Booting Problems

[peachypatrick]

Hello, I despretly need an answer to this.

I woke up to my laptop having booting issues, saying the OS couldn't be found. I could reinstall windows 10 or 11 however I would lose about 3 years worth of school work, personal files, among other things.

Are there any other alternatives to fixing the OS issue AND keeping my data?

Thank you

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

There is a way you can reinstall Windows and be able to retrieve your files.

You have to make a plain bootable Windows installation flash drive with the media creation tool (2nd option).

Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com)

When you get to the screen that asks, 'Where do you want to install Windows?' do not format or delete any partitions on the drive.

You install Windows on the existing Windows partition, and it will create a Windows.old folder.

After Windows has completed installing, you can explore the Windows.old folder, find your old user profile and copy your old user profile folders to a portable hard drive for safekeeping.

Once you are sure you have what you need, you have two options:

1. Copy the folders from your old user profile to the new one, and let it overwrite the existing empty folders and use the PC as is.

2. After you have copied your old user profile folders to a portable hard drive, you can make a bootable USB recovery drive with the HP cloud recovery tool to factory reset the notebook.

Here is an info link for how to use the utility. You will need a 32 GB USB flash drive for this.

How to Use the HP Cloud Recovery Tool in Windows 11 | HP Support - YouTube

You can download the tool from the Microsoft Store/

HP Cloud Recovery Tool - Microsoft Apps

[peachypatrick]

Thank you so much, you have no idea how much of a life saver you are.

I'll go ahead and try this, thank you!!!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[peachypatrick]

I have a couple of questions.

I have a 8GB flash drive with the plain bootable creation tool, however I also purchased a 64GB (just in case) flash drive to be able to move my files on that drive.

Does the drive that has the creation tool need to be the one in which I'll sift through the Windows.old files or am I able to insert both drives and move my info into the 64GB drive?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

First of all, you do not download the media creation tool onto a flash drive.

You run the media creation tool on another PC and it creates the Windows installation files on the 8 GB USB flash drive.

You then boot from the USB flash drive and install Windows as I had written the other day...on the existing Windows partition.  

After Windows installs, then you plug in the 64 GB USB flash drive, explore the C:\ drive.

Your old user profile should be in C:\Windows.old\Users\(Your name).

Then copy paste all of the folders in that window to the USB flash drive.

Open the flash drive and verify the folders are there, and you should have recovered all of your files in the various folders.

Then you can eject the USB flash drive.

Also as I had posted the other day, if you want to use the PC as is, just copy the folders in your old user profile to the new one, and you should be all set.

If not, use the cloud recovery tool to factory reset the PC.

Remember that a factory reset will erase everything on the drive.

[peachypatrick]

I misspoke, I was refering to the Windows files process, again, thank you for your help and patience, I'll def try again today.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Please let us know how it went.