Bios update failed and usb recovery doesn't work. Can an identical laptop create a recovery cd ?

[heldski]

The latest BIOS update failed, and now a computer that worked perfectly well before the update has the black screen of death. I've followed all the steps to create and use a USB recovery for the bios, but it still fails to capture. Is it possible to create a recovery usb for the system from an identical model laptop? Other than losing a crap-ton of pictures and writing (I'm guessing no way to save them), I'm wondering if a factory reset or recovery would fix the issue? Also, if it's possible to create one, how big of a usb flashdrive would I need?

[CherylG]

A factory recovery is not going to help anything. If the laptop BIOS isn't initializing nothing is going to work if you can't recover it. Even though you could create Recovery Media on another same model there is no way to make it boot from Recovery Media.

Btw, I can't find any model as 15 -BW-32wm on HP site. Normally it has 3 numbers before WM.

[ieee488]

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@heldski wrote:

The latest BIOS update failed, and now a computer that worked perfectly well before the update has the black screen of death. I've followed all the steps to create and use a USB recovery for the bios, but it still fails to capture. Is it possible to create a recovery usb for the system from an identical model laptop? Other than losing a crap-ton of pictures and writing (I'm guessing no way to save them), I'm wondering if a factory reset or recovery would fix the issue? Also, if it's possible to create one, how big of a usb flashdrive would I need?

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The BIOS is separate from the files residing on your hard drive.

Even if you have bricked your laptop with the BIOS update, the pictures and other files on the hard drive is recoverable.

You or someone more knowledgeable can remove the hard drive.

Then connect it to another PC using a SATA-to-USB adapter cable.

Copy off the files which are probably residing in the My Documents folder.