Pavilion 23 all in one

[mortonS]

I had to replace the hard drive in my computer and I am not sure if the computer came with a recovery disk. If it did I can't find.

How do I get the operating system back?

[WAWood]

@mortonS 

It most likely did not -- since HP stopped including those with PCs when Windows 8 came out years ago.

Since your PC can not successfully do an internal factory reset, your ways to accomplish this are the following:
- Factory reset using external HP image you make
- Factory reset using external HP image you buy

Each of these is discussed in some detail below ...

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you make ----------
HP provides a Cloud Recovery tool that you can use, together with a 32GB USB stick, to create your on HP reset media.

Here is the link: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205

This works the same as the factory reset described above.

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you buy ----------
For those PCs not supported by the Cloud Recovery, in some cases, HP offers Recover Media for sale. This can not be downloaded; instead, it must be ordered from HP.

HP Recovery Media is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities.

In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click &quot;Update&quot;.<br><br>If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the &quot;+&quot; symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Support.

HP contact info: https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp?openCLC=true

If HP no longer carries the media you need, another site you should check for HP Recovery Media is: http://www.computersurgeons.com/

These work the same as the factory reset described above.

[mortonS]

Thank you for the reply.

It helped me somewhat but I guess what I really need is the Windows program and I am not finding it on HP.

It is very frustrating that there is no phone number to call them.

I guess I will keep plugging away and see what happens.

[WAWood]

@mortonS 

HP does not provide links for phone support in the US because of Scammers that were harvesting those numbers, calling customers, and charging them money for services they did not need.

HP also does not provide a download of just the OS -- so you have to exercise one of the two options I mentioned to get the HP OEM Version of windows back onto your PC.