Cannot do a Factory Reset

[Mike_vR]

Hi,

I have been trying to reset my daughter's HP laptop. The first time I did the reset, I pressed F11 when I turned on the laptop. Then I clicked on "Troubleshoot," then "Reset this PC," then "Remove Everything," and then "Fully Clean Drive," which is the option for when people want to recycle their laptop. Each attempt fails.

I can access the drives to my computer but trying to start it I am informed that no working OS found. I created a flash drive with the OS but the reinstall wants a DVD. We did upgrade wo Win 10 soon after we bought it.

[WAWood]

@Mike_vR 

<Sigh>  Every time I read one of these Factory-Reset issues posts I cringe and continue to wonder why everyone seems to think a factory reset is a miracle cure when, in many cases, it only serves to make things worse!

You should NOT have forced that; instead, you should have come here BEFORE doing that and we would have told you how to save off the drivers so you could do a reinstall from MS media and then restore your drivers.  It is too late, now to do that.

Since your PC can not successfully do an internal factory reset, your only ways to accomplish this are the following:
- Factory reset using external HP image you make
- Factory reset using external HP image you buy

Each of these is discussed in some detail below ...

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you make ----------
HP provides a Cloud Recovery tool that you can use, together with a 32GB USB stick, to create your on HP reset media.

Here is the link: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205

This works the same as the factory reset described above.

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you buy ----------
For those PCs not supported by the Cloud Recovery, in some cases, HP offers Recover Media for sale. This can not be downloaded; instead, it must be ordered from HP.

HP Recovery Media is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities.

In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click &quot;Update&quot;.<br><br>If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the &quot;+&quot; symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Support.

HP contact info: https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp?openCLC=true

If HP no longer carries the media you need, another site you should check for HP Recovery Media is: http://www.computersurgeons.com/

These work the same as the factory reset described above.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Mike_vR 

See if this works...

If you have access to another PC with Windows, you can make your own W8.1 installation media by downloading the plain W8.1 64 bit ISO file from the link below.

Download Windows 8.1 Disc Image (ISO File) (microsoft.com)

Use the Microsoft tool that I zipped up and attached below that you will need to transfer the ISO file to a DVD or USB flash drive so that it is bootable.

When you get to the part of the installation that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows, delete every partition on the hard drive, leaving just one partition of unallocated space.  Click Next and W8.1 should install.

After W8.1 has completed installing, you can install the drivers and available software from your notebook's support page.

HP Pavilion Notebook - 15-p133cl (ENERGY STAR) Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

Then you can do an in-place upgrade back to W10 for free by clicking on the blue Update Now button at the link below.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

[Mike_vR]

Thank you Paul.... 

I had made a back up of my system using HP on a flash drive. The setup still crashes around the 32% point. 

I will give your recommendations a shot.

Thank you for your help and kindness.

Mike vR

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I have usually found that clean installing the operating system usually works as long as there isn't a hardware issue (hard drive or memory).

[Mike_vR]

I have tried this. But the reinstall stops at 32%.   thx

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Unfortunately, I wouldn't know why that is happening.

If you haven't done so already, run the hard drive and memory tests in the BIOS (F2) and see what they report.

There could be a hardware issue of some kind.

[Mike_vR]

I downloaded the tool and created the bootable USB flash drive. I placed the USB into the effected computer and started it pressing the Escape button. I selected F9 to then pick the USB drive, select the Boo Manager select "Boot from EFI FILE" (only choice) ... then on the Select a File System I choose the USB Drive.... Enter and the Select a File to Boot, I can not change the selection, I have the "Boot from EF" and <System File Info> or <..>

The up-down arrows do nothing and pressing Enter just switches the options. Pressing F10  goes into the Bios and that doesn't seem to work.

What am I not doing? Any thoughts. 

Thx

Mike vR

[Paul_Tikkanen]

See if you can boot from the USB drive by going into the BIOS, enable Legacy mode and disable secure boot.

ESC key then F10.

See this link for the settings to change.

HP Notebook PCs - Cannot Start Notebook Computer From a Bootable CD or DVD | HP® Customer Support

The USB flash drive should show up under the Legacy boot sources listing when you go back to F9.

[Mike_vR]

Everything worked fine until to:

Step 2: Select the CD/DVD drive as the boot device

On restart, I go to Esc-> F9, and select the “USB Hard Drive – USB Disk 3.0 PMAP” to boot from, but I get the message “Reboot and Select proper boot drive or insert boot media in proper boot drive and press a key”