CTO Panic error at very end of System Recovery process using USB purchased from HP

[dkearley012]

Help! My Windows 10 stopped loading up one day so I bought the Recovery USB and tried to restore.  The process seemed to run ok for several hours and loaded system files and looked about to finish when it terminated with a CTO panic error.  In looking through the error log, it appears to indicate a bad file name in the script (whether that is a cause or a symptom I cannot say).  I ran a bios test and it indicated some bad sectors on the hard drive so to eliminate that as a potential issue I replaced the drive and reran the Recovery USB.  Got the same error msg. after USB formatted drive and loaded system files. I reviewed other postings and tried setting BIOS date earlier but no change.  I'm at a loss as to what caused OS to crash in the beginning and why the recovery USB fails with both original drive and replacement drive.  Not sure what else I can change in what is supposed to be a turnkey process and I can't talk to HP because the warranty has expired.  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.  My laptop is just an expensive paperweight until I can fix!  Thanks.

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

@dkearley012

I would make a plain Windows 10  on usb flash drive to install. MS offers a free tool to make it. Boot from it and when/if it asks for license key Skip or whatever option you have to move on with installation. It will activate later when you are online.

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

[dkearley012]

That turned out be a very useful suggestion.  I was able to download the WIndows 10 install iso file from the Microsoft link you provided, although I couldn't get the Microsoft DVD utility to work on my XP machine so I found a Windows 7 laptop and made a boot DVD disk from there.  (I had to do this twice as I used the 32 bit OS version before realizing I had a 64 bit machine).  It took a couple tries but I was ultimately successful in getting the laptop to load a new copy of Windows 10 from the DVD.  It did complain about drives not being in the recommended order but since it didn't tell me what the recommended order should be, I proceeded anyways.  The Windows files are on drive C: (where they are supposed to be) and everything appears to be running normally, so I think I'm home free.  Thanks very much for your help. I was about to break out the hammer.