New HDD on laptop, Reinstall Windows 10, HP apps, settings and recovery partition

[Shivar]

Hi everyone

My laptop HDD, 1TB, has recently been replaced with a new one, previous one failed and the tech guy (not HP) also re-installed Windows 10 64-bit.

It looks like a generic version of Windows 10 and more importantly there's no recovery partition, only C:

I'd like to know what i need to do if i want to go back to factory settings

1. Is there a way of knowing if the tech guy installed an HP Windows package or a generic one

2. is there an HP recovery package containing Windows 10 and HP apps, settings, programs etc. HP Cloud Recovery Tool is what i need to use?

3. or is there a separate HP apps & settings package - therefore no need to reformat and reinstall Windows

4. HP Cloud Recovery Tool - will this automatically create a Recovery partition

5. Is it advisable to reformat and reinstall Windows as this laptop has just been repaired and a fresh version of windows installed

Many Thanks 

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You can use the cloud recovery tool to create a bootable USB recovery drive to reinstall W10, the drivers and the software that originally came with your notebook.

Here is an info link for how to use that utility...You will need a 32 GB USB flash drive for this.

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool in Windows 11 and 10 | HP® Customer Support

If you don't see any preinstalled HP apps, most likely the tech guy used plain W10 installation media.

There are some drivers and software you can install from the notebook's support page, and you may want to do that first.

Not all software that was included with the factory image will be available for download, such as any trial software.

HP Pavilion x360 - 13-u108na Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

If you are happy with the results, there would be no need to reinstall Windows.

I don't know if the cloud recovery tool will re-create the recovery partition in your specific model notebook.

On some models it does and on some, it doesn't.

It did not create a recovery partition when I used it on my HP 255 G7 notebook.