I deleted all rights on C and so I am **bleep**ed now - how to resolve?

[Michiel_ICT]

During installation of this brand-new beautiful All-in-One Pavilion desktop I accidentally deleted all rights to C:

It is impossible to see now, but I think I disallowed 'everyone' rights to C:\ and down. Yes, I also ignored the warnings... 

Now I can still log on after a reboot and I still get a desktop, but I cannot run anything worth while. All recovery options I tried go bad - probable because they need access to C:

There is a working 😧 drive but everything I download tries to install to C: and therefore goes bad. 

So I am incapable of running HP Recovery Mngr or anything else I tried such as F11 during boot etc etc. 

What to do? 

Can you direct me a path to follow? 

Oh, by the way the PC is 3 hours traveling away and the user doesn't know **bleep**. I was supporting using Whatsapp's camera feature... 

Thanks anyway! 

Regards, Michiel

[WAWood]

@Michiel_ICT

Sorry the PC is 3 hours away, but I know of nothing you can do remotely to fix this, as anything of that nature would require you to use an account that has Admin rights to the PC's C: drive.

One possible approach that MIGHT work is something known as a Repair-Install. Using Win10 install media, you insert that into the PC (since it is likely to be a USB stick), select the root folder of the drive, right-click setup.exe and select Run as Admin.  That will launch a Windows install that will overwrite what is there, leaving the data, settings, and apps intact.

If that does not work, the next thing I would try is a factory reset -- and you do that by pressing F11 repeately while rebooting, and when the HP Recovery Manager is on screen, selecting the option to do the reset.

If that does not work, then your only recourse  would be to do a complete reinstall, And for that, you have two options.

The first would be to boot from the same Win10 install media and install Win10 clean.

The second would be to order HP Recovery Media from this link:  http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/bph07143

While the second costs money, the advantage is that it restores the PC to its original state, including all drivers and HP utilities.

Good Luck

[Michiel_ICT]

Thanks WAWood, for your reply. 

I would like to use the HP Recovery Manager but since it is also installed on C: I cannot start it. Perhaps you know a way to download a new version so I can try and install it on D:. 

Meanwhile I will go after HP Support to get the recovery media. 

Thanks, will let you know how it goes. 

Michiel