Clean Windows Install on HP OMEN

[FDITUP]

I am preparing my old laptop to give it to someone else. I did a clean install of Windows using Microsoft's Windows Refresh Tool, but that gave me a slew of problems. I can't update any of the drivers manually or through device manager, so I don't think I can fix them using Windows as it is on that device. I anticipate that there will be many more problems that will become apparent through use, so I fixing them one by one promises to be a headache.

I can't do a factory reset through Windows 10 because Windows Refresh Tool erased that backup state as well.

I want to do a factory reset, but I think I now need some utility specific to my device. 

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

Your notebook should be supported by the HP cloud recovery tool which you can use to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall W10, the drivers and the software that originally came with your notebook.

Here is an info link for how to use that utility...

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool (Windows 10, 7) | HP® Customer Support

[FDITUP]

Exactly what I needed. I'll just explain some hoops I had to jump through for anybody reading this  later.

I was confused when the Cloud Recovery Tool would close unexpectedly. Well, I didn't read the step-by-step guide. I turns out that I was running the installer over and over again. 

I ran the Cloud Recovery Tool and chose my external drive.

I had to use the BIOS to switch the boot drive to the new HP Recovery Drive. My USB didn't show up in the boot order, so I put "USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk" above the default "OS Boot Manager, Windows Boot Manager (WDC PC SN720 SDAPNTW - 256G - 1006)". It worked just fine.

After going through the steps, it would just start over rather than proceeding. I had to go back into BIOS and switch back to OS Boot Manager manually.

Original problem solved, but now my USB drive was limited to 30GB from its original 114GB because of a partition set by HP Recovery Tool. I opened Disk Management, right-clicked the 30GB partition, and chose "delete volume." I then removed and reinserted the USB. I right clicked the unallocated 114GB section, and chose "new simple volume." 

That last paragraph probably had some unnecessary steps, but it fixed the drive's capacity.