For Future Reference: Resetting laptop with an upgraded SSD and a fresh copy of Windows 10 Home

[LilSweetLin]

I recently bought this Windows 10 Home laptop that the previous owner upgraded from the 1TB HDD listed in the specs to a 240GB SDD. However, I wanted more space, so I bought a 500GB SDD and took it to a repair shop and asked to have it installed on a single partition with a fresh copy of Windows 10 Home without cloning the old drive. 

My question is,

1) Would I still be able to use the, "Reset this PC" feature in Windows 10, where I could clean the drive and reset Windows locally from the laptop without an installation disk, or would the fresh copy of Windows also be deleted from the drive?

2) If I were to purchase an OEM copy of Windows 10 Home with a new product key, could I use it to reset the laptop from the DVD drive? If so, would I need to input the new product key to activate it? Would the drive then be partitioned further to where the older install would be saved, or would the new install of Windows 10 overwrite it?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

[LilSweetLin]

Here is a screenshot of my drive:

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

There should be no need to buy W10.

The W10 product key is in the BIOS and you don't need it to reinstall W10.

Run the free utility that I zipped up and attached below and it should show you the W10 OEM product key in the BIOS, and the version of W10 it is good for.

What you do if you ever want to clean install W10 again would be to make bootable W10 installation media using the media creation tool at the link below.

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

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

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-17-g100-notebook-pc-series-touch/850266...

To answer your first question, yes you can use the reset this PC and either start completely fresh with no user info or files, or select the option to keep your files and settings.

[LilSweetLin]

Hi, 

Thanks for the reply.

I actually downloaded a program called Produkey online that displays the product key for the current installation of Windows, so the reason I was wondering is because I already do have copies of the OS/drivers on bootable disks (I assume the ISO files) that I purchased off of eBay.

When I asked the professional who installed my new SSD with a fresh copy of the OS about them, he told me that the disks I have wouldn't work?

I also asked whether I could still reset the laptop by cleaning the drive and starting fresh from the Windows settings, and I was told that he wasn't sure, because he thought that the ability to do that applied only to the original owner and the copy of the OS that shipped with the laptop.

Full disclosure though, when I originally received the laptop with the previous user's SSD installed, I was able to do the reset from within the Settings. I just wanted to be sure I could still do so if the need arises.

The reason why I decided to upgrade to a larger SSD is that when I tried to use the installation disks I have to test them, I got the error message, " Windows could not be installed. We couldn't update the system reserved partition."

So because I was given all the information I was given from the aforementioned tech, I figured it would be best if I just bought an OEM copy of Win10 and just activate it with a new key, assuming that any new installation would overwrite the previous one.

If I, or the other person is mistaken, please let me know.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The showkey plus report should show the OEM product key and the version of W10 the key is good for as well as the installed product key.

Here is what my report looks like (I upgraded from W8.1 to W10).

ShowKeyPlus - Windows Product Key Information

Product Name: Windows 10 Pro

Version: 18362.657 (64-bit OS)

Product ID: 00XXX-X0000-00000-XXXXX

Installed Key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

OEM Key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

OEM Edition: Win 8.1 RTM Professional OEM:DM

If your report looks like the above, then the info I posted earlier would apply.

If it does not, then unfortunately, I can't answer your questions.

[LilSweetLin]

Thanks again! just generated my report, and  it looks exactly like yours, so yes, the information in your earlier post applies. I appreciate it very much.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

If you have a W10 ISO file that you purchased, it should work just fine with the embedded product key.

If for some unforeseen reason it doesn't, then you can create the W10 installation media using the Media creation tool link I posted earlier.