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‎05-13-2022 09:26 PM

HP Recommended
Product: HP 19-2113w All-in-One Desktop PC (ENERGY STAR)

So I inherited an HP-19 all in one, after my father passed.  Unfortunately, I have no idea what his password is to get in and do a standard reset.  I know that usually on boot-up you can hit f12 and get into the system setup and do a factory reset from there.  This system is strange though.  If I try to skip to system recovery it just starts windows as normal.  I can get into the bios, but I still can't seem to find the proper restore.  What the hell do I do now?

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1 person had the same question
1 REPLY 1

‎05-14-2022 05:38 AM

HP Recommended

The original OS for that model is Windows 8.1 and according to the spec page there was no Recovery Manager, so that is probably why the F12 does not do the system recovery.  Since you cannot load any Windows environment to check the drive, you might want to use a Linux Live distro the look at the hard drive.  Just boot the Linux and check the drive to see if the Recovery Partition is still there.

I like the Ubuntu or Linux Mint and you need to make the Live edition on DVD (easy) or USB version and then boot this problem PC to that new Live Linux to check the drive.

If the Recovery Partition is still there there are tricks to get that to recover the OS.  If it is not there, then you need a Windows install media to make a fresh install.  Now comes the question - do you want Windows 8.1 again or newer or older version of Windows or a Linux version?


I'm not an HP employee.
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