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HP Recommended
HP Slimline Desktop 290-a0019
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

Hi. I'm trying to reinstall Windows 10 on this two year old desktop, after a recent BIOS update frazzled the hard drive. (It's all intact, but Windows won't boot any more - another story). After other things eg. BIOS recovery failed to help, I installed HP Cloud Recovery on my Lenovo T440 laptop (also Windows 10), to create a custom HP recovery USB.

After finally locating the full Product ID (on the BOTTOM of this particular model), I can get HP Cloud Recovery to run. I've located two sufficiently large USB thumb drives to use it with, but it fails on the same way with each.

After accepting my Product ID for the Slimline Desktop, it spends many minutes downloading the image, lots more time copying it onto the USB, finally checksumming its work and only when it's all done does it report that it's failed. It doesn't really explain why, just asks that I provide HP Support with an extensive log file and support documents.

I've looked at the apparently failed recovery media. It does seem to be a real recovery media - I see a Recovery directory and several others, seems to be all there though far less than 16GB so I'm a bit annoyed it insisted on a 32GB drive. It could be missing its boot code though - the desktop won't boot from it though it does boot from some other recovery USB drives I have (wrong architecture, so not suitable to restore the desktop).

Of course, not having paid for extended support there's really no one I can call any more (I'm sure the Virtual Assistant will be of no help here). Does anyone in the community have any suggestions about how I might finish off the USB recovery media?

7 REPLIES 7
HP Recommended

Hi:

 

Unfortunately, I don't but if you need to get your PC back up and running again, you can make bootable installation media using the Media creation tool from the link below.

 

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

 

After W10 has completed installing, you can install the drivers and available software from your PC's support page.

 

HP Slim Desktop PC 290-a0000a Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

 

I'm going to see if I can find a 32 GB USB flash drive I can use and see if I can create a recovery drive for your PC, or if I get the same failure issue and will let you know the results.

HP Recommended

Hi:

 

I was unable to create the recovery media for your PC as well, so the clean install will be your only option.

 

Paul_Tikkanen_0-1613333675721.png

 

HP Recommended

Thanks for confirming that HP Cloud Recovery is, in fact, broken for my PC model, Paul. The screen capture you took looks pretty close to what I saw.

I have done as you suggested and performed a clean install of Windows 10 using the Microsoft install USB; it's great that they allow anyone to download it now. That's also a bit more complicated than you'd think on this PC. as apparently it ships with an obsolete MBR partitition table instead of the GPT partition table that Windows 10 prefers (and their install media insists upon). Fortunately that's easily corrected once you figure out the correct incantations using diskpart.

So, my system is once again functional, but the HP support tools turned out to be a waste of time.

 

 

HP Recommended

You're very welcome.

HP Recommended

Installing from Microsoft's generic installer got me running, so counts as a workaround, but is not a solution to HP's Cloud Recovery tool. I now have a system which is not what HP ships (MBS rather than GPT partitioning, missing HP drivers, missing the HP Recovery tools in the extra partition).

The HP Cloud Recovery tool is still broken however.

HP Recommended

@SheamusPattIf you've installed the 'clean' windows as Paul suggested, then you only need to download the HP UEFI diags to re-create the HP recovery partition (when installing, if the recovery partition is not on the HDD it will prompt to create it for you) and for any missing drivers / apps / warranty info, install the HP Support assistant.

 

Diags:

https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/hpsupportassistant/pc-diags.html

Hibb1_0-1613376009557.png

 

HPSA:

https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/hpsupportassistant/hpsupport.html

 

 

 

HP Recommended

Thanks - that brings my system a bit closer to my original system, and the diagnostics are an improvement over the BIOS based ones I was using before.

I still have no clue as to why the original BIOS upgrade trashed my system https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Operating-Systems-and-Recovery/Slimline-won-t-boot-after-BIOS-... .

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.