Flexibilty of Recovery Disks

[Woodwood]

Can anyone tell me to which models the same recovery disk set is applicable ?

For example if I have a reovery disk set made for a dm4-1050ea I suspet that it can be used in any dm4-1050ea.  But can those disks recover a dm4-1140sa ?  Or would they not work, or turn the 1140sa into a 1050ea as regards software ?  (eg, changing things like os from Pro->Home, maybe 500GB HDD drivers would be replaced with 320GB ones and they wouldn't work,  )

Woodwood

4.March.2017

[IT_WinSec]

Hello,

Thank you for posting in the HP Support forum.

Each and every HP computer has unique (and not so unique) identificators. One such identificator is the product number (not serial number). More info about this can be found here > http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00033108

-  Recovery media are the same for the same product number of the computer. If they share the same product number and tag, the recovery media will work.

Also,

-  the operating system must be the same. If you happen to have the same devices but first one came with Windows 7 and has a lic for Windows 7 , and the second one came with WIndows 8 and has a lic for Windows 8, you cannot use the same recovery media and install Windows 7 (for example) on both. Windows 7 Recovery media will only activate eventually on the one that initially had Win 7, not on the one that had Windows 8 initially

-  HDD : size of the HDD must the same or with bigger capacity (if changed). For example, if HDD was initially 320 GB, new one (if changed) must be either 320 GB or bigger (500, 750, GB  1 TB, etc....)

Let me know if this answers your query.

[Woodwood]

Thank you, IT_WinSec, for taking the time to address my question.

To confirm what you are saying: the recovery media for one model will work in other computers of the same model, i.e., product number.   (Identical model numbers are supplied with the same software including OS; that is what the HP specifiations imply).  The HDD must be the same size or bigger (I noticed recently that a seagate HDD appeared to be two sectors [1KB] smaller than the corresponding Hitchi  one  [500GB].  Is this plausible ?  Would it affect the putative operation ?).  Would the amount of RAM matter (I have upgraded most of my computers from the RAM originally supplied) ?

Does your answer imply that recovery media for a model will not work in very a similar model ?  I understand that the recovery media would not be effective if it was implemented on a model with a different OS, Win7 Home Prem vs. Win 7 Pro, say.  Would the CPU details make any difference (i5-430M vs i5-450M, all other things being the same) ?

Woodwood

4.March.2017

[IT_WinSec]

Woodwood wrote:

Thank you, IT_WinSec, for taking the time to address my question.

To confirm what you are saying: the recovery media for one model will work in other computers of the same model, i.e., product number.   (Identical model numbers are supplied with the same software including OS; that is what the HP specifiations imply). 

You are welcome !   🙂

Please, re-read the initial description above. Yes, it should work if the very same product number (PN), the very same OS and if the HDD requirement fits.

The HDD must be the same size or bigger (I noticed recently that a seagate HDD appeared to be two sectors [1KB] smaller than the corresponding Hitchi  one  [500GB].  Is this plausible ?  Would it affect the putative operation ?).  Would the amount of RAM matter (I have upgraded most of my computers from the RAM originally supplied) ?

If the very same PN, the amount of RAM should not matter.

With regards to such an HDD different with 2 sectors ? I have never come across such a situation and I cannot comment things I didn't seen personally. If the HDDs are the same form factor (example - both are 2.5 inches and both read 500 GB or one is 500GB, the other is 1 TB) should work

Does your answer imply that recovery media for a model will not work in very a similar model ?  I understand that the recovery media would not be effective if it was implemented on a model with a different OS, Win7 Home Prem vs. Win 7 Pro, say.  Would the CPU details make any difference (i5-430M vs i5-450M, all other things being the same) ?

Different CPU details and video cards (for example) will probably results in different PN.

Different OS - the edition Home Premium and Pro - HP does not make different recovery media for such OS different (edition difference). One more comes with Windows 7 and it is Windows 7 (one thing - example Pro). HP does not make different recovery media for the very same model (same PN) with Windows 7 Ultimate (for example).

However, there are certain CTO (configure to order) models where some users may choose their OS - either Windows 7, 8.1 or 10.

Different OS but the PN will (should) be the same. If the recovery media contains Windows 7 but the PC originally came with Windows 10, the recovery medial may not work or if it works will not activate Windows.

[Woodwood]

Thank you.

A comment on the last para  of your repy, IT-WinSec

I had believed identical models came with identical software so there was an issue about media for Different editions on the same model.  I had not thought of CTO models.  I thought that some very similar models differed only in edition of OS or RAM or HDD size. 

I had always thought different CPUs meant different model numbers but thought that was an insignificant difference wrt recovery media; it seems that is not the case, and different CPU necessariy means you need different recovery media. 

In the models I was thinking of, I thought the graphics were all the same - built in Intel HD of the same type, although with different amounts of RAM reserved for graphics/video.

If you had upgraded to W10 subsequent to purchase from new, I thought the recovery media for that model would still work, but it would return you to originally issued OS, win7 Home, Win7 Pro, Win 8, etc. 

Woodwood

4.March.2017