HP Pavillion 500-a6 CANNOT boot from USB, Lost microsoft password, just want to format and reload

[sunneFL]

Hi All-

This Pavillion is ancient but still runs perfectly.  It belonged to my mother-in-law but she passed away a few years ago and I'm trying to set it up for my Father-in-law.  The system came with Win 8.  I don't have the  login password.  The Microsoft account that was used for the credentials no longer exists.  I don't have the installation media.

All this really shouldn't matter if I could get it to boot from a USB thumb drive loaded with an OS.

In the BIOS I disabled Fast boot and enabled Legacy Devices and there still isn't an option to boot to USB thumb drive.  I have tried everything I can think of.  Any ideas fellow PC warriors?

Thank you in advance!

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The product specs indicate that the PC came with W8 64 bit from HP.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03786042

There is a trick to installing W8.1 by using the W8 product key in the PC's BIOS.

If you can't boot from a USB flash drive, since the PC has a DVD drive, make a bootable DVD instead.

Since you have disabled secure boot and enabled legacy mode, the PC should boot from the DVD.

Install W8.1 by creating the Microsoft installation media, using another Windows PC, if yours is not working...You want W8.1 64 bit.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8ISO

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, use this generic key.

This is the generic key for W8.1 'Standard.'

334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT

When you get to the screen that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows,' delete every partition on the hard drive, leaving just one partition of unallocated space. Click Next, and W8.1 should begin to install.

If you had to enter the generic key, manually change the generic product key to the W8 key in your PC's BIOS in the PC settings menu.

After you get W8.1 installed, and you had to manually enter the W8.1 generic product key, you will need to run the free utility I zipped up and attached below, that will show you the W8 product key in your PC's BIOS.

I have also zipped up and attached below, the Microsoft tool which hopefully will transfer the ISO file to a DVD or USB flash drive so it is bootable.

Then you can install the available drivers and software from your PC's support page.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-500-a00-desktop-pc-series/5374062/model...

Did you try this to boot from the flash drive?

Have the flash drive in the USB port.

Turn on or restart the PC.

Immediately tap the ESC key at the beginning of the HP welcome screen to get the menu of options.

Select the F9 boot options menu, and from that select the USB diskette on key/USB hard drive, and press the Enter key.

[sunneFL]

Thank you for the explicit directions and the BIOS Product Key reader.  Your help was exactly what I needed!

Thank you

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.