Win 7 recovery time?

Ok this is getting a little ridiculous. I have about a 2yr old HP Pavillion (not the one I'm currently using) with Win 7 64 bit Home Premium and the hard drive was failing. Called and had HP send me a complete set of recovery discs (ended up being 5) to put Win 7 on a new hard drive. I read about these super quiet and fast solid state drives and bought one (Intel). Removed the 750gig hare drive and replaced it with the solid state. Went through the load sequence with all discs and it seemed to be working perfectly. When the last disc ejected the screen had a "click here" to install windows. Removed the disc, clicked it and the screens were typical of loading and all seemed to be great. I remember the messages saying don't interrupt the load and your computer may reboot several times. I think it said it would take up to 3 hours. That was about 14 hours ago. The system does not appear to be locked up as files are still streaming across the screen. I searched and found one guy on the net say it could take a day? Anyone heard of such a thing?

I just wonder how long it is going to be before I just pull the plug and start over.

HP's have more bloatware clogging Win7 than any other model, and the factory restore is a big mess which fails relatively often. Better to go completely clean by finding a Win7 installer for your version.

Follow these tips to get a perfect factory OEM reinstall: Reinstalling Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

Later if there are any HP bloatware programs or useless factory utilities you want they can be extracted from the HP Recover Disks using this method: https://www.sevenforums.com/installat...tml#post488270

I would contact HP and explain that you are attempting to restore to an SSD.
I thought most factory restores want to provide a partition structure to a disk at least as large as your original spinning disk.

I've got nothing against using a manufacturers OEM OS and clean up the rubbish. BUT if it was me I would probably draw the line with HP and look seriously at a clean install as suggested by gregrocker or go down the upgrade path.
HP also often seem to want to partition your disk leaving only ONE user accessible primary containing the OS and all your data. Crazy.

mjf said:

I would contact HP and explain that you are attempting to restore to an SSD.

That is exactly what I did. They sent me the discs to do it. I backed up everything I needed, removed the old drive, installed the new and proceded to load the discs. Seemed to be working but is now stuck.

I thought most factory restores want to provide a partition structure to a disk at least as large as your original spinning disk.

If this is true it could be why it's failing because the old hard disc was 750 gig and this one is 120.

I've got nothing against using a manufacturers OEM OS and clean up the rubbish. BUT if it was me I would probably draw the line with HP and look seriously at a clean install as suggested by gregrocker or go down the upgrade path.
HP also often seem to want to partition your disk leaving only ONE user accessible primary containing the OS and all your data. Crazy.

This is what I will have to do. I just don't get why they put the license number on the side of your PC when you buy it. It's worthless. I've been to their site and there is no way to use that number and get the operating system you originally paid for. What good is the number even if you could go there and download the OS, my PC has nothing on it's drive? If my hard drive failed so I no longer have a PC capable of getting to the internet, what good is that number?

I will get the program from a friend and install it and then use that number when prompted for it but it just does not make sense, the number is virtually worthless without a win 7 install disc and they don't give you one of them when you buy it. What do they expect you to do, go buy the program and then use the number on the side of your machine? That's ridiculous!

Another question. I bought the PC and paid for the OS. If I have no restore disc and the hard drive fails, how do you go to MS and say I want the OS on my new drive? Keep in mind there is nothing on the drive so there is no going to their site to download anything.

most manufacturers OEM Recovery disks are not made to Restore to SSD's.

Bare Foot Kid said:

See my post #2 above; be sure to install the exact same Windows 7 version the PC shipped with or it will not activate using the activation key from the COA sticker.

Ok, thanks. If I know it was "Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit" that's all I need right? It's not like they have multiple versions within those parameters is there?

theog said:

most manufacturers OEM Recovery disks are not made to Restore to SSD's.

This may very well be the problem but that still does not explain why HP support would gladly send me the restore discs for 15.95 when I expressly told the guy it was going on a blank 120 gig Intel SSD, that my hard drive had failed. The guy wasn't sales, he was tech. Said it will work just fine. How come he didn't know this?

I will have a bootable Win 7 64 bit home premium disc and will attempt a clean install using the number on the machine. I hope I haven't written anything to the drive already that will be a problem. The new install will obliterate anything I put on there with the HP restore discs correct?