What version of Windows 10 on a laptop should I install after a wipe of the computer?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The recovery drive will just reinstall Windows, not to its out of the box condition, unless you also made the System Image to use with the recovery drive using the built in Windows image creation tool (like W7 has).  And you can update the system image any time you want.

The Recovery Manager's Create Recovery Media tool will create recovery media and restore the PC's hard drive to its 'out of the box' condition.

It will not restore the PC to its latest condition.  For example, any files and programs you add will not be included in the recovery media created by the HP recovery manager.

[mrje1]

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@Paul_Tikkanen wrote:

Hi:

The recovery drive will just reinstall Windows, not to its out of the box condition, unless you also made the System Image to use with the recovery drive using the built in Windows image creation tool (like W7 has).  And you can update the system image any time you want.

The Recovery Manager's Create Recovery Media tool will create recovery media and restore the PC's hard drive to its 'out of the box' condition.

It will not restore the PC to its latest condition.  For example, any files and programs you add will not be included in the recovery media created by the HP recovery manager.

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Thank you again! Awesome! I am glad I asked this question. I would of just done the recovery drive option to later been fustrated like that story you shared! 😞

I actually want one flash drive that will restore it to the "out of box condition" and another flash drive for the drive and installing windows.

Things are starting to move forward now. I am as I type creating that Creat Recovery Media flash drive and it looks like I am going to wipe out the drive and reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 10 like you do. Also, if needed be in the future I can always go back to the out of box condition. I'll keep you posted.

Hope your morning is going well!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Have a great day, and I hope the clean installation of W10 goes well, and your notebook runs better than with the factory HP image.

[mrje1]

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@Paul_Tikkanen wrote:

Anytime.

Have a great day, and I hope the clean installation of W10 goes well, and your notebook runs better than with the factory HP image.

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Awesome! Will do. Thank you!

[mrje1]

Paul,

Would I be ok with a 16gb flash drive to do image backups or even a regular recovery disk made through windows and not HP stuff like Recovery manager or recovery drive?

Thank you again!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

No, you will need a portable hard drive to save your image.

I don't think you can just back up the OS, and if you can, you would probably need a 32 GB flash drive.

Otherwise, you always have the W10 installation flash drive you make from the media creation tool.

[mrje1]

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@Paul_Tikkanen wrote:

No, you will need a portable hard drive to save your image.

I don't think you can just back up the OS, and if you can, you would probably need a 32 GB flash drive.

Otherwise, you always have the W10 installation flash drive you make from the media creation tool.

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Thank you again! Ok, sounds good.

Also, I ran into an issue last night. I  did the reset recovery and selected "fully clean option". During the reset it got stuck at 42%. I had to abort. What would cause that and is there a fix? Also, should I still go with this method if no fix etc.?

I just want to make sure here so I feel more comfortable. For some reason I am kind of stuck on whether I should delete all the partions that are part of the factory settings.

Sorry if I am repeating here, but  will I be ok or will I have problems if I decided to go ahead and delete the partitions completely from my Windows 10 1803 flash drive? Or any method that removes all partitions.

Bottom line, Do I truly need those partitions for any reason? These partitions were setup by HP and have certain files that they put on it. I would like to make sure I'm not messing things up if I go ahead and delete them.

If I decide to delete the partitions by any method, will that factory reset flash drive I created from the Recovery Manager restore those partitions?

Thank you again! I really appreciate it especially an ongoing thread like this one.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Not sure why the recovery failed but if you made the factory recovery media, you can delete all of those partitions.

I don't see a need for them.

I have always deleted all of the partitions on the HDD, and created one C:\ partition.

The HP recovery media you made is supposed to put the hard drive back to its 'out of the box' condition, which means it will put all of those partitions back including the recovery partition.

[mrje1]

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@Paul_Tikkanen wrote:

Hi:

Not sure why the recovery failed but if you made the factory recovery media, you can delete all of those partitions.

I don't see a need for them.

I have always deleted all of the partitions on the HDD, and created one C:\ partition.

The HP recovery media you made is supposed to put the hard drive back to its 'out of the box' condition, which means it will put all of those partitions back including the recovery partition.

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Thank you so much! I am feeling more comfortable now.

Now, I got to decide what method I want to use now. I was thinking either going through the factory recovery media, Diskpart command "Clean All", or via Windows 10 installation drive I created and delete the partitions and then clean install or try again with the reset, which one do you like, just curious? Also, the best option that would not reinstall windows automatically, because I want to use my disk I created with the most updated one?

Also, if I used the factory recovery media, which one to choose either System Recovery option or the Factory Reset option that would give me the option to delete partitions?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I have always deleted the partitons via the Windows installation media.

With the recovery media you created, as I wrote the other day, you will have to see what options you have.

With all of mine, I had no options...boot from the HP recovery media and follow the onscreen instructions which were basically 'if you proceed, all data will be lost.  Click next.'