problems recovering OS on pavilion notebook

[francescof]

hi. i recently had to substitute the hd on my notebook. i was able to save data before it crashed. i installed a new hd and was given a recovery disk which installed 7 ultimate instead of the 7 home premium i had before.  I keep getting "system is not genuine" pop-ups.
i'd like to restore the pc to home premium as it was before but the label on bottom of the pc is partially worn out so i'm unable to see all numbers correctly. i tried all possible variations but i keep getting invalid messages related to the key. 
questions:
1) the ms webpages i went to do not warn of ms blocking my OS if i do not comply with running on a genuine one. is this a correct evaluation of ms policies?
2) how can i solve the problem of restoring to original OS since none of the possible permutations of my origianl key are rejected?
3) should i buy a 7 ultimate license? and if so, what's the cheapest way?
thanks!! 

[WAWood]

@francescof

Win7 licenses are version-specific, so the license that came with your PC for Home Premium is not going to work with Ultimate -- as you discovered.

What you should have done is restored using Recovery Media that you could have made for free when your PC was new -- as HP provides a utility for doing that.

At this point, your recourse would be to order something known as HP Recovery Media -- but we aware that, in all likelyhood, HP does not carry it anymore as they have stopped stocking much of the Win7 media.

HP Recovery Media is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities.
In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks. You have to order these from HP; they can not be downloaded.
You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers
Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click "Update". If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the "+" symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.
Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Service:
If you live in the US or Canada, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/phone-assist.html#section1
If you live elsewhere, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-contact-us.html
NOTE: After you get through, stay on the line until you are finally able to talk to some one -- it can take a while!
If you have trouble finding a phone number, then try: 1 (800)474-6836
If HP no longer provides Recovery Media for your model, another site you can check is: http://www.computersurgeons.com

Good Luck

[francescof]

hi wawood and thanks for the  feedback. the route you suggest seems to be the only feasable one. unfortunately HP doesn't seem to have a recovery kit for my notebook and they keep me forever on the line holding for somebody tot alk to. computer surgeons is a fantastic tip too but they also don't have a disk. 
questions:
- is there an alternatiev to computer surgeons?
-  (not sure i can ask this here but...) since the windows activation info does not indicate a number of days before activating a valid license but simply prompts to "activate today. activate now" is my pc actually in danger of being blocked by ms?
thanks, f

[WAWood]

@francescof

An alternative, since HP OEM Recovery Media is not available, is to use this site:  https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-iso-download-tool
Download the Windows ISO Downloader.exe file and run it.
When the window opens, select the Windows tab in the upper-right and then click the Windows 7 radio button.
Under Select edition, choose the Windows 7 SP1 OEM Home or Pro -- to match what you have.
That will download an ISO file of the same OEM edition that HP uses.
You can then use the free RUFUS tool to create a DVD or USB stick from that ISO file and then use that to install Win7 OEM.

[francescof]

hi wawood. did as you said. burned the iso and was ready to install when i got a wizard telling me to turn pc off. 
i should disinstall ati catalyst install and ati catalyst control center and reinstall them later.
also in relation to itunes i should "deauthorize computer prior to upgrade"
- are these requests kosher and how do i go abt the itunes bit?
thanks (as you see i'm not an expert) 

[francescof]

oooops... forgot... the ati sw is not among the programs in the disinstall window so i checked the device manager where it appears under "display adapters". it's the only ati named object i can find but nothing is specifically listed as  "ati catalyst install" and "ati catalyst control center".
many thanks, again 🙂

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@francescof

I have no  idea why you're getting notices to uninstall anything.

What you SHOULD be able to do is simply reinstall Win7 OEM on top of Win7 Ultimate -- and keep what you have in terms of drivers, settings, and apps.

To do this, insert the DVD you made of Win7 OEM (do NOT boot from it), file the "drive" for the DVD, go to the root folder of that drive, find setup.exe, right-click on it and select Run as administrator.

This will install Win7 from the DVD, overwriting what you have now.

[francescof]

actually that's what i had done. but i did it again, just as i had done the first time. again, almost at the end of installation i got a wizard prompting me to close installation, delete those files, resume installation and reinstall the files i had deleted. something is not working out...

[francescof]

after a couple of time consuming but aborted attempts at downloading a couple of versions of the iso i went for what i figured was the simplest one. was able to burn it and with a little finagling with the product key i was able to successfully install and be recognized as a genuine version. in order to bypass all the problems i was encountering at a certain point i was actually thinking of just buying a new pc. many thanks!