Need to recover Windows 10 on new replacement drive in HP 15-r264dx TouchSmart

[BarryT6]

My HP laptop which originally came with Windows 8.1 and was upgraded to Windows 10 64 bit during the time we could do it for free has a bad hard drive now.  I replaced it with an SSD and I want to know if I have to install Windows 8.1 again so the license will fill from the firmware on the mobo, or can I just install Windows 10 as was already upgraded to and the license feature will recognize the firmware license key?

[banhien]

@BarryT6 

You have a few options.

1. Install fresh Windows 10 on your machine using  https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10  Windows 10 will activate itself using the product key in BIOS of your machine

2. Using HP Cloud Recovery tool :   https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_4511095-4511141-16

Regards.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @BarryT6 

You do not have the second option of using the HP cloud recovery tool, since your notebook is definitely not supported for it.

There is no need to install W8.1 and then upgrade back to W10, but there are couple of additional steps you need to take when you clean install W10 on a PC that had been previously upgraded to W10:

After you get past the 'Install Now' screen, you will be asked to install the version of W10 you had previously upgraded to.

Select W10 Home.

Then you will be asked to enter a product key.

Select the 'I don't have a product key' option and W10 will install and then activate after you are connected to the internet.