Need to do a full system recovery. Original OS 8, now windows 10

[karcha1]

This computer has never worked well since upgrading from the factory installed 8.1 to Windows 10.  It kept crashing or giving my low memory messages.   It does not seem to have a hardware problem (according to HPwwhen I first starting having problems).  It recently crashed and did a disk error recovery and now it seems Windows 10 is not fully installed and I have lost my bookmarks in my browsers and some of the older software.  I want to reload all of the softward before I give up on this machine--it is less than 2 years old.  Anyway, I see from the microsoft page, I can redownload Windows10.  My question is should I do a system recovery to the factory installed windows 8 before I I upgrade to Windows10?   Will Microsoft recognize I have a valid copy of windows10 if I start totally over?  I have a USB drive labelled recovery, date 4/2016.  Not sure if it 8 or 10, probably 10, but it could be corrupted, too.

[DavidPK · Accepted solution]

Hi,

As the machine has been previously upgraded to 10, a hardware profile ( Digital Entitlement ) will have been recorded by the activation servers.

As long as the previous installation of Windows 10 had activated Ok after the upgrade from 8.1, you can just create your own installation media and perform a clean installation as detailed in the guide on the following link.  Note: At the activation screen, select 'I don't have a Product key' - Windows will activate automatically once the installation has completed.

http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

Regards,

DP-K

[mdklassen]

>  giving me low memory messages

The 64-bit version of Windows specifies a minimum of 2 GB of RAM.

How much RAM in your computer?

Windows 10 has two recovery options: "refresh my PC" and "reset my PC".

The "refresh" will reinstall Windows, without affecting your installed programs or your data files.

That should fix any "corruption".

Backup your files/music/bookmarks/pictures before trying the "reset" option.

[karcha1]

David's solution worked great.  The recovery disk took me back to 8.1. I then downloaded Windows10, no problem with product key.  Yes, I got all of the preloaded HP "junk", but I did it this way to make sure I got all the drivers.  It took all day, but the machine is now running better than it ever did.  I had backup files, so I was able to reload all of my files and music.  Thank you so much for the information and confidence.

[DavidPK]

@karcha1

Good to hear

All the best,

DP-K