Windows 10 from Microsoft, and try to install it on a computer for which Windows 10 has never been activated, then you will need to enter a legitimate retail product-key.

If you download the latest version of Windows 10 from Microsoft, and try to install it on a computer for which Windows 10 has been activated, and you click "I do not have have a product key" during the installation, then that "digital entitlement" will be leveraged, and Windows will activate, without entering a retail product-key.

I hope this helps.