"An operating system wasn't found. Try disconnecting any drives that don't contain an OS. Press Ctrl

[MikeODel]

I performed a factory reset on an HP Pavilion p6310t, it originally had Windows 7 Home Premium and had been upgraded to Windows 10. When the reset was complete all I get now is the message "An operating system wasn't found. Try disconnecting any drives that don't contain an OS. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del”.

I have tried numerous things like hitting the F11 button repeatedly on startup but get the same message as before. F10 brings up the Bios menu but I don’t see anything there that can help. F9 runs several tests and all tests are passed.

I do not have any recovery media, is there any way to boot from the recovery partition or something else to try?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You can reinstall W10 by making your own recovery media.

To reinstall W10...Use the Media Creation Tool.  Make the 64 bit installation media.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

You can make a W10 USB flash drive installer using an 8 GB flash drive using another Windows PC, since your PC is not working.

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, select the 'I don't have a product key' option and W10 will install and automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.

Here are the steps to create the W10 USB flash drive installer...

1. Select Download tool now, and select Run.
2. If you agree to the license terms, select Accept.
3. On the What do you want to do? page, select Create installation media for another PC, and then select Next.

4. Select the language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit) for Windows 10. You want 64 bit.

5. Select which media you want to use:
6. USB flash drive.  Plug in a blank USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space. Any content on the flash drive will be deleted.

[MikeODel]

I had read in one of HP's support docs that if you originally had W7 that it wasn't possible to reinstall W10 and that you had to install W7 and then you from there upgrade to W10. Will it cause any issues if I try this?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

All but one of my HP PC's had W7 installed when I upgraded to W10, and I have used the very same method to clean install W10, and never had a problem.

I have never reinstalled W7,and upgraded back to W10.

[MikeODel]

Okay, I will give it a try, thanks. Were all of your machine's drivers preserved and intact when you did this?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

W10 should install all of the drivers the PC needs, but if there are one or two missing, you should be able to use the W7 drivers from the support page, or let me know what drivers are missing, and I'll see what I can do to help.