Laptop Repair and Upgrade

HP Pavilion 15p Note Book, Win 10 Home, version 15063.

Laptop is about 5-6 years old, outwardly not a scratch on it, like new, my grand daughter wants to give it to her best friend's little girl who is coming up to 7.

There are some issues which I can resolve one of them being one of the USB ports is moving around, hopefully a tear down and soldering back to the board will resolve this.

All of the above is relatively easy but I would like to undertake a HDD upgrade.

This laptop came with a CD/DVD drive, I would like to remove the existing 1TB HDD and install it into the optical drive to be used as storage/back ups but it has the existing OS on it.

I would like to install a 250gb SSD and have the OS on that.

I can use Macrium. Aomei or EaseUs but my understanding is I can't clone from a larger HDD capacity to a smaller SSD capacity.

Which is the best way forward?

Instead of a clone would creating a mirror image of the existing OS be a better option to go from large HDD to smaller SSD?

There is practically nothing on the existing HDD save for the OS.

It isn't the total size of the source disk, but the used space that needs to be smaller than the target disk.

Imaging or cloning would work, but imaging might have a bit better chance of success.

SIW2 said:

It isn't the total size of the source disk, but the used space that needs to be smaller than the target disk.

Thank you SIW2

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ignatzatsonic said:

Imaging or cloning would work, but imaging might have a bit better chance of success.

Thank you ignatzatsonic, I have a few days to decide but of the 2, mirror might be the better option.

However a clean install of the an OS might be better but there may be an issue with that on this particular LT so I'm now told by my Grand Daughter.

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Samuria said:

As your giving it away a clean install of an uptodate windows is your best bet so they have a fresh start. HPs can be dodgy to clone as some have an interl disk protect which prevents the disk being copied. You would have to install with only the new ssd in or you may end up with boot files on the wrong drive

Thank you Samuria.

Jaylob4 said:

However a clean install of the an OS might be better but there may be an issue with that on this particular LT so I'm now told by my Grand Daughter.

Please describe why "there may be an issue with that".

A clean install might be doable in an hour or so after you swapped drives, but I'm not quite clear on why you would (necessarily) think it would be "better". Of course, after the clean install, the laptop wouldn't have whatever applications are currently on it.

Better for who and in what sense?

As I understand it, your sole intent is to give the laptop to a 7 year old?

Shouldn't be complex.

ignatzatsonic said:

Please describe why "there may be an issue with that".
A clean install might be doable in an hour or so after you swapped drives, but I'm not quite clear on why you would (necessarily) think it would be "better". Of course, after the clean install, the laptop wouldn't have whatever applications are currently on it.
Better for who and in what sense?
As I understand it, your sole intent is to give the laptop to a 7 year old?

Shouldn't be complex.

I didn't explain, I was attempting to keep my posts shorter and explain further after my repair attempts had been successful.

The laptop was given her new by her school, she hated it from the start for several reasons, some being, she discovered she could not gain full administration rights, she thinks this had something to do with school policy, that LT was chocked with HP bloatware that she could not remove. She also says she thinks the original OS was Win 7.
To circumvent all this she installed an ISO of Win 10 home via DVD, not long afterwards, apparently, the OS had a melt down and she was forced to boot to and use HPs own onboard recovery image/partition. This however was a factory/image of the original OS including all the bloatware. Fortunately she is a stickler for back ups so lost no school work or data, she started over, installed win 10 but again not long after another melt down, the laptop would not boot, another reset but then she stopped using it altogether, instead using her Mum's old Toshiba LT that saw her through. And there it remained until she asked me to resurrect it so she can give it to this little girl. My GD believes it may have something to do with her attempts to circumvent and the ISO she installed but she really isn't sure.

I have no issue with using a mirror image but am concerned by doing so and transferring it to a a new SSD I am also transferring what ever the issue might be, thus a clean/fresh ISO install might be the better option, the issue there of course is I don't have a product key.

I have just looked at the disk manager and found all these minor partitions, ( see image ), one must be the reserved partition for the original OS but don't know what the rest are for.

I would like to delete/ do away with all HP and other bloat ware if possible and those extra small partitions.

Jaylob4 said:

she started over, installed win 10 but again not long after another melt down, the laptop would not boot, another reset but then she stopped using it altogether, instead using her Mum's old Toshiba LT that saw her through. And there it remained until she asked me to resurrect.

I take that to mean that as of right now, the laptop has Windows 10 of unknown origin that is so problematic that it drove your granddaughter to Mum's Toshiba.

Do you know for a fact whether Win 10 is activated?

I assume you have little or no idea where granddaughter's Win 10 ISO came from?

As far as I know, Microsoft will still allow a free upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10, using Win 10 obtained directly from Microsoft and fully authorized. That's a possibility for you I suspect.

I'm wondering what type of Win 7 license was on the machine originally.....maybe it was restricted or educational or non-standard in some way that might limit your free upgrade options, but I wouldn't have a clue about those details.

If the current Win 10 is bogus, unauthorized, unactivated, or has major issues of some type, then of course those problems would be carried over to the new drive through a clone or image.

Assuming you don't want to outright purchase a new Win 10 license, my first thought would be to revert to 7 and then try to upgrade that to 10 through known legit means, rather than through an ISO from I don't know where.

It may be possible to un-foul the current 10, but I'm no authority. Is it activated?

ignatzatsonic said:

I take that to mean that as of right now, the laptop has Windows 10 of unknown origin that is so problematic that it drove your granddaughter to Mum's Toshiba.

I think my GD hated the color of the LT, I think it might be possible the crashes were caused by the loose USB port, I think she hated not having full administration rights, she found away around it.

Do you know for a fact whether Win 10 is activated?

It is fully activated.

I assume you have little or no idea where granddaughter's Win 10 ISO came from?

No and GD can't remember either.

As far as I know, Microsoft will still allow a free upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10, using Win 10 obtained directly from Microsoft and fully authorized. That's a possibility for you I suspect.

I am aware of this.

I'm wondering what type of Win 7 license was on the machine originally.....maybe it was restricted or educational or non-standard in some way that might limit your free upgrade options, but I wouldn't have a clue about those details.

Neither do I

---- or has major issues of some type, then of course those problems would be carried over to the new drive through a clone or image.

My reasons in my first post for saying what I did.

The Win 10 OS is fully activated, working fine and stable at the moment and has a product key.

While GD appears to think so, I am not convinced it is the Win 10 ISO installation, I think it a faulty port or more likely a clash with the original HP OS set up and the installation of Win 10 ISO.

Assuming you don't want to outright purchase a new Win 10 license, my first thought would be to revert to 7 and then try to upgrade that to 10 through known legit means, rather than through an ISO from I don't know where.

I would like to avoid costs for GD.

Are you able to answer which partitions I could delete safely from the image I posted?

see comments

Jaylob4 said:

The Win 10 OS is fully activated, working fine and stable at the moment and has a product key.
OK
While GD appears to think so, I am not convinced it is the Win 10 ISO installation, I think it a faulty port or more likely a clash with the original HP OS and set up and the installation of Win 10 ISO.

Confusion. If the laptop is "fully activated, working fine and stable at the moment and has a product key", what does "it" refer to?

What problems are there specifically other than the USB port?

Are you able to answer which partitions I could delete safely from the image I posted.

Why the need to delete any of them? That Disk Management looks much like mine: C, EFI, and 2 recoveries.

The entire drive appears to have less than 30 GB occupied space.