Laptop hard drive died - installing Win10 on new drive?

[snooka9]

The hard drive in my laptop, which came pre-installed with Windows 10, died abruptly. I want to replace it with a new SSD and install Windows 10 but I can't seem to find a product key with my original documentation.  Do I need the key, or will it re-activate automatically? I don't want to have to buy Windows 10 along with the SSD, if that's the case I would rather scrap it and buy a whole new laptop.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The product key is in the BIOS.

You won't need it to reinstall W10.

What is the product number of your PC?

You may have the option to create a recovery drive using the HP cloud recovery client utility.

Use this guide to find the specific model number or product number of your notebook.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_2039298-1862169-16

[iomare]

Hi,

The product key is in the firmware. Windows 10 will automatically activate once installed and connected to internet.

https://www.microsoft.com/it-it/software-download/windows10

Hope it helps,

David

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[snooka9]

Thank you for the quick response!

The laptop is the Envy x360 m6-aq005dx convertible touch screen.

The P/N is: w2k41ua

I read the "HP cloud recovery client utility" page - is there a way to determine if this laptop is compatible with this utility without downloading, installing & running it first on another computer?

Does this utility also install all the drivers for the laptop, or will i need to install them from the HP drive page?

Thanks again!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

According to the cloud recovery support matrix, that product number is supported...

http://hpcps.support.doc.s3-website-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/

It should return the drive to its 'out of the box' condition.

The only caveat is if the SSD you buy is smaller than any of the hard drives offered in the service manual, the cloud recovery client utility will probably not work, and you will need to reinstall W10 using the media creation tool link that Iomare posted.

With that, you will need to install the drivers and available software from your notebook's support page.