Recovery Manager Missing

[Kelasmith]

Hi guys,

I have just brought a second hand HP Pavilion dv7-4285dx entertainment laptop and I am wanting to do a factory reset. I tried the f11 fucntion when windows starts up but it doesnt work, windows just opens up as normal. I have pressed the start key to look for recovery manager but it doesnt come up.  I did a little digging and located the application but when i try to install it its comes up harddick.dll missing. Can anyone help. Im Running windows 7

[patio]

No idea what the previous owner did...may have deleted the recovery partition...
You can order the recovery CD from HP however...

[Kelasmith]

Thank you for your advice. Is there no way I can reinstall the harddisk.dll

[BC_Programmer]

From what I can find this seems to be what happens to those systems when somebody tries to upgrade the edition of Windows from the original installation. The only "fix" provided seems to be either a clean install of Windows (using normal Windows media and a appropriate license key) or using the Restore CD that Patio noted.

[Kelasmith]

Do i download the new install of windows

[Geek-9pm]

It is preferable to use the HP DVD, if you can get it.
Maybe this will help:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/c3215dac-e74e-4a80-8479-e889e75ad255/installing-windows-7-oem-dvd-using-hp-oem-key?forum=w7itproinstall
Installing Windows 7 OEM DVD using HP OEM Key

Otherwise, you can download the ISO from Microsoft ft if you have the valid product key.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7
The link above wants yur product key first.

[Kelasmith]

Thanks for the advice amd help guys i ended up getting microsoft to log in and do a clean install of windows 7.

Thanks