Buying the Recovery Disk from HP - I have a question

[fkbsar]

My 1tb drive is about to go out and I am in the process of buying a recovery disk from HP.  My question is will I need the key for Windows 10?  If I do where or how can will I find that before the drive goes completely?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You won't need the key because it is supposed to be in the BIOS.

You can run the free utility that I zipped up and attached below to confirm the product key is present.

I don't know what HP charges for one of those kits, I have heard as much as $50, so here is a free way to reinstall W10 if you want...

Make a W10 bootable USB installer using the Microsoft media creation tool at the link below.

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

When you get to the screen that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows,' delete every partition on the hard drive, leaving just one partition of unallocated space. Click Next, and Windows should begin to install.

After W10 installs, you can install the drivers and available software from your notebook's support page.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-15-Notebook-PC-series/8543365/model/8857407

[fkbsar]

Thank you for your quick reply. Yes, the HP Recovery disk is $50 with S/H. I saw where I could d/l the software online can I copy it onto a cd/dvd?  Just thought it was convenient to have it from HP. 

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

What you are probably referring to is the relatively new HP cloud recovery client utility from which you can make a bootable recovery drive almost exactly what you would be paying $50 for.

The problem is that your notebook missed the cutoff date (too old) for cloud recovery client utility support, or there would have been an info link for that utility on your PC's support page's W10 driver section that I posted above.

Your only option for a free install of W10 would be the way I wrote about in my first reply.