HP Pavillion G6 2082sa laptop - cannot recover to factory settings UIA Write FAILed ...

[alexmc6]

My Pavillion laptop is just two days old and doesn't have a working OS on it. (UK machine model G6 2082SA, i5, 6Gb, 750Gb disk)

I had Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit working fine for a few hours but I tried to make it Dual boot with Ubuntu. Installing Ubuntu worked fine - except that in the process I broke my Windows Install. Since I don't have the original Windows media and I could not repair the Windows install my only option now is to recover to factory settings. Except that it fails every time with 

"UIA Write FAILed three times !!!" (Yes - with that CAPitalisation)

I get this message after it reads from the recovery partition on the hard disk (which I did not delete) or from the 5 DVDs that 

Here is the longer version of what I did: (I roughly followed this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1893523 )

I shrunk the Windows partition with (I think) MiniTool Partition Wizard - because Windows7 itself didn't want to do it.

I deleted the 200Mb System partition (which was possibly a mistake) and changed the C drive partition to be a logical partition so that I could add more partitions for Ubuntu linux.

I installed Ubuntu alongside Windows (12.04 Desktop 64bit in case anyone cares) . Ubuntu worked fine, however I could not boot back into Windows - I got a black screen and no sign of life apart from a flashing cursor. I tried making changes to the boot settings with gparted. I ran the Windows Recovery Disk I wrote myself with the recdisc.exe programme - except that did not see any Windows installations. 

At this point I try several things for a few hours and finally decide to restore to factory settings. 

When I use the F11 Recovery Disk partition it goes through the main process of copying files but as soon as it does the first reboot it says "Recovery Incomplete" and gives me the above "UIA Write FAILed three times !!!" error. 

It did this twice (maybe three times - I am not sure) and then I tried it with the 5 DVDs that I burnt when I first got the machine. 

They gave me pretty much the same result - the same error message at the same place in the install. 

Now in searching around I have found the following suggestions:

1) Test my memory and my hard disk using the "Escape" menu options. DONE, All OK. 

2) Someone managed to ignore this error by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delete and killing whatever had failed. That doesn't seem to work for me. I don't know how to continue after this error. 

3) I have tried deleting all the partitions (except for the recovery one) just in case that was the problem. (For some reason something deleted the hp_tools partition without checking with me first. I assume that is part of the recovery process). 

Finally some people seem to say that although my recovery disks were made and verified pretty much as soon as I switched the machine on they might be corrupt in some way. Some people have gotten better results with recovery disks from HP. I am loathe to pay for them for a brand new machine - I would rather return it and buy a lenovo thinkpad instead. Or an Apple...

Any suggestions for anything else to try? 

[CherylG]

Scroll down on the page and get Partition Wizard Bootable CD ISO and ImgBurn to burn the iso image to cd and boot from it. Delete partitions, create one and format. Next try booting from Recovery again.

If it still fails phone HP and tell them your Recovery Disks don't work.Usually they will send a set free if the burned copy fails> Contact HP

[alexmc6]

Thanks CherylG. 

I've done all that (several times) but it still doesn't work. 

I've tried to contact HP online - but can only see how to request the disks from an official third party for 31pounds. 

Maybe ringing them will help. 

[CherylG]

Use the link>> Contact HP Choose your country ,on the next page look at the 3rd option to "Call HP"  and click on  link below it_"Technical support after you buy". That will take you to a page with phone number to call Tech Support where you should be able to report problem.

Since this is a new laptop and still in warranty you should also be able to use the option of Chat with a technician.

[alexmc6]

Thanks for all the help. I solved my problem with a satisfactory workaround. Rather than restore using the recovery partition or recovery DVDs I was able to install Windows 7 from scratch as a clean install. 

Cheers