How long do I wait for the recovery process? Endless Restarts...

[meboucher21]

Spoiler

My 3yr old Pavilion 15 wouldn’t boot. I ran all of the tests and tried to my recovery CDs. Recovery ended in endless arebooting with “Please wait...” Message.  The HD failed the test. 

I repaced the HD with the same size SSD and reran the recovery. Seemed to be doing better and even got to a Windows desktop and registered a CD burner software and connected to the WiFi. It was installing something and had to reboot. Now it is once again in the endless reboot  and “Please wait...” mode. 

My next step is to try this solution https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/Recovering-Windows-After-Replac....  This solution gives instructions for choosing a specific format: ”... UEFI BIOS and GPT partitioned disks rather than the legacy BIOS ...”

However, is there any other option?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You may want to try this approach...

Install W8.1 by creating the Microsoft installation media, using another Windows PC, if 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 '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 W8.1 generic product key, you will need to run the free utility I zipped up and attached below, that will show you show the W8 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.

[meboucher21]

Thank you for the quick reply. I will try this tonight after work.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[meboucher21]

I tried downloading the Win8.1_English_x64.iso file to the thumb drive, but it said the drive was full even though it is a 30GB drive. I'm reformatting the thumbdrive and it is taking a while. I'll have to get back on this after work today.

In the mean time, I downloaded the Win8.1_English_x64.iso file to a folder on my desktop.

About that:

• I assume that I can copy the .iso file to the thumbdrive and it will be the same as downloading it.
• Does it matter what format the thumb drive is formatted to?
• Do I need to format the SSD? Seems at this point that drive must have already been formated in the recovery process since it will boot, but gets into the loop.

Also, before the reboot loop, when I first got to a "desktop" and connected to WiFi and registered an application, I took a picture at the lower right corner of the screen. The said "Windows 8.1, Build 9600". If that means anything to you, let me know.

Thanks for all you help. Very much appreciated!   I'll keep you informed on how its going.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

You can't just download the ISO file to the flash drive.  The ISO file is not a bootable file by itself.

You did the right thing by downloading the ISO file to a folder on your PC.

Next you have to run that Microsoft ISO to USB utility I zipped up and attached the other day, which will transfer the ISO file you downloaded to your USB flash drive.

The tool will do everything automatically.  All you need to do is to browse to where the ISO file is located on your PC.

The tool will format the USB flash drive, so make sure you don't have any files on it that you don't want to lose.

Once that is done, you should be able to boot from the W8.1 USB flash drive installer the tool created and install W8.1.

Now, if for some reason you can't boot from the flash drive, go into the BIOS, enable legacy mode, and disable secure boot, save the settings and boot from the Legacy USB flash drive.

See this link for the BIOS settings to change.

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

The way I suggest you boot from the flash drive would be to have it in a USB port, turn on the PC, and tap the ESC key at the beginning of the HP welcome screen to get the menu of options.

Select the F9 boot options menu, and from that, select the USB flash drive.

You should not need to format the SSD.  Windows 8.1 will do all of that automatically and create the partitions it needs to install.

And as I wrote just above, the Microsoft ISO to USB tool will automatically prepare your USB flash drive to become a bootable W8.1 installer, so there should be no need to format your USB flash drive either.

[meboucher21]

I’ve gotten to a Windows 8.1 desktop!

The download of the .iso file and transfer tool worked flawlessly.  Thanks so much!

I changed the BIOS to boot first from the USB (options are “USB CD/DVD ROM Drive” and “USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk”), but it did not boot from either one. I eventually pressed F11 “System Recovery” and went to bed. This AM Window 8.1 greeted me.  I can’t tell if the recovery was from the USB, but I assume it was. The laptop is functional, but the WiFi does not work. Maybe this is evidence that the recovery was from the USB.

I could connnect to the internet via CAT5 and start hunting for drivers for WIFi, etc, but I’m wondering if from where I am I could use the recovery CDs and expect to recover the drivers. 

Your thoughts on this?

i also have a Seagate portable drive with a complete backup as of mid December which is fine for me. I had upgraded to Windows 10, so was planning to get all working, upgrade to W10, install the Seagate backup program and recover the data from that. I assume this would not work to recover W10 since is not an image of the drive. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

What is the full model number or product number of your notebook?

The product number can be found on the same label as the serial number.

Please do not post the serial number.

It's hard to say if you can use the recovery DVD's to get the drivers, but you can get them from the notebook's support page anyway.

I can give you the driver you need for the wifi adapter if you go to the device manager and there you should see a device labeled as a Network Controller.  That is what Windows names the wifi adapter when it needs a driver.

Use this guide for how to find the hardware ID for a device...

https://www.howtogeek.com/193798/how-to-find-drivers-for-unknown-devices-in-the-device-manager/

[meboucher21]

You are SO helpful. 

I recorded some some numbers from inside the battery compartment. 

P/N LOQ3UA#ABA

Model 15-p233c1

I plugged into my router with a cord and got on the internet and updated the drivers and now have wireless.

I searched and found a site for a W8 to W10 upgrade and am in the process of ...  how about that! I’m now back in business! Yahoo!

Now to recover the data from my Seagate drive. Installing it from that drive. I’ll be back to normal soon. 

Thanks again for for all your help. I could not have gotten through this so quickly without your help and advice. 

Best to you!

Mark

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime, Mark.

Glad to have been of assistance.

Here is the link to the support page for your model notebook.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-15-p200-notebook-pc-series/7486459/model/7734382

Have a great weekend!

Paul