Windows install: Windows was preloaded, hard drive failure

[Yankee_In_TX]

I recently lost a hard drive on a laptop that came with Windows pre-installed. I was trying to get a key or download to install a fresh copy of windows on the new hard drive. Tech support said I had to take my laptop to an authorized repair center.

I ended up buying a new laptop. What steps can I take to have the ability to install Windows on a new hard drive should this drive fail in the future? (create some kind of back up, find a serial number, etc)?

All of my data was backed up and successfully recovered, but I had no way to install Windows without purchasing a copy from Microsoft.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The W10 product key is in the BIOS.

You can reinstall W10 by creating bootable installation media using the media creation tool from the link below.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

Most HP consumer class notebooks made in 2016 or later are also supported by the cloud recovery tool which you can use to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall W10, the drivers and the software that originally came with your PC.

Here is an info link for how to use that utility...

HP Consumer PCs - Using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool (Windows 10, 7) | HP® Customer Support