Recovery Media

[mpv3111]

How can I update my recovery media to be upgraded with Windows 10 Home 64-bit.  I don't want to lose my Windows 10 Home 64-bit if I needed to use my recovery kit.  I know that the recovery media would revert back to Windows 8.1  Home, and I don't want to revert and lose my copy of Windows 10.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

Unfortunately that would not be possible.  Since your notebook came with W8.1 the recovery partition and recovery media will be forever W8.1.

However you have the misconception that if you were to factory reset your notebook or reinstall W8.1 with recovery media, that you would lose your license for W10.

Should you ever have to revert to W8.1, all you need to do is to click on the blue Update Now button at the link below, and W10 will install and activate for free since Microsoft has a record of your notebook having been previously upgraded to W10.

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

Another thing you can do is to make a system image of your current W10 installation and put it on a portable hard drive using a free utility such as Macrium Reflect.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

The software will also have you create a bootable USB or DVD rescue media that you boot from so you can access the system image stored on your portable hard drive.