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OK. That will help. I do not know if HP's original software has any restore functions. That I think would depend on the model and year of production. Unfortunately, all the machines I have owned except two I built from parts so I have no experience with factory machines.

I have heard that it is not good to install windows on top of itself so I agree that a format and reinstall is best.

Since it is an HP machine it may even need HP's software to reformat successfully. Some manufacturers used an altered version of windows so as to prevent the loading of unlicscenced versions of windows. A bypass would be to find someone who has recently bought a new hard drive and has the install disk. The drawback is that you would have to open the case to identify the hard drive.