Reinstalling Windows 10 on Envy 15t

[Miraz_BD]

Hello Everyone. For the past few weeks I have been suffering a lot wih my Envy 15 laptop. It came with windows 8.1 but I took the free upgrade offer and now have Windows 10.

It was going fine until one day suddenly my laptop started acting weird. It will not accept any Windows Updates or any other updates. I tried to go back to a restore point I created but it was all gone!

So I have decided to do a clean Install. I have backed up everything. But after several tries and multiple errors I couldnot do that. So below are my questions. - 

1) I can make a Recovery Disk as the option is still available but I think if I do that it might revert back to Windows 8.1 and its factory defaults but I dont want to go to 8.1. Is this option anyway feasible for retaining windows 10?

2) I tried the built in reset function available under the recovery section almost like 10 times but everytime it starts a blue troubleshooting screen and says to wait. And after 30min it says there was a problem and nothing was changed!

Then downloaded Windows Media Creation Tool.

3)I chose the option to upgrade the pc and it starts downloading windows 10 but after finishing download it says windows 10 setup cannot start and I need to do a restart and start over again! I did that 3 times now. Just think of the frustation I have to go through!!!!

4) Then I downloaded the ISO file using the tool. From Microsoft's website I mounted that iso as a virtual drive and began a clean Install. I waited like 2 hours for it to check for updates and then it starts installing Windows 10. But it got stuck on 26%. I left that overnight but still nothing! Then had to do a hard boot and after starting it shows up an error dialog box "The Installation failed in SAFE_OS phase with an error during INSTALL_RECOVERY_ENVIRONMENT operation."

5) Now my only chance is to create a bootable disk and reinstall from that usb. But I am afraid I might loose the original product key.

What can I do to get a fresh Windows and still retain that Product Key?

PS- I tried sfc scannow but it got stuck at 100% verification stage.

[IT_WinSec · Accepted solution]

Hi @Miraz_BD

Welcome to the HP Support forum. Thank you for the detailed problem description and the detailed troubleshooting - that is much appreciated.

Since you previously performed upgrade from Win 8 to Win 10 on this very same computer and if you used Win 10 for a while and if Windows 10 was activated (it's licence was activated), then your computer has a Digital entitlement option stored on Microsoft servers. Because of this, you no longer need a code/lic key to activate Windows if you need to reinstall it.  More info:

 >> https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12440/windows-10-activation

>> http://www.winbeta.org/news/digital-entitlement-a-new-method-of-activation-in-windows-10

Because of this, you can directly download Windows 10 ISO from MS site or download Media creation tool from Microsoft site, create installation DVD or installation USB  and  proceed with clean installation/reinstallation.

>> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

 Windows should activate fine post installation.

How to create bootable ISO on USB device >> http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

or

How to write ISO to DVD >> http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/burn-a-dvd-on-windows

When ready with the USB drive or with the DVD:

 Please, shutdown the computer using the power button.

Insert the Windows USB thumdrive or the DVD prepared previously

Power on the PC.

As soon as you press the power-on button, keep hitting the Esc button (like tap-tap-tap).

This should open a HP Startup Menu which may look similar to this one

Choose F9 to open Boot options. Select the thumb drive or DVD as boot option.

Follow the on-screen instructions to install Windows 10

Install drivers taken from HP web site when Win installation completes or via Windows Update/Device Manager >> http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03330139

 ** If you experience issues booting from the USB or DVD, first try this and then revert back to Esc/F9 options

* Ensure Secure Boot is disabled.

* Ensure Legacy mode is enabled.

* Save the UEFI/BIOS changes.

Details>> http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03653226

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes. 🙂