Electronically Assigned Recovery Media

[JulianASmith]

Greetings H-P Forum Community Members, 

I have two questions regarding system recovery media and system hardware changes/upgrades.   I would like to change the original motherboard in my H-P Pavilion Dv7 for a different H-P motherboard that is completely compatible  with my Pavilion but which has superior graphics hardware.  However, I have heard that my original recovery media—which consists of five recovery CD’s, created when my Pavilion was first purchased—won’t  work with any other motherboard, even if that board is compatible with the rest of the system.  My questions are:  (a) Is it correct that the recovery software is “electronically assigned” to only one motherboard, and  (b)  If one set of recovery media will only work with one particular motherboard—is there any workaround for this issue?  Thanks Forum Community.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

That is correct.

The recovery media will detect that it is being installed on a different model motherboard and not work but I suppose that you have nothing to lose by trying it in the outside chance it will work.

A workaround would be to clean install Windows 7 if you can still read the W7 product key on the PC's case but if you had upgraded the old motherboard to W10, you can't do a free upgrade from W7>W10 anymore.

[JulianASmith]

Greetings Paul

Thank you for responding to my post.  In thinking through the use of my original recovery media I have discovered a perplexing problem:  I have purchased an identical H-P Pavilion replacement laptop because the processor in my original one over-heated and burned out.  But the specifications of the replacement are the same as the original.  However, when I installed my original HHD into the replacement I discovered that, in addition my original recovery disks not working in the replacement laptop—the recovery partition was missing!  (I’ve never been certain of whether the recovery partition was originally located in a special protected area of the HHD, or in another part of the system).  How can I do a fresh re-install of windows if: 1 the recovery media won’t recognize the replacement laptop and:  2  the recovery partition is missing?  And where is the partition located?  Thanks Paul!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Unfortunately, I don't know the answers to your questions.

I can tell you that if there was a recovery partition on hard drive it would have had a drive letter of D/ assigned to it.

it would not have been hidden.

If you can't read the W7 product key on the notebook's case, you won't be able to clean install Windows.

If you can read it, here is a link to the W7 Home Premium ISO file downloads for 32 and 64 bit.

Windows 7 Home Premium Free Download ISO 32 Bit 64 Bit

The links are all the down toward the bottom of the page.

You want the 64 bit installation media.

You can burn the ISO file to a DVD or use the Rufus utility to transfer the ISO file to a USB flash drive.

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way