HP Recovery fails at "installing files" with direction to HP support

[MahoneyOne]

The HP Recovery tool fails without specific error message. Process as follows:

• Boot from HP provided recovery USB
• Chose "Factory Reset"; Next, "Welcome to Recovery Manager" screen; Next
• "! System recovery"  page, do you want to continue?
• Select second radio button, "Recover without backing up your files"; Next, Pop-up warning "All user-created files and partitions, and any programs installed after purchase, will be lost"; OK
• "Factory image recovery preparations" page
• Reformatting the Windows partition - progresses through; blue check mark appears
• "Restoring files to the hard drive."
  • Begins - shows 0% - then updates to show 13 minutes estimated time
• Roughly 10 seconds after the 13 minute estimate appears, the screen changes

"Contact HP Support"

"In most cases, recovering the hard drive will fix your problem.

If your problems continue, you may need to contact HP support. Find HP Support contact information in your PC documentation."

Exploring the options to backup files, it appears that the previous installation has successfully been wiped. 

Two drives are shown. Local Disk (C:) (1.2 Gb) and Buildpart (D:)

[MahoneyOne]

Additional data points:

Recovery Manager

Version 8.2010.3.0\8.2010.3.0

Product Number: 207R4AV

Serial Number: [Personal Information Removed]

System Information (from BIOS)

BIOS Revision: F.13

[Bill_To]

Hi @MahoneyOne 

I would contact HP Support if in warranty.

Or try HP boot time diagnostics, the system drive volume at 1.2 Gbs looks a little wonky from my perspective (1/8th of 1.2 GBs) if this represents total disk volume available. It would impossible to install Windows on this drive @ 1.2 Gbs or 1.2 GBs.

Check hardware (sounds like the system drive may be in trouble):

Start the PC. Tap the "ESC" key.

Select "F2". Run system and component tests.

Did you use HP Cloud Recovery to create the recovery USB? You should be able to create this recovery drive on a different PC if you cannot run Windows on your PC.

Regards

[MahoneyOne]

Thanks for helping!

The recovery source is a USB drive received from HP. (The original issue was failure to sleep. Help desk proscribed restore to factory using the USB drive they sent. I delayed taking on the task until now.)

Currently out of warrantee. (Shouldn't have delayed the process...)

I ran the HP PC Hardware diagnostics, passing them. (Processor, Memory, Storage, System Board)

Clarification: The 1.2 Gb of data is what is showing as the size of the data on the hard drive when I went through the "backup" options in the recovery process. I don't have a clear way to see the size of the volume.

When booting without the USB recovery drive connected, the BIOS reports "Boot Device Not Found" with a "Hard Disk - (3f0)" message. It appears that the recovery process is not getting past the first formatting step. 

[Bill_To]

Hi @MahoneyOne 

My pleasure.

Thanks for the additional info.

The 3f0 error is a faulty system HDD/SSD. It is weird HP Diagnostics gave a pass on the system drive. Or the drive is gone so diagnostics only checks active drives.

You will have to replace the system drive if my hypothesis is correct.

I can't check drive specs using the product info you provided. Many HP PCs have two drives.

Check this HP Site to see what options are available to check product specs, not much without the serial number.

It seems HP is making it tougher to check Product specs and MB specs at their Support site. Or I am missing something when looking for this information??

Regards

[MahoneyOne · Accepted solution]

Progress! 

I dropped backwards to move forwards. The answer: The Recovery USB provided by HP was the issue. 

On another computer, I downloaded the HP recovery app and created a brand new recovery USB. That new one worked without hiccup.

Thanks for the suggestions to help reason through!