How to De-Partition My Hard Disk to Its Factory Defaults?

[tmr1]

Hello everyone.

I have a HP Pavilion dv6 laptop. During the last couple of years my brother used this laptop and he re-partitioned the hard drive and also installed a new operating system other than the original.

Now, I want to restore this laptop back to its factory settings by using my HP Recovery Manager dvd disks that I created when I purchased this laptop. However, when I try to use HP Recovery Manager, it gives an error message and says that "the hard disk drives are not enough to perform a recovery to factory settings". I think the reason for this is that my hard disk was repartitioned and therefore the partitions are probably not compatible for factory settings.

My question is: how can I de-partition my hard disk back to its factory partition settings? Is there any such option? Or alternatively, is there any way to learn the original partition sizes so that I can manually re-arrange the partitions to set them to their original size?

Thank you very much in advance for your help and time.

[Huffer]

You do not need to know the original partition sizes. My guess is your brother may have installed Linux and used a Linux partition system and the HP installer will not know how to work with those partitions. You need to nuke the drive. 

One really easy way to do that is with a disk called dban (Darik's boot and nuke) make the bootdisk from it and boot from that disk and choose to wipe the drive using a DOD-compliant wipe. This will make the hard drive blank and the original HP installer will work fine on a blank drive. 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/files/dban/dban-2.3.0/dban-2.3.0_i586.iso/download

Here is how you turn dban into a bootable usb stick:

https://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-dban-to-a-usb-flash-drive-using-windows/

Post back with any more questions. There are other ways to do this which are perhaps easier but this method is very reliable and effective. 

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it. 

[tmr1]

Hello Huffer.

Thank you very much for your prompt and detailed response.

The operating system my brother installed was still a Windows.

To give you the exact error message, I tried the recovery again using Recovery Manager. I can translate the exact error message as follows:

"This computer has a Hard Disk Drive which is smaller than the original hard disk drive that came with your computer, and therefore the recovery to the factory settings cannot be implemented."

By the way, when I open the Disk Manager tool, I see two sections. Firstly, there is a "C:" section which is 232 GB. Secondly, there is another section which does not have any letter-name and it has a name that I can translate as "System Set Aside" and it has only 100 MB size.

I think that the problem can be something like this: maybe the factory settings will require a C: and a 😧 disk drive, but my computer has only a C: drive at the moment. Therefore, maybe the Recovery Manager is not able to put the necessary files to a 😧 drive. But this is just one possibility, and maybe the problem is something else.

Once again, thank you very much for your help.

[Huffer]

So it seems like it is a 250 gig hard drive. Is it the factory original? Seems small by recent standards. The drive does have to be a minimum size for the HP recovery disk to work right. 

[tmr1]

Hi again Huffer. Now I asked my brother and learnt that he changed the original hard drive. So, at the moment, the hard drive that I have is not the original. Moreover, this hard drive is an SSD hard drive. I didn't know about this change and I only asked him now upon your reply.

Do you think the problem may be stemming from the fact that my laptop has only a C: drive and the Recovery Manager may need a 😧 drive to put some files?

If so, I can manually create a 😧 drive and randomly assign a size to it so that the Recovery Manager can perform its operation. But in this case, I don't know whether the Recovery Manager will require my laptop to have the exact same partition sizes as original. Do you have any idea?

I think that if the Recovery Manager requires only a C: drive, the current C: drive must be enough in size. So, I think that the problem is either that we need a 😧 drive, or that we need partition(s) that are exactly the same size as original factory settings. But this is just my guess, and I didn't want to do it without making sure.

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

No its not about C: and 😧 it is purely the overall size of the drive. It is too small for the HP Recovery disk to work. You are going to have to reinstall Windows a different way. You don't want to lose the solid state drive, that is a major performance upgrade. Did it ever have Windows 10 installed on it and activated? Was that the other Windows your brother put on it? If so it is easy and free to get a Windows 10 reinstall disk by downloading it from Microsoft. 

[tmr1]

No, it was not a Windows 10 or 8.

If I remember correctly, some time ago I tried to download Windows 7 by using my Windows 7 key that came with this laptop, and I received an error message that I can translate, as far as I remember, as "You need to contact your laptop provider for obtaining a copy of Windows".

Therefore, I thought that my only option is to use my Recovery Manager dvd disks.

There is another point that I am curious about. I don't remember the size of my original hard drive. However, my recovery disks were created when I purchased the laptop, and  therefore the Recovery Manager will probably install some files that are no more than 20 GB. If this is the case, why do you think the Recovery Manager creates a problem with my 250 GB hard drive? Is there a necessity to have an exact same hard disk size for Recovery Manager to perform a recovery to factory settings?

By the way, thank you very much for your patience and help!

[tmr1]

It seems that I can't install a fresh Windows 7 via downloading it from Microsoft, and also I can't use my HP Recovery Manager disks to restore factory settings. I'm kind of stuck and really don't know what to do. I really don't understand why the HP Recovery Manager refuses to use my new hard disk, which has 250 GB available space while the recovery disks will occupy at most 20 GB.

I am still curious whether formatting my hard disk and creating C: and 😧 drives would solve the problem. Even though Huffer stated that it is not about C: and D:, I am still curious whether the problem may be that the HP Recovery Manager is trying to put some files to 😧 but cannot do it since 😧 doesn't exist in my case. But if I format my hard disk to create C: and D:, and if this doesn't work, then I will be in a real trouble.

Does anybody see where the problem is or what can be a solution here? Especially, why does HP Recovery Manager says that my hard disk is smaller than original? I mean, why is it a problem if there is enough space for the recovery? Why doesn't it allow me to use a different hard disk?

[Huffer]

This has been an issue known here for years. I can't speak to why. C and D makes no difference because whatever partitions YOU put on the drive the recovery manager will remove them and install its own. PM me for some discussion re possible Windows 7 options.

[tmr1]

Hello Huffer and all,

Thank you very much for all the information and help.

I think the issue is understood now, and I hope this discussion helps people like me in the future. It seem that the only solution is to install a fresh/clear Windows 7 using a suitable method.