Newly purchased HP Elite 8200 with Win 10 has near-constant hard drive activity.

[MichaelNewell]

I recently purchased a refurbished HP desktop from Tiger Direct. The link to the product is here.

It is running Windows 10 64-bit. From the very start the PC has nearly constant hard drive activity. It sounds as if it is scanning or writing to the hard drive. The computer is very noisy at all times.

I turned off many services, including OneDrive. It has reduced the activity but it is still frequent and noisy.

However, I have discovered some incompatibilities with Windows 10 and some software I need to use. So I would prefer to uninstall Windows 10 and install a copy of Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. If the noisy hard drive activity would persist though I would have second thoughts about keeping the HP.

Do you think the hard drive activity would be reduced on this model of HP if it was running Windows 7 instead of Windows 10?

[WAWood]

@MichaelNewell

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

A major part of the problem is that, according to its product page, your PC did not come with Win10 preinstalled from HP.  So, that means wherever you bought it from installed Win10 themselves, and since there are no HP Win10 drivers for that model PC, it is using the default generic drivers that MS installs.  This is a serious problem for which there are no current solutions because HP does not have the drivers needed.

Additionally, Win10 captures lots and lots of information about your PC and what you do with it and sends that to MS without your consent or knowledge. Where do you think it stores that accumulated information -- the hard drive!

If it were mine, I would investigate getting HP Recovery Media for it, and if that is not available, since HP DOES have Win7 drivers for it, I would purchase and install Win7 on it.

Since  HP probably no longer provides Recovery Media for your model, a couple of sites you should check are: http://www.computersurgeons.com/ and http://www.restoredisks.com/

Good Luck

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I am running two 8200 Elite CMT's with W10 and they both have normal HDD activity levels.

The 8200 Elite did not come with W10 from the factory. 

It would have come with W7 Pro, and there should be a W7 Pro product key on the PC's case.

In any event, I have zipped up and attached a free utility below, that will provide the W10 product key and type.

If the refurbisher installed W10 OEM, the utility should report that it is a W10 OEM key

You can print out the key and use it to clean install W10 and see if you get better results.

If the PC once had W7, and they took the free upgrade to W10, you can verify that it was an upgrade key by going to Settings>Update & Security>Activation>this would say W10 is activated with a Digital License.

You can clean install W10 by making your own W10 installation media by using the Media Creation tool at the link below.

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

If your PC has a W10 OEM key, then use that when you are asked to enter a product key.

It it has a digital license, select the 'I don't have a product key' option and W10 will install and automatically reactivate once the PC is reconnected to the internet.

DO NOT update the BIOS to v2.29.  Doing that will cause the PC to delay booting from a restart for approximately 2 minutes, unless you hide the TPM device in the BIOS's security menu.

If you want to install W7, and the PC has a W7 product key where you can read all 25 characters, you can make your own plain W7 installation media.

This site claims to have genuine, unadulterated W7 ISO files for download.

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-iso-download-tool

Click on the link labeled Windows ISO Downloader.exe

You can use either the:

Win 7 Home Premium/Pro (as applicable) SP1 or the (Retail version, but the OEM key on your PC's case will work with it)

Win 7 Home Premium/Pro (as applicable) SP1 COEM (This version would be for what HP would have used--System Builder)

N is for European Union (EU) countries.

K is for South Korean markets.

You can use this tool to transfer the ISO file to a 4 GB USB flash drive or DVD.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

The only driver you may need for W10 would be for the Intel AMT (shows up as a PCI Serial Port).

Use the W7 AMT driver from the 8200 Elite support page.

If you want the full feature audio enhancements, download the W10 driver directly from Realtek.

And you still can get W7 recovery media for your 8200 Elite by calling HP at this number... 1-800-334-5144

Have the serial number of the PC handy to give to the customer services rep.

[MichaelNewell]

Thank you, WAWood and Paul. I have the same reply to both of you so I'll post it to the most recent response.

It sounds like Windows 7 would be the easiest fix. I have looked at the PC case but I do not see a Windows 7 product key.

Is there a reputable site to get (presumably by purchase) a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit license or should I purchase from a major retailer like Best Buy or something?

Besides the hard drive noise issue, my other major problem came this morning when I downloaded Dropbox to my PC.  After that the taskbar and Start button has been unresponsive, even after uninstalling Dropbox. I tried a couple of the solutions I found online but it did not fix the problem.

This isn't specifically on topic for this thread, of course. But, combined with the hard drive activity/noise, it led me to the conclusion that maybe Windows 7 Pro would simply be better for me than Windows 10.

I am concerned that I am fighting the inevitable, since at some point I might have to upgrade operating systems. But if Windows 7 will do what I need, I may as well use it for as long as I can.

I guess I just need to get a recommendation on the best affordable way to get a license for it. Any suggestions?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I would call the toll-free # I posted and order a set of W7 Pro recovery disks from HP.

They are pre-activated, so you don't need a product key for them to work.

Someone must have removed the W7 pro product key from the PC's case.

There should be a silver sticker with the product number/serial number on the side of the case, and the W7 product key should have been affixed above that silver sticker.

[MichaelNewell]

I installed a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit O/S. All my software works just fine.

The HP is still a bit noisier than my former Dell but the hard drive activity is considerably less.

Thank you so much, WAWood and Paul, for your prompt replies and support. It is much apprieciated!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.