More image file questions for Win 8.1

[Tim68TJ]

O.K. once again my question is I purchased this computer in April of 2014 it is no longer under warranty not tha this matters I guess.

On the day that it this PC arrived I booted it for the first time the very first thing I was concerned about was burning the image files to thumb drives.

There were 2 files one was the system image the other was titled media image burn in June 20015 it was announced that microsoft was releasing Win 10 and user of 7,8,and 8.1 were eligible for a free upgrade to win 10.

Within 4 days of downloading win 10 I noticed my start menu tiles were missing quite a few others noticed this as well,I waited for close to three weeks still no one had an answer as to the mystery of the missing start menu tiles.

In turn I reverted back to Win 8.1 this system restore came about by using what I can only assume was a image file backed up on a separate partition on my hard drive everything was working fine until the warranty was up and also my subscription for HP action center.

When this happened automatic maintenance started to run and hang up my mainly at the point when I would go to shut my computer off this in turn eventually caused a crash hang ups on windows updates and all sorts of good things.

I've rectified the problem's with HP action center only to find out after losing five months of important text documents I won't be able to get back,I eventually find out that during this system recovery that when I was instructed to plug in a mass storage drive for a system file back up when this was finished I wasn't told tha the system file back up program was still open and running every hour on the hour.

I got this rectified or so I thought today and last night I find more hang up I open control panel it in turn hangs up doesn't want to close along with that once again my update scan fails and hangs event logs show all sorts of errors outlining everything I've been struggling for over 4 weeks now so I intend to format my drive and reload using a thumb drive.

Does anyone here know if the HP image file that was titled meadia image file contain the start menu files or what that is I do not need another fieasco I would certainly like to delte action center all together!

Thanks for any help you might have to offer sorry this post is so long but I needed to have the particulars in here as to what the cause of my problems could actually be.

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Tim68TJ

Welcome to the HP Forums 🙂

I would like to take a moment and thank you for using this forum, it is a great place to find answers.

As I understand your computer locksup/crashes at times and certain start screen tiles are missing among other issues,

Don't worry, I have an article that helps you find and troubleshoot problems that cause the computer to stop responding, hang, freeze, or lock up.

Symptoms include:

• Windows stops responding and nothing moves on the computer display.

• When using Windows, a blue screen error opens and you cannot continue.

• The computer does not respond to input from the mouse or keyboard.

• An error message opens, but does not go away and cannot be closed.

For step by step guidance: Click here

If I have helped you resolve the issue, feel free to give me a virtual high-five by clicking the 'Thumbs Up' icon below, 

Followed by clicking on "Accept as solution" from the drop-down menu on the upper right corner,

Thank you for posting in the HP Support Forum.  Have a great day!

Regards,

[Tim68TJ]

What I need to know is this.

When I bought this computer brand new inside the file explorer there were 2 image files,I assumed I needed to burn or copy via the program that is called system recovery manager.

I copied 2 image files to 2 differnt thumb drives one is still in file explorer when I copied the other to a thmb drive the drive space for it deleted itself after I did the burn process.

The one that stayed is listed as (recovery image) listed as (D) which is just a prtition on the hard drive.

There was another image file listed as (media image)

I have both of these image files copied properly to their own thumb drives.

At this point I need to replace the hard drive or so the BIOS disc check has stated.

Now I need to know is the (media image) the entire 8.1 operating system or is it just part of the system,as in the tiles etc?

Or is this (media image) the one I need to use for booting when I replace the hard drive?

[Tim68TJ]

Also the name of the program which was on this computer in which I used to burn the images to thumb drives is called (recovery media creation) I've checked the drives the images are on them.

I've already written down the sku#,and the serial# from the BIOS as I am pretty sure now though I had my doubts but I believe the hard drive is bad.

And I'll add this if it is bad it was bad right out of the box because there were other things going on such as ADM graphics drivers crashing which was starting to happen just a couple months after owning this thing...

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Tim68TJ

You've done a remarkable job performing the steps suggested earlier, great work 🙂 

And don't worry, as we should be able to fix this up with a few more steps and I'll be with you until we ensure this issue is fixed.

Now that you've clarified on most of the misunderstandings, I would suggest you learn more about the Recovery media and how to use it: Click here

You would that the recovery media you've created doesn't require a serial number or SKU because all of that is inbuilt and registered automatically.

It also contains the Softwares & Drivers preinstalled during the purchase of your product,

If any of this doesn't happen after OS reinstallation is completed via the Image you've created, It would mean that either the Image wasn't created properly or that its files are corrupted.

In such cases you'll need to contact HP to order a replacement recovery media as the one you've created isn't working, if it's within the 90days it will be free of charge.

Keep me posted,

If the information I've provided was helpful, 

Give us some reinforcement by clicking the solution and kudos buttons, 

That'll help us and others see that we've got the answers!

Good Luck.

[Tim68TJ]

Well I just made another post on this subject I would say on March 30th of 2015 when I burned my image files I was waisting my time I replaced the hard drive on Thursady the second and recovered the O.S. to the new hard drive via USB image file and still having trouble with the updates not wanting to download after the first batch were finally intalled which gave me problems I certainly do not intend to pay HP for something they put on a computer and sold me that was deffective from the beginning lesson learned I'm done with Hewlett Packard!

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Tim68TJ

Thank you for posting on the HP Support Forums,

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. 

They will contact you shortly and likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. 

Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. 

Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (such as serial numbers and case details).

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts to help you out, mark my post as Accepted Solution.

And click on the Purple Thumbs up icon at the bottom of my comment.

Regards,

[mdklassen]

You posted a very-similar question at:

  http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Operating-Systems-and-Recovery/Need-help-with-image-files/td-p/...

See my response there, about Windows 8.

But, since you, at some time, had installed Windows 10 on your computer, Microsoft granted you a "digital entitlement" to reinstall Windows 10 at any time, on the same computer, without needing to purchase a new "product-key".

I recommend that you backup all your files, and then download Windows 10, from:

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

and create a "System Recovery" set (either one USB memory-stick or several DVD-writable disks),

and reinstall Windows 10.

Short answer: abandon Windows 8, and install the "Windows 10 July 2016 Anniversary Update" version -- it fixes many of the issues that people encountered in the original Windows 10 release.