Making a "Restore USB in Windows 10 Pro does not work

[alan150]

I purchased two MAR Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G2's. One came from Joy Systems, and the other came from Arrow Electronics.. I want to make recovery media for each computer as they are NOW in the 1809 Windows 10 version (build) because these computers do not have the capacity for later versions of Windows 10, as they come out. The sheet that came with the "Arrow Computer" specifically says that there is a System Recovery Folder in your Start menu that will allow you to create your own "recovery media."  You can also go to "system recovery" in the control panel and the first option there is "make system recovery drive."  System Recovery Media for a specific computer are important to have!

On the computer from Arrow Electronics I tried to make a Recovery USB drive, and it DID NOT WORK. It started, reformatted the USB drive, and only ran for about 30 seconds before it said that it was complete. It should take over an hour to copy the whose system : Windows 10 Pro and all the drivers in the system to the USB drive. To be safe I used a 32 GB brand new USB drive.

I called the customer service number and the man who answered was a bull**bleep**er. He said that a "system recovery media" wasn't necessary because you could always get a new copy of Windows 10 from Microsoft. That may be true, but it isn't a true "recovery media" that is needed in some situations, and I want to make a "recovery media" for this specific computer!!!

I tried running Windows "fresh start" that installs a clean version of Windows 10, and that didn't work either as described, but stopped part way through the process. 

Can I make a accurate "restore media" for this computer?

Currently is there something wrong with the Windows 10 software, the computer, or both? 

Thank you for your assistance.

Alan

[CherylG]

I believe that model shipped with Windows 8 Pro. It may have received the free upgrade to Windows 10 which is probably why the Recovery Creation function doesn't work. I also checked the software/drivers page and there is no Cloud Recovery option to make Recovery Media which would also indicate it did not ship with Windows 10. Not really sure why Fresh Start isn't working.

If it was upgraded it should have a digital license assigned on Microsoft servers and you can use MS's free Media Creation Tool to make an installation USB. Requires at least an 8gb flash drive.

When installing with this when/if you are asked for a license key just choose 'I don't have a key". It will activate once you are online and it contacts MS.

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