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- HP Community
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- Desktop Operating Systems and Recovery
- I am not able to reset it to factory setting or install wind...

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09-25-2020 08:06 AM
I am not able to reset my HP laptop even using external harddrive. I am tried all the way. I just want to do factory reset but its not allowing. Everytime its not taking me to the Choose option screen and not allowing me to reset or anything. Whatever I am doing it just take me back o choose option screen.
09-26-2020 10:49 AM
WHY are you trying to do a factory reset? IF it because the PC is running slowly, that is nearly always a hardware issue and a factory reset will not only NOT fix that, it will actually make the situation worse -- as it will fail partway through and leave you with a trashed PC.
HOW are you trying to do the factory reset? What keys are you pressing?
Also, you said you are using external media -- so where did you get this media?
I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
09-26-2020 12:01 PM
Becuase i am not able to pass this screen no matter what I am doing. I tried to reset computer and tried all option. I am used F8 to F11 keys but no success. I already ran all test and it came passed. So not sure whats going on here. I tried all options from tourbleshoot. I downloaded but Windows 10 and burned CD. Can you please give me any other solution because I am not finding any good solution. thanks again for your help
09-26-2020 02:06 PM
That screen shows automatically if the SHIFT key is pressed when you restart the PC. So, I would check to confirm that key is NOT pressed and see if that makes a difference.
The BIOS Boot Devices menu is reached pressing F9 -- which you did not mention. So, you would need to press that to boot from external media.
You mentioned making a CD, but Windows 10 is way too large to fit on a CD; instead, you would need a DVD and current versions can be too large for those as well.
You should see if the HP Cloud Recovery option is available for your PC before you force a reinstall using something else you downloaded:
If your PC is a 2016 model or newer, you should see if you can make a bootable USB recovery drive using the HP cloud recovery tool on a working PC.
The recovery drive can then be used to install Win10 and the HP drivers and utilities that originally came with your PC.
Here is the link: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205
I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
09-28-2020 08:22 AM
Did you try selecting the Troubleshooting option to see what it does?
Also, what do you mean by "burning my hard drive"?
I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
09-29-2020 07:53 AM
I used below link to burn external hard drive but it did not work., I will do it DVD now and will see if that helps. I have no idea why its taking me on choose option screen always. Its not even resetting and deleting files. Even for the Factory reset it doesnt go beyond 1%. I see screen saying preparing automatic repair and take me to choose option screen.
https://www.trishtech.com/2018/12/how-to-install-windows-10-from-an-external-hard-drive/
09-29-2020 08:43 AM
OK, thanks for the explanation -- I have not tried using an external drive to install Windows because I find a USB stick works just fine.
When you boot from any external device, hard drive or DVD, you should be getting a small window that says Windows and then start seeing options for installation.
If you are not seeing those, it sounds like your PC is ignoring the external device and still trying to boot from the internal drive.
I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
09-29-2020 08:45 AM
THanks for your quick reply. It does show me options to reboot from external drive or USB but nothing happens when I select that. You are right. It may be ignoring that USB port but I tried all USB port but did not help. Now I am thinking to burn DVD and check it out.