New Laptop runs Windows 8.1 But No OS disc

[grandadfatboy]

Hi guys and gals. I hope you are all well. My apologies for not having been around for a while, but the last 12 months have been the worst of my/our lives. Thankfully all is looking a great deal rosier now.:D:D

 

Onto my query. My wife's laptop finally gave up the ghost a week or so ago, so being the generous, loving husband that I am, I popped her in the car and 1 hour later we are walking out of PC World with a new HP laptop under arm, running Windows 8.1 64 bit. It took us a little while to get to grips with it when we got it home, but my wife seems to be enjoying using it now. XP is still my favourite.:o

 

The PC World salesman explaining all about Window 8.1, told us the first job we needed to do was to copy windows 8 to a 32gb memory stick. There is no Windows authenticity COA sticker anywhere on the laptop and no Window disc.:confused:

 

My questions are:

1. Is it possible to copy just the operating system along with it's authenticity code, directly from the laptop itself?

 

2. If so is there a link showing how to complete this task please?

 

3. There are 2 identical partitions (both marked as 'D') on the HDD designated "Recovery". Can I, or do I, just back up one of these partitions or both? Each partition is showing as being 18.71GB. I'm suspecting they are mirror images of one another, but knowing me, I could very well be wrong.:p

 

4. Can I download and burn a copy of Windows 8.1 from this forum or elsewhere on the interwebthingymebob?:D

 

5. Is it necessary to run a programme like Belarc to discover the licence code for the copy of Windows on this machine?

 

My instinctive distrust of PC's makes me a little anal about backing up all my work, normally to another partition I have created, and so far that has served me well, but no OS disc and no authenticity code is a new one on me. Please don't tell me I'm a dinosaur and I need to move forward a millennia or three.;) Have things moved on so much in such a short space of time?

 

I look forward to your replies, both constructive and comical.;)

 

All the best.

GF

[RandyL]

Good to see you again.

 

Usually with a HP computer you create your own recovery disks or you can use a thumb drive to do the same thing. If you use DVD disks they can not be the re-writable ones if I remember right. You can only do this one time so keep your recovery media safe.

 

If you reinstall from the partition or your recovery media you will not need the COA as either method installs a version of Windows that will only work for your particular model.

 

Look in Programs for a folder named "Recovery Manager" which should have the program for making the disks. If you could give us the exact model of computer (Pavillion, p6230y for instance) a manual can be looked up.

 

The next thing I would do is create a system repair disk in case Windows fails to load.

 

To be really safe you should backup all your data to an external drive as well as create an image of your drives on the external drive once you have everything set up the way you want. There are programs for making an image or you could use the Windows Backup and Restore. Windows Backup and Restore has saved me in the past when Windows would not boot. An image can also be used on a new drive if your laptop drive fails.

[KenB]

To add to what Randy has written ....

 

1. Is it possible to copy just the operating system along with it's authenticity code, directly from the laptop itself?

The "Authenticity Code" = Product Code is actually held within the BIOS and is not to be found on a sticker on the side of the machine.

 

It is possible to copy the OS ..... this can either be an image .......or a clone of the drive.

This link explains about making a cloned hard drive - click here

 

There are 2 identical partitions (both marked as 'D')

I can't see how this is possible.

Please do the following ....

Windows Key + Q .......type in .......disk management ..... click on the box that appears below

 

You are now in disk management.

Disk 0 is your hard drive.

What is listed there ? C: is the main partition ...... what other drive letters are listed ?

 

Can I download and burn a copy of Windows 8.1 from this forum or elsewhere

No this is not possible. It is possible upgrade from Win 8 to 8.1 but not to download the complete OS and save to disk.

 

Is it necessary to run a programme like Belarc to discover the licence code for the copy of Windows on this machine?

As already explained ...the Product Code is held within the BIOS.

If you did need to reinstall it would be read directly from there.

 

If you want to clone the drive ( recommended ) you need another hard drive to do this.

It is a direct copy of the installed hard drive and if there was ever a problem it is simply a case of popping the clone in and booting up to give you a working computer again.

 

You may be interested in this too - Windows 8 Tips .......click here

[Dokie]

HP System Recovery (Windows 8):

 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03489643&tmp_task=solveCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc...

 

Creating Recovery Discs (Windows 8):

 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03481733&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=5336700

 

 

Randy is correct. You can only make recovery one time. I recommend using a flash. It will take 4 or 5 DVD's .Flash is much more dependable

Edited April 16, 2014 by Dokie

[Dokie]

5. Is it necessary to run a programer like Belarc to discover the license code for the copy of Windows on this machine?

To answer your question about Belarc. Belarc will give you the 25 digit license code, which is always good to have laying around, but it shouldn't be needed to restore your PC back to factory if you make the recovery media as I recommended in my reply. I suggest the flash opposed to the DVD's. Much more reliable if your computer has the option to boot from USB ; I recommend the flash drive.

PS I'm not easily discouraged when I think I can help. I will find away:rolleyes:

[grandadfatboy]

Thank you for the replies, it is greatly appreciated. I have another question after reading the links you kindly supplied. I intend to remove the hard drive from my wife's old laptop (Windows 7) and copy her data her desktop pc. Once I have done this I was thinking of purchasing a caddy so she could use the drive to backup all her data in future. Once I have copied all the data from the old drive, can I connect it to her Windows 8 laptop and use windows 8 to completely format the drive from her old laptop? Following on from that, would it be a better idea to backup her Windows 8 laptop to the drive from her old laptop (once it is formatted) instead of backing it up to a flash drive?

 

Sorry for the complexity of my questions and I hope I explained myself properly.

 

All the best.

Ian

[Dokie]

Hello! If your asking if you can format the old HD and use it to store back ups on, the answer is yes.

 

This is MHO. You do not need to clone a drive and leave it in a drawer. You need to make a back up image of your OS on a external drive with a third party software like Macrium Reflect. You can restore your OS with this program and it will be just like the day you created the image. I have done this several times.I grantee you it will work.

[KenB]

Hi Ian

 

What you outline is correct - you can do as you say and format the old hard disk.

You may have an option regarding the file type.

FAT32 / NTFS

Either would do the job - I generally use NTFS ....it has a few more security features.

 

I would suggest that once you have done this - you partition the drive into 2 or 3 partitions.

You could then use one of the partitions for storing images of your computers.

 

The second partition could be for photos / videos

 

The third could be used for general backups / storage.

 

We can explain further if necessary.