Need to reload HP Notebook 15

[DWLange]

The hard drive on my HP 15-ac121dx notebook is damaged and Windows 10 will not boot up. The recovery partition apparently also took some damage and is not usable. I created a bootable Windows 10 installation USB and I was able to recover a lot of my data through the command line. I would now like to reload Windows 10. I can't use the installation USB because I don't have a license key. If I order the Windows Recovery Kit USB from HP, will that solve my problem? Or will the Recovery Kit still require a license key? Do I have any other options?

Thanks for the help.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The W10 product key is in the BIOS, so you can use the W10 installation media you created to reinstall W10.

As long as you install W10 Home from the list of operating systems, it won't even ask for the product key.

If you are sure you got all of your files off there, when the installation gets to the part that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows,' delete every partition on the hard drive, leaving just one partition of unallocated space, click Next and W10 will create the partitions it needs to install.

That way you maximize the usable space on your hard drive.

[DWLange]

Thank you! I will give that a try.

Will the installation process reformat the drive so the bad sectors aren't in play? Or shall I reformat first?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

If you delete all of the partitions as I explained, W10 will automatically create and format the partitions it needs to install--hopefully omitting the bad sectors.

You may also want to consider replacing the drive with a better performing, normally more reliable solid state drive.

[DWLange]

Done. Worked like a charm. Thanks again!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.