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Hi, not sure if I've picked the right tags but here goes..
I have an Hp Elitebook Pro laptop which was purchased from HP in Australia, with Windows10 Pro pre-installed - there was no license key or DVDs/USBs or anything so I don't know how to identify my original Windows10 "license". Importantly, it has a single M.2 slot with a 500GB ssd.
As recommended, I've now updated to Windows 11 and everything works OK so far, but I have very little room on the 500GB drive - even after doing a drive cleanup and removing the old win10 installation etc.. I don't have a second drive slot of any type (it's a super-thin notebook) so the only way I can get space back is to replace the 500GB drive with something bigger, probably 2TB at this stage.
How do I "transfer" my windows 11 installation onto the new SSD? Can I create a bootable USB from the installation on the current 500GB SSD, that somehow knows my existing license is legitimate, and will allow me to replace the SSD in the computer with a bigger one, then boot from the USB and do a fresh install onto the new SSD?
What if it all goes sideways, and I have to call tech support, without any booting computer? How will I prove that I have a legitimate Win11 install, so I can try downloading it again or whatever, without buying a new license?
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To read the 25 character product key open a Command prompt (Admin) and enter
wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey [press return] this should show the key embedded in the bios.
However, as already stated, you shouldn't need to enter that during the install routine. Select the option I'm reinstalling windows or I do not have a key, the install process will check the bios for a licence first.
If you purchased that laptop directly from HP and there was a pre-installed Windows 10/11 Pro licence, that is an OEM licence stored on a chip on the motherboard, so whenever you reset Windows or re-install Windows even on a new drive, Windows will automatically activate from the OEM licence on the motherboard, you do not need to worry about activation, at the start of the installation, skip the step to insert a product key..
Hi DaveM121, thanks for that answer, very helpful. That laptop was a direct HP purchase pre-installed with Win10, and in-place upgraded to Win11 so should be OK. Before I go taking the risk though, is there any way I can confirm the on-chip product-key is still there / current, and possibly record it in case I need it in the future?
