Hard drive issues

[Asims85]

Computer worked fine three days ago after I haven't used it in months. . All of sudden yesterday I turn it on its says it can't find boot up system and hard drive not installed so I bought a 500gb sata 5400rpm hard drive and I'm just trying to see if this would be compatible with this laptop

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

That drive should be just fine.

[Asims85]

Ok so I'm in desperate need of advice my hard drive failed so I got a new one.  Got to install a operating system so I got windows 10 but the problem is it won't install at all.  It says some files may be missing.   What does that mean?  Do I need to get a repair disk?  I've been at this for over two weeks with no luck..  PLEASE HELP

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You can make your own plain W10 installation media as follows...

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.

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.

[Asims85]

Will that put the files that are missing back in my laptop. Because I purchased win 10 brand new from best buy.    I'm trying to get whatever missing files I need.   I'm lost.  LOL

[Asims85]

I had win 8 on the last hard drive.. . I guess the new one is completely blank.  So when I put the win 10 flash drive I got from best buy in it tries to install but it says it can install because some files or missing or may be corrupted..   Then it give me a option to repair computer but when I try to it says it can't..  . What am I missing? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

OK, so if you bought a W10 installation DVD or USB flash drive, that should have worked.

Why it isn't, I have no idea.

Since your notebook came with W8, see if you can do this...Make your own plain W8.1 installation media, install W8.1 and then use your W10 installation media product key to upgrade to W10, since you paid good money for it.

Install W8.1 by creating the Microsoft installation media, using another Windows PC, since yours is not working...You want W8.1 64 bit. 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8ISO

Only if you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, use this generic key.

This is the generic key for W8.1 'standard.'

 334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT

If you had to enter the generic key, manually change the generic product key to the W8.1 'standard' key in your PC's BIOS in the PC settings menu.

After you get W8.1 installed, and you had to manually enter the generic product key, you will need to run the free utility I zipped up and attached below, that will show you show the W8.1 product key in your PC's BIOS.

I have also zipped up and attached below, the Microsoft tool which hopefully will transfer the ISO file to a DVD or usb flash drive so it is bootable.

Then you can install the available drivers and software from your PC's support page, and then upgrade to W10.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-2000-Notebook-PC-series/5330596/model/5415088

Then to upgrade to W10, go to this link, click on the Update Now button and W10 should install.

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

Then you can enter the product key from the W10 installation media you bought from BBY.

[Asims85]

Me either..  It got to the installation part and said it couldn't install because some file is missing or corrupted

[Asims85]

I'll try this though

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Also do this...

Go into the BIOS, enable legacy mode and disable secure boot and see if your W10 installer will work that way.

Boot from the legacy USB flash drive.

See this link for the settings to change.

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

Leave the BIOS settings that way.