HP Pavilion 500-223w Desktop PC (ENERGY STAR)

[Immaunik1]

How can I order a hard disk? Or download windows sgain

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Hard drives don't come with Windows installed, and you can buy one on Amazon in the storage capacity you want.

You can download the W8.1 ISO file from the link below.

Download Windows 8.1 Disc Image (ISO File) (microsoft.com)

Use the free Rufus utility to transfer the IS0 file to a USB flash drive so that it is bootable.

Set up the Rufus menu the way you see it in the illustration for Windows installations.

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

[Immaunik1]

Thank you for that information but I think what I meant to say was that one day I went on my computer and it just would not come on And now it won't let me do anything I think I tried to do a recovery and I instead of just removing my files and photos I removed everything so now it don't have a drive it says. 

Would you please clarify what you said I could buy on Amazon are you meaning buying a drive or buying a HP Recovery CD. 

Also as I was reading in this forum someone mentioned about that if my windows was upgraded to Windows 10 then I should get the recovery for Windows 8.1 because that's how it was originally.  

Please help. If I could just get in there to get all my files and folders and pictures of my grandkids that would be great. I didn't have them connected to onedrive. They're just in my folders.

Thank you so much. I thank God 🙏 for people like you that are able and willing to help people like me.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

It sounds to me like you removed everything from the hard drive, so I would imagine you have lost all of the pictures and files that you had.

If the PC is reporting that you need to install an operating system on the drive, you can just reinstall Windows.

If your PC was upgraded to W10 previously, then you can make a bootable W10 installation flash drive with the Media creation tool from the link below.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

Boot from the Windows installation media and when you get past the 'Install Now' screen, it will ask what version of W10 you want to install.  Select W10 Home.

Then it will ask you to enter a product key.  Select the 'I don't have a product key' option, and Windows will install.

Now if the pictures you have you can't get from a relative again, you may want to take the PC into a repair shop and ask them if they can recover the lost data because the more you tinker with the drive such as reinstalling Windows, the harder it may be to recover the data.

I don't know how much that would cost so call them first and see if it is reasonable to do so.

[Immaunik1]

So when I tried to turn on my computer it automatically goes into automatic repair and automatically pair result says this:

Automatic repair couldn't repair your PC press advance options to try other options to repair your PC or shut down to turn off your PC

Log file: C:\WINDOWS\Sysyem32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt

[Paul_Tikkanen]

OK, well that is a little encouraging news I hope.

You may be able to recover your files since it appears that Windows is still installed but not working.

Watch this video:

Repair Windows 10 Using Automatic Repair [Tutorial] - YouTube

[Immaunik1]

Once again thank you for your help. I keep putting in my password but it says my password is not right. And I know my password. So there must be some other issue going on. I don't want to take up too much of your time but non of the options allowed me to do anything.

Thanks again. I really appreciate your time. God bless you.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

There's one other thing you can do...

Make that bootable W10 USB flash drive and install W10 but do it this way...

After you get past the Install Now screen, then select the version of Windows, then skip entering the product key, you will get to a screen that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows.'

Make sure you install it on the existing Windows partition and it will create a Windows.old folder.

After W10 has completed installing you can explore the Windows.old folder, find your old user profile, and copy and paste the file folders in that profile to your new user profile, and all your pictures and other files should be there.

God Bless you too, and hopefully you will be able to use your PC again and have all of your files.