W-11 update killed Create Recovery Media?

[Lynster]

Hello Folks,
I recently acquired (gifted) an HP Probook 450 G7. I do some machine work for a local motorcycle speed shop and one day I noticed this Notebook sitting in the corner on a shelf. I asked "what's up with that Notebook?". The shop owner said "it won't power on, we lost the charger, and last we used it, the battery ran out really fast. Do you want it?"
I said, "how much do you want for it?" He said "take it, you can have it."
Long story short... bought an AC adapter, got it up and working, replaced the battery (yup, it drained really fast)
So now, I'm the proud owner of an HP ProBook 450 G7. It seems to be a really fast PC with a 240GB(?)SSD and 8GB Ram.
I plan to use this as my main machine in the near future as my Dell PC will not support W-11; no TPM function.
Before I got real familiar with this thing, it needed a BUNCH of Updates. No Prob.
After all the updates, I let it upgrade to W-11. Done. W-11 Pro - v24H2
I wish'd I'd played with this thing a lot more before doing that.
As I familiarized myself with the Factory installed utilities and SW, I found this item called "HP Recovery Manager" Hmmm, pretty cool! Let's try "Create Recovery Media"
It's grayed out when I try to select that item. Then I read the text underneath:
"(Recovery Partition has been Removed - The Recovery Media creation option is no longer available)"
Uh-oh
Hmmm... I opened Computer Management> Storage> Disk Management and on Disk 0, I see a "Recovery Image of 17.72GB NTFS Healthy"
SO, my question is two-fold:
1. Why does the Recovery Manager say that the "Recovery Partition has been Removed - etc."
2. Is there anyway to utilize the contents of the Recovery Image that Disk Management utility shows?

I realize if I were to do this, none of the recent updates or W-11 would be included, but at least, I'd be back at a factory installed condition.

I plan to add additional RAM (to 16GB) and Upgrade the SSD to 1TB.
Any pitfalls doing this?
From what I've read, I can use EaseUS-ToDo to clone the SSD to a larger size.
Any tips?

(I worked for Dell for a combined total of 23 years in various technical and engineering positions. After being RIF'd twice, I've got ZERO loyalty to them!)

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

There's nothing you can do that I know of, but the PC is supported by the HP client recovery software which you can use to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will return the drive to its 'out of the box' condition.

If you worked for Dell, then you should be familiar with what they provide to recover operating systems, and the HP business class PC's have a similar procedure.

Here is an info link for how to use the HP cloud recovery client software.

Pay particular attention to how to install the drivers after the OS has been reinstalled.

HP Business PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Client in Windows 11 and Windows 10 | HP® Support

You can download the software from your PC's support page at the link below:

HP ProBook 450 G7 Notebook PC Software and Driver Details