New HP Notebook with 8-how do you make restore discs, 8 pro, and other dumb questions

[Wolfpup]

Not sure which forum section would be best for this...

Just bought a cheap HP with an A8 (actually seems pretty amazing for the price!)

So PCs used to include restore discs (yay!) then mostly just included a program that BUILT restore discs.

Now, as near as I can tell, this PC doesn't have any HP program to build restore discs.

There IS a Windows 8 option which appears to build restore discs...I guess I use that? I'm not clear on whether I can do a clean install with the included software. Maybe I use the Windows 8 restore disc creator, reinstall on a new drive, then use the "reset" option or whatever that's new in 8 to give me a (supposedly) clean install?

Then too, I probably want to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro. If I use a full upgrade disc, will that work on top of 8 regular? (I've only done it from 7 before.) Can I do a clean install that way?

If instead I buy a code from Microsoft, use that "Anytime Upgrade" thing, does that code work like any other activation, where after x amount of time it can be used again to reinstall?

And last, anyone know how Office 2013 and Windows 8's activation times work? I hate activation in general, and it also makes me paranoid that some time when I reinstall the OS it'll tell me I've "used up" my activations or whatever. Thankfully you don't have to reinstall all the time like with 9x, but still...

Feel dumb I don't know the answers to these questions!

 

[Dahak]

For the recovery media, the last time I worked on one, the recovery media creator was an icon in the metro apps. Also you can look at HP Create Recover Media for detailed instructions as well

The recovery media created with the hp software will NOT be a clean install, it will be as it came from the factory

A clean install from the Pro Upgrade media, I believe you can.

Activation times, for office 2013, it is tied to a MS Account so that does not matter. For windows, should be fine as long as you are not doing it too frequently. for example like once a few days should be ok, 10 times in one day will not be

 

[JEDIYoda]

Not sure which forum section would be best for this...

Just bought a cheap HP with an A8 (actually seems pretty amazing for the price!)

So PCs used to include restore discs (yay!) then mostly just included a program that BUILT restore discs.

Now, as near as I can tell, this PC doesn't have any HP program to build restore discs.

There IS a Windows 8 option which appears to build restore discs...I guess I use that? I'm not clear on whether I can do a clean install with the included software. Maybe I use the Windows 8 restore disc creator, reinstall on a new drive, then use the "reset" option or whatever that's new in 8 to give me a (supposedly) clean install?

Then too, I probably want to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro. If I use a full upgrade disc, will that work on top of 8 regular? (I've only done it from 7 before.) Can I do a clean install that way?

If instead I buy a code from Microsoft, use that "Anytime Upgrade" thing, does that code work like any other activation, where after x amount of time it can be used again to reinstall?

And last, anyone know how Office 2013 and Windows 8's activation times work? I hate activation in general, and it also makes me paranoid that some time when I reinstall the OS it'll tell me I've "used up" my activations or whatever. Thankfully you don't have to reinstall all the time like with 9x, but still...

Feel dumb I don't know the answers to these questions!

You can get most of your questions answered accurately by going to the HP site and then your computer and then FAQ.......

 

[Wolfpup]

Dang, I made the backup disks, swapped hard drives, it was in the process of loading the backup, rebooting, etc, and now it's in an infinite loop, showing the WIndows 8 flag, then rebooting.

Playing with the BIOS settings the best I can get is it not seeing the hard drive at all.

I'm possibly an idiot here, though it seems like some UEFI weirdness :-/

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Can you read the drive if you plug it in to another computer via external adapter?

Hmm, what happens if you turn off UEFI in the BIOS?

 

[Wolfpup]

Can you read the drive if you plug it in to another computer via external adapter?

Hmm, what happens if you turn off UEFI in the BIOS?

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I need to double check this drive in another computer. Huge pain, but I need to rule that out.

I got it installed and intermittently booting by reinstalling the HP OS while in "legacy" mode. That STILL seems to leave it failing to boot the first time. Gives an error about no OS, then rebooting immediately loads the OS.

While the legacy/BIOS settings are super straight forward and work great on my Dell/Alienware M17x-R4, on this HP they seem...more confusing, at best. It says that even in legacy mode it follows the UEFI boot order FIRST before going to the BIOS boot order, which seemingly makes no sense. I'm not sure if the secure boot stuff is causing issues too.

I'm going to pull the drive, double check that it seems to mount on a different computer reliably (it's a Crucial, so I'd be surprised if it didn't, but...) and if it does, I'm going to swap in the original drive, see what that does, and probably return the system. I'm really suspecting HP's done something weird here with their UEFI/BIOS support...