HP Recovery Media doesn't boot

[ragenitro6]

I'm an IT professional....a friend of mine sent me his HP 4-1215dx because several months ago while he was doing the free upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 8 - he didn't relaize the AC power wasn't plugged in so it lost battery power during the upgrade.....

So it would loop with Starting Repair.....to the frowny face with error DRIVER_IRQ_LESS_THAN.....(iaStorA.sys)

After booting it to 2 different bootable USB non HP repair tools, it recognizes the Windows 8 installation etc....

So - since I didn't have a ton of time to mess with it, and attempting the F11 repair boot up - I bit the bullet and ordered the $60+ USB HP Recovery media........spent extra on overnight shipping etc

After I received it - Hit Esc several times to get the boot options menu....I tell it to use the UEFI USB stick that HP sent me

It does nothing at all.....it continue to give the errors above......

What am I supposed to do after spending $60 and this recovery media doesn't even boot...?

I know the hard drive is there and that error pertains to Intel Rapid Storage driver....but if I can't even boot the HP Recovery Media.....what am I supposed to do?

HP claims this will reinstall everything to factory etc - which is fine, there isn't a ton of data on the drive that he needs...

but seriously? What a scam!?!?! 

What am I supposed to do now?

Frustrating......

I understand if human error occurs....but I don't know what to even do next...........

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

If you have not done so already, try booting from the USB2 port.

Also go into the BIOS and enable legacy mode.  You might need to do that too.

If none of that works on the USB recovery media, see if you can use this plain W8 64 bit ISO file to install W8, and if it installs, ask HP for a refund for the recovery media.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0W9PBigPy94aVJWSndyTFNFMzg/edit?pli=1

It will work with the product key in the BIOS.

You can also use this tool to transfer the file to a 4 GB USB flash drive.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

Then go to the support page to install the drivers and available software.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-ENVY-TouchSmart-4-1200-Ultrabook/5330915/model/5360164

[ragenitro6]

Does it specifically have to be only a 4GB flash drive? Or can it be larger?

I will give this a try.......

I did change the BIOS to legacy support enable just as an FYI but didn't change the result....

Also, on this model laptop, any idea which USB port is the USB2 port?

Pretty certain I tried both - but will try that option as well.....

thanks

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The flash drive can be larger.  The file is around 3 GB, so it can't be smaller than 4 GB.

According to the user guide on the support page, the USB 2 port is on the right side.

Shows it as a USB2 charging port.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03507433

[ragenitro6]

Okay- have it downloaded and burned to USB using the tools your included......

I'll first see if the USB2 port will work with the USB that HP sent me -- if that doesn't work, I'll give the Win 8 ISO a try

Will this ISO download allow possible repairs - or just install fresh from scratch?

thanks again

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Yes, there will be an option to repair if you can get the file to boot.

On the Install Now screen, on the lower left side of the window, there will be a "Repair your computer' option.

Select that, and you will be presented with a menu of options.

[ragenitro6]

I'm searching now for a post that tells me how to obtain my license key from the BIOS.....but all I've seen so far is it's in there but in encrypted form so you can't decipher the ACTUAL key......

Is that correct?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

There should be no need to know, find or enter a product key.

The key in the BIOS should automatically populate the space where you enter the product key when you go to install Windows. 

While this won't help right now, I have zipped up and attached a utility that should allow you to see any Windows product key in the BIOS, below.

It should report an OEM product key in the BIOS.

[ragenitro6]

OKay....understand now after your post and reading about it last night.....

So I booted the Win8 ISO that I created....when I attempted to repair the Windows OS it told me 'The drive you have Windows installed on is locked'

So I created a Ubuntu LiveCD and booted from USB stick.....ran a program called testdisk

It shows the partisions as:  (500GB HD)

NTFS  [WINRE]    Which I assume is Windows Recovery (419MB in size)

NTFS [NO NAME]  (272MB in size)

NTFS [OS] (463GB in size)

NTFS (has no label to right side) but is 471MB in size

NTFS [RECOVERY] Which I assume is the HP Recovery Partition....(35GB in size)

It's been a while size I did any partition work, etc - but I assume I want [OS] to be active primary, correct?

Since there can be only 4 primary partitions - is Windows Recovery and/or RECOVERY partition supposed to be an extended partition?

I guess my overall question is :   do you know what the partiiton table should look like on this laptop?  (i.e. Start sector, end sector, size in sectors, which partitions are supposed to be set as what type?)

thanks again

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The OS partition is C:\

The Recovery partition is D:\

One of the other ones is the tools partition, but I don't know the drive letter.

When I get my PC's, I get rid of all the partitions and just have one big C:\ partition, so I don't pay much attention to what they are or what they do.

So the good news is you can boot from the W8 media you made, and you should be able to clean install W8 if you can't repair the installation.

Why not try the easiest method to fix the PC first, by using the command prompt option to repair and run the fixmbr command...

http://windows8themes.org/using-bootrec-exe-to-fix-mbr-in-windows-8-master-boot-record.html