need to reinstall windows

[nonegiven]

My mom has a HP Pavilion Slimline s5730f  Desktop.  It's 6 years old.  The updated drivers disappeared from the support page, Windows 7 Home Edition disappeared.  I was going to reinstall Windows and download the updated drivers, they are gone, the driver updates and the Win 7 Home Premium  Her key doesn't work to download win7, not the real key and not the OEM.  Its a valid license and I can't burn a Win 7 disc.  I'm assuming the HP recovery media on disc would be just as old if ordered.

I'm reduced to recovering the factory  partition and downloading 6 YEARS of updates.  It's only really slow and not updating windows any more. I fixed her up with a antivirus and some MBAM to get by.  I just want to start her fresh so she can get by a few more years, she is 82.  She doesn't even Facebook, I've already got her on Open Office, I can't think offhand of a Windows only program she still uses.

She reads email, buys some things online and keeps pictures and documents.  She has a HP Envy 5640 printer.  

Is this my only option?  I'm thinking Mint.  Are there drivers for MInt?  Can I get an UPDATED version of WIN7 Home somewhere?  I have a Win 7 Pro disc but she doesn't have a license for that, just the Home version.

If I just do the recovery, is this the right page for that?

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01867418#AbT5

[TheOldMan · Accepted solution]

If the Recovery Manager still works then the page that was referanced appears valid.  You are correct that the Recovery Disk set or the Recovery Manager would then require all of the updates to be installed again.  There is a somwhat faster method, by using what is called the July 2016 rollup update:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3172605/july-2016-update-rollup-for-windows-7-sp1-and-windo...

Scroll down to the part about Prerequisites to get some other updates that are needed before runing the rollup.  Then you can go to the Windows update to get the rest of the updates after the rollup has run.

[mdklassen]

>  The updated drivers disappeared from the support page, Windows 7 Home Edition disappeared.

Check: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-slimline-s5700-desktop-pc-series/503535...

If you are installing from the original HP-modified distribution of MIcrosoft Windows 7, you won't need the SIX listed device-driver updates.  If you are installing from a Windows 7 Home Edition "retail" DVD, you will need those device-drivers:

Original AMD Chipset Driver
Original AMD SATA Controller Driver
Original ATI Graphics Driver
Original Ralink Wireless Networking Controller Driver
Original Realtek High Definition Audio Driver
Original Realtek Networking Controller Driver

and the case of her computer should have the "Microsoft decal", giving the 25-character-product key.

As the Other Person wrote, the "roll-up" package makes it much quicker to install the accumulated updates.

> I have a Win 7 Pro disc but she doesn't have a license for that, just the Home version.

I wonder that if you use that disk, and enter the product-key, it will "downgrade" itself to install the Home Edition ???

[nonegiven]

I have the product key.  I was going to burn a WIn 7 home premium disc to install from.  I needed the product key to even  download it. Neither the full 25 character key  I got from running Belarc advisor on it or the OEM key on her computer worked for that.   

There is no recovery disc, just whatever is on the recovery partition, including bloatware.  

Her computer is working, it just needs the OS reinstalled to run better, I was hoping to do what I have done for older computers in the past and that is reinsall from disc, an updated version of the OS the key is for.  In the past I always had an install disc for the drivers.  When I built my current computer I had a disc of drivers that came with the board.  I did already download those drivers from https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-slimline-s5700-desktop-pc-series/503535... in case I needed them, but the last time I had looked I thought there were updated versions from 2013.

Now I'm not sure I can even do it if I had a 'retail' disc, or if I had burned one previously, it might not take the key.  I guess this recovery partition and the roll up link is what I'll have to do.

[TheOldMan]

The Recovery Manager will install all the drivers, but as you say, the "bloatware, too".  If you would like a Windows 7 install disk, you can look here

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

When the tool quick link donwloads, then pick Windows 7 OEM from the download list.  It will not have the drivers included but the ones you have should work to get it going.

BTW: you can use a borrowed retail disk, which will not have drivers either, but will install generic ones if the database does not include what is needed.  Then install the ones what you already have.

PS a product key is not needed to download from this site and it was posted by one of the highly regarded supporters on this forum.

[nonegiven]

It doesn't seem to be working for Win 7.  The legacy downloader gives an error

[TheOldMan]

I tried it and as you posted, it errors out.  Well you can use a borrowed Windows 7 install disk, it will still install OK.  The download was the only place to get a install disk if you do not have one.  You can use the Recovery Manager, decrapify the install ( which will get rid of the "bloatware" ) and run the updates as already discussed

[mdklassen]

> Neither the full 25 character key  I got from running Belarc advisor on it or the OEM key on her computer worked for that.   

Correct.  Both programs "extracted" the key from the currently-installed version of Windows, which was the 'OEM' version that the manufacturer used to install the software.   Neither of the programs can physically inspect the 25-character product-key stuck to the outside of the computer case.

You can try to reinstall Windows 7 from that System Recovery partition on the disk-drive -- that will install the OEM version.

Or, there might a utility program on the current disk-drive that you can run to burn a few DVD disks, and boot from those disks to reinstall the OEM version of Windows.

[nonegiven]

I can't seem to find a Win Home Premium disc, Everyone else has Win 7 Pro'

Wish me luck

[TheOldMan]

If you cannot locate a disk to borrow, then you can purchase a Recovery kit from Computer Surgeons for a small fee.

http://www.computersurgeons.com/p-20430-windows-7-64-bit-recovery-kit-lq078av-for-hp-pavilion-slimli...