HP P7-1235 PC Factory Partition not working

[AustinTech]

Hi, I have this HP desktop here that has been not used since 2012 and i need to factory reset it back to the HP factory partition that has windows 7. The partition is there but when i click F11 on startup it just boots into windows and also when i click ESC and it says that system recovery is there and when i clicked it the screen went black for like 5 minutes. Please help!!

[banhien]

@AustinTech 

More than 12 years old now, the partition could be corrupted one way or the other. Windows 7 is no longer supported. You can install Windows 10 (also will be out of support very soon) and live with it for one more year or so. Please create an installation media and start from there.

                   https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10

After that, please run Windows 10 updates few times (NOT in one go, say at least 15mins apart) to allow machine to update few drivers.

Regards.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

Your laptop has an OEM version of Windows on it, and if you install a version from Microsoft, that will NOT activate -- even if the laptop was running Win10 previously, as the MS version expects a Retail product key, not an OEM product key.

If that happens, you will have to BUY Win10 to use it -- and MS formally ended the Win7-to-Win10 free upgrade late last year, so you can not do that upgrade anymore.

[AustinTech]

I know I need windows 10 but I dont have a USB drive and that PC doesnt have internet 

[AustinTech]

I have no idea how the recovery partition got corrupted and i havent used it for over 10 years but i will try again 1 more time

[AustinTech]

I just bought the recovery media from HP Recovery Center Computer Surgeons

Computer Surgeons - Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit Recovery Kit C4G69AV For HP Pavilion Desktop Model...

[AustinTech]

Update: 

I bought recovery media from computer surgeons and factory reset it. it worked perfectly!