My question is: I have a HP laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium on it and I want to do a clean install. I don't want to restore from the recovery partition. Again I want to do a clean install. The laptop came with no CD or DVD it has only a "recovery partition" and the "F11" option. I want to know if I can use the license key from the sticker with a Windows 7 installation DVD. Also ,if possible, can someone tel where to find one for free.
Yes, you can use the sticker key with a win7 install dvd as long as you install the same edition the computer came with. As for finding the the dvd, google is your friend.
I can understand you wanting to carry out a clean install, but before you do, I'd advise you create a set of recovery disks first so that you can restore your laptop to its out-of-box state should the need arise.
For example, you may want to sell it in the future and without recovery disks you'd have to let Windows 7 go with it.
If the clean install goes haywire for any reason, it's always a good idea to have a way of recovering your system as a backup.
Always best to make the Recvery Diasks.
How to make HP Recovery DVD disks:
Recover Windows Vista Operating System Using HP Recovery - HP Customer Care (United States - English)
How to make HP Recovery USB disk:
Creating a Recovery Disk on a USB Flash Disk HP Pavilion dv6700z CTO Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)
or
You can Order HP Recovery Disks from here:
Compaq Mini CQ10-500 PC series - HP Notebook PCs - Order Recovery Discs for Windows 7, Vista, or XP - c00810334 - HP Business Support Center
Hello granspixe, welcome to Seven Forums!
Have a look at the information in this tutorial at the link below and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.
Here are steps to get a perfect clean reinstall of HP Factory OE M using the Product Key on COA sticker: Reinstalling Windows 7
In addition with HP you can extract any desired preinstalled apps from your Recovery disks (e.g. Works, etc) using this method: Extract HP 3rd Party Software from RecovCD
Thank you all for the replies. I already made a backup image of all my partitions. I'm now trying to figure out what type of Windows 7 installation version I need. The sticker on the back of my laptop reads: "Windows 7 Home Prem OA HP". So it appears to be OEM. Wondering what 'OA" stands for?
You will need the Home Premium installation media and the COA key will be simular to this, 5 groups of 5 letters/numbers.
G0BUY-TH3S0-FTWAR-3ATMI-CS0FT
Why do you need to now?
You have a backup image of all my partitions.
OA version on COA sticker means it was Offline Activated using manufacturer's COA-SLP mass-activation method. When you use the Product Key on sticker, it changes to COA-OEM activation method which is handled by MS activation servers.
First try online activation by inserting key at Computer>Properties then if necessary follow the prompts to activate by phone.
If it fails to prompt with phone number list, use this phone activation procedure:
Last edited by Brink; 06 Aug 2011 at 17:59. Reason: replaced link with one of ours for the same thing
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