How to reset a Windows 11 Pro laptop without losing data? ( It says could not find recovery environment)

[avg123]

Background:

Quote

 

My HP laptop originally came with Windows 10 Home. It also came with a Windows 10 Home Recovery Environment Partition which you can still use to restore to OEM Windows 10 Home.

 

Now I had upgraded my Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro but the Recovery Environment still stayed as Windows 10 Home, meaning if I recovered from the RE, it would still install Windows 10 Home

 

I think the key for Windows 10 Home is baked into the BIOS because if I install Windows 10 from a multi edition ISO, and chose " Install without product key" it will always install Windows 10 Home.

 

I have to manually create a Windows 10 Pro Only installation media to force install Windows 10 Pro.

 

Now I had again upgraded the Windows 10 Pro to Windows 11 Pro for free. Same thing happens again. If I install from Windows 11 multi edition, it will always install Windows 11 Home edition unless I create a Installation Media with only Windows 11 Pro.

 

But the recovery Environment for the laptop is still Windows 10 Home meaning if I boot into the recovery environment and reinstall Windows, it will still install Windows 10 Home after all this time

 

 

 

Now to my problem now. At present my laptop is running Windows 11 Pro.  i have a lot of stuff downloaded to my Downloads folder. I just want to reset my Pc without losing my files. 

 

 

When I do this, it says 

 

 

 

I googled and found websites that told to check if recovery environment is enabled using command line

 

 

This is where I am stuck right now. I just want to reset this pc without losing my downloaded data . I dont have enough space anywhere to just copy the files somewhere and fresh install Windows. Somebody please help 

[jaslion]

Backup your data and do a proper windows reinstall.

 

Reset this pc is known to wipe data even if you tell it to keep it.

 

Also it really sucks and most of the time doesnt fix anything and often makes it worse.

 

Other than actuallt backing up and doin a reinstall there is little to do

[Zando_]

13 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Backup your data and do a proper windows reinstall.

 

Reset this pc is known to wipe data even if you tell it to keep it.

 

Also it really sucks and most of the time doesnt fix anything and often makes it worse.

 

Other than actuallt backing up and doin a reinstall there is little to do

HP's Windows image is also the major source of trouble with any HP machine. For years now I've reinstalled Windows (copy straight from Microsoft) first thing during setup of a new HP machine, have dodged 99% of issues since. Only problems those machines have now are normal ones, where an SSD goes out or something after years of use. So I'd flat recommend doing so on any OEM machine regardless of whether it manifested any issues yet. 

[FrowningHippo]

You could still download Windows 11 directly from Microsoft. That digital download, if done correctly, will allow you to reinstall Windows and then put your 'old' Windows Installation in a folder called Windows.old. That folder can be found in the C directory. You will have 28 days to put the files into your new installation.

 

Reinstall Windows - Microsoft Support Link for convenience.

[manikyath]

22 minutes ago, avg123 said:

i have a lot of stuff downloaded to my Downloads folder.

sounds like a great reason to stop storing shit in the downloads folder.

 

this is a great moment to add that the downloads folder is the only "vanity" folder in your profile (the ones with an icon: desktop, pictures, documents, downloads, music, video's) that is excluded from OneDrive, because it's very purpose is that it's a place stuff is downloaded to, and then moved where it belongs.

[NumLock21]

How did you upgrade from Home to Pro?

[avg123]

9 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

How did you upgrade from Home to Pro?

Through digital license.

 

Originally my laptop came with a OEM key for Windows 10 Home which was great for everything except that it did not have bitlocker which my other laptop had because it came with Windows 10 pro and basic encryption of harddrive should not be a "pro" feature. That is a basic requirement.

 

So I installed forced installed Windows 10 Pro without activation key.

 

The installed windows 10 pro was inactivated.

 

Then I used kms to activate it for 180 days.

 

Then I upgraded the kms activated windows 10 pro to windows 11 pro because Microsoft was giving free upgrades from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

 

So now I have a Windows 10 pro/ Windows 11 pro license tied to my hardware ID permanently without needing to do anything else even if I fresh install.

 

But I also have the Windows 10 Home key saved to my BIOS and a Windows 10 Home recovery Environment

 

So whenever I install Windows from a multi edition iso, whether it is Windows 10 or Windows 11, it always uses the saved oem key to activate, rather than relying on relying on hardware Id to activate the pro version.

 

All this PITA because I needed bitlocker.

 

Now I cant reset my windows 11 pro because it does not recognise the Windows 10 Home Recovery Environment already present in my hard drive.

[NumLock21]

10 hours ago, avg123 said:

Spoiler

Through digital license.

 

Originally my laptop came with a OEM key for Windows 10 Home which was great for everything except that it did not have bitlocker which my other laptop had because it came with Windows 10 pro and basic encryption of harddrive should not be a "pro" feature. That is a basic requirement.

 

So I installed forced installed Windows 10 Pro without activation key.

 

The installed windows 10 pro was inactivated.

 

Then I used kms to activate it for 180 days.

 

Then I upgraded the kms activated windows 10 pro to windows 11 pro because Microsoft was giving free upgrades from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

 

So now I have a Windows 10 pro/ Windows 11 pro license tied to my hardware ID permanently without needing to do anything else even if I fresh install.

 

But I also have the Windows 10 Home key saved to my BIOS and a Windows 10 Home recovery Environment

 

So whenever I install Windows from a multi edition iso, whether it is Windows 10 or Windows 11, it always uses the saved oem key to activate, rather than relying on relying on hardware Id to activate the pro version.

 

All this PITA because I needed bitlocker.

 

Now I cant reset my windows 11 pro because it does not recognise the Windows 10 Home Recovery Environment already present in my hard drive.

 

To get this out of the way, always back up your data before doing anything with your PC.

 

The free upgrade they were offering is for the same edition, say from Win10 Home to Win11 Home, to go from Home to Pro, you will still need to buy a Pro license, btw did you buy a Pro license? If yes, did you ever get a physical product key, say on a sticker or on this business size card. If not, then did you buy Pro from the Windows Store?

For the current state your system is in right now, where the recovery isn't working, it's definitely not going to work because the edition of the Windows does not match, therefore it has been disabled. What you can try to do is downgrade from Pro back to Home, through some registry editing. I personally have never tried this, and I have no idea what the successful rate is, but this just converts from Win 11 Pro to Win 11 Home. I'm not sure whether by doing is would be enough for the recovery to work again, when the recovery environment is originally Win 10 Home and Win 11 Home.

If converting Win 11 Pro to Win 11 Home and the recovery environment is still not working, then you have no other choice, but to back up all data and perform a clean install.

When performing a clean install, see if you can do a direct boot into the HP recovery environment, bypassing whatever OS you're currently running on.This would let you recovery your system back to its original state as in, when you just got it. When that is all done, to change to Pro, head over to the activation page, then tell it you want to upgrade your edition of Windows, Enter your Pro product key and it will convert to Pro. Don't have the key, then select Windows Store, enter your login info, the same info when you purchase that Pro license, it will ready from your purchase history and then convert to Pro.

 

HP recovery environment simply does not want to work, then can try their cloud recovery.