Factory software restoration problem

[davidwhite1506]

I did a factory restore on my laptop, and the restore seemed to be working.  In the final stages of the restore, an Administrator screen loads, but it doesn't complete.  The messages that I am getting are a Recovery Manager window with the message "Restoration Incomplete", and a DOS window containing the message "The system cannot find the drive specified.".  How do I determine the drive that the computer was looking for, and how do I change system settings such that the restore can complete?

[WAWood]

@davidwhite1506 

A factory reset is about the worst thing you can do to a laptop --as they often do NOT work -- leaving you with a trashed PC in the process -- which looks like what happened to you.

So, we need to know WHY you did the reset in the first place -- what problem were you trying to solve?

[davidwhite1506]

Something happened to my login where the computer would not accept my password.  I managed to reset to "no password", and the computer still would not let me log in.  Due to that, I felt like I had no other option than a reset to regain the ability to log in.  Do you have any recommendations at this point?

[WAWood]

@davidwhite1506 

The main reason I advise AGAINST factory resets is that folks most often do them because their PC is slowing down, and that is most often a hardware issue (which a reset will not fix) and then, the reset nearly always fails -- leaving them with an unusable PC.

The reset usually prompts for a password prior to reformatting the drive, so if yours did not, I am confused.

Since the most common cause of reset failures is a failing drive, let's check the hard drive, because if it is failing, it would need to be replaced and there is no point then in doing anything else until we confirm that.

If your PC is new enough to support UEFI, you can use these steps to test the hard drive: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00439024

If not, to check the drive you have to follow these steps:
1) Press Esc key repeatedly, several times a second, while rebooting the laptop. Do NOT hold the key down, just press it over and over.
2) Eventually, you will see an HP Startup Menu
3) Press the Function key for testing the hard drive (usually F2) and let it run.