Absolutely cannot boot to USB Drive

[82airborne]

So, long story. HDD went bad, failed all of the built in self tests. I plan on upgrading to a SSD anyway, but would like to recover some of the personnel files from the HDD if possible. So playing around I've downloaded the Windows recovery software as a means to access the HDD to try and perform a repair using "DOS". The laptop would not recognize the USB stick. It does on another different laptop (Dell). So I confirmed the boot order in the bios, and made sure the USB is selected as the first boot process. Still didn't work. Downloaded the most recent BIOS version to update the BIOS. Again could not get the system to recognize the different USB stick. If I cannot access the USB drive I won't be able to upgrade to a SSD. Please help.

82airborne

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Your notebook has a DVD drive according to the specs.

Download the W7 x64 ISO file instead of making the bootable USB drive and use the Microsoft tool I zipped up and attached below to transfer the ISO file to a DVD so that it is bootable.

You will most likely have to disable secure boot and enable legacy mode in order to boot from a DVD.

See this link for the settings to change.

https://www.support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03736054/

In some cases, you also have to do this to boot from a USB flash drive as well.

[82airborne]

Hi Mr. Paul, thanks for the reply. I don't have the ability to change my "Secure Boot" setting. It is currently set at (Disable). I have, and had the "Legacy Support" setting on (Enabled) since starting this troubleshoot.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Unfortunately, I don't know why the PC isn't booting from the port.

Try booting from the single USB 2 port.

I use the F9 boot options menu.

Turn on or restart the PC, tap the ESC immediately thereafter to get the menu of options.

Select the F9 boot options menu and from that select the USB flash drive and press the Enter key.

The PC should boot from the USB flash drive.

If that doesn't work either, then you are going to have to try making a bootable DVD and hope that works.

You can also remove the drive from the PC, buy a SATA to USB cable, plug one end into the drive, the other end into a working PC's USB port and see if you can read/copy the files from the failed hard drive to the PC.

Something like this is what you would use...

https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Cable-Support-Black/dp/B07S9CKV7X/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?dchild=1&hvad...

Until you can figure out how to boot from that PC, you won't be able to reinstall Windows on the new SSD, so I would not invest any money in a SSD unless you can boot from a flash drive or DVD.

[82airborne]

Ok, finally was able to get to the hard drive. Fixed a few files, and performed a chkdsk /f with good results. It did report that 26 sectors were bad. But I was able to boot to the hard drive and retrieve all the personal files I wanted.

The whole process involved using an older dvd back up I made when I first installed the new Win 10 OS over 5-6 years ago. So after changing the BIOS to boot first to cd/dvd drive, it allowed me to work in DOS. Repaired 3 files, and changed the drive to C: and bam....performed the chkdsk dos program. Then booted to that installed HDD. Copied files I wanted now the **bleep** thing can blow up if it wants.

But still....I cannot boot to a USB drive. No BIO changes work, or using different USB sticks. Any ideas would be apricated. Would like to use this method to do the clean install of the OS after replacing the HDD with the new SSD.  

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Since you can boot from the DVD drive, I don't understand why you don't want to make a bootable DVD to install W10 on the SSD.  You'd have been done a long time ago.

The way I see it, you have two options...

Live with things the way they are, or clean install W10 with a bootable DVD.

You can use the free CD burner XP software to burn the W10 ISO image you download from the media creation tool to a DVD.

That is what I use all of the time, and it works great.

Click on the More download options link and download the Default Installer without installcore.

Open the program, select the 4th option down on the menu (Burn ISO file), browse to the location of the downloaded ISO file and burn it at the slowest speed you can.

https://www.cdburnerxp.se/en/download

[82airborne]

It's not that I don't want to boot to the DVD drive, it's all about understanding why it won't let me boot from the USB ports anymore. And just so you know, it use to. That's how I did the original clean install to Win 10 on the ENVY. Since then, I've never had a reason to boot to the USB ports. Now that this ENVY is up and running, I'll perform the iso bootable DVD on this laptop, and then test it before replacing the HDD with the SSD. I used the Windows 10 system to burn the iso to the DVD. Always had good success with it.

I will say this, about 6-8 months ago, I was notified by the HP Support Assistant that their was an updated flash BIOS for this ENVY laptop. So being the idiot that I am, I downloaded the file. Prepped a USB stick, and updated the BIOS. Everything went fine, no issues. Computer booted to the USB, and flashed the BIOS with the new update. Haven't had any issues with the laptop until now. Here's the question, did the updated BIOS remove the ability to startup from the USB ports? And if so, why would HP do that? Anyway that's what I'm thinking, but HP support absolutely will not work with me.