Reinstall windows on new hard drive

[Alexamk]

Hello, 

Recently the hard drive of my hp probook brokd down. It's since been replaced, but now I need to find a way to reinstall windows on it. 

If I understand correctly, I should be able to use the same windows license as used previously, since it is tied to the machine. 

However, it's unclear to me how to proceed from here. I can't find a license key anywhere on the machine itself, or in the BIOS. Also, I can't remember the version of Windows that came installed on the laptop when I got it (it may have been upgraded/downgraded since).

What would be the best way to proceed? Is there a way to find out which windows license key is tied to the machine? And can I use that to reinstall windows on it?

Hope you can help,

Alex

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Alex:

You can reinstall W10 as follows...

You can make a W10 USB flash drive installer with the Microsoft Media Creation Tool, using an 8 GB flash drive using another Windows PC, if your PC is not working.

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

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, select the 'I don't have a product key' option, and W10 will install and automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.

Here are the steps to create the W10 USB flash drive installer...

Select Download tool now, and select Run.

If you agree to the license terms, select Accept.

On the What do you want to do? page, select Create installation media for another PC, and then select Next.

Select the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10. You want 64 bit.

Select which media you want to use:

USB flash drive. Plug in a blank USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space. Any content on the flash drive will be deleted.

Then you can reinstall the drivers and available software from the PC's support page.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-probook-450-g3-notebook-pc/7834555

You can also use the HP Cloud Recovery Client software to reinstall W10...

This package provides the Cloud Recovery Client for supported models running a supported operating system. This Client Utility enables users to download the Recovery Kit from the cloud.

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp85001-85500/sp85318.exe

I have attached the instructions for how to use the Cloud Recovery Client software below.