Cannot recover from either the recovery partition or a USB recovery key

[finlam]

For reasons that would be too long to explain, I wanted to restore this laptop to factory settings.

I had made a recovery key when I first bought the computer, so I thought this would be easy enough.

After booting from the key, I was presented with two options (note: I am translating all dialogs from French):

- execute the program from the support

- execute the program from the hard disk

I decided to try from the hard disk first. I got a message: "Contact HP technical assistance. You cannot recover this system from this support"...

Then I tried to recover from the key. At first, it seemed to work. I got a window saying "preparation of the recovery is complete. The installation phase begins." Then a LONG sequence of operations followed (over an hour). The computer booted several times. At some point I saw the Windows logo and some indication that I was logged in as administrator. In the end, however, I got the message: "! HP Recovery Manager failed. Error code = 0xEFFFFF08".

I tried several times. I don't know why, but once I got the message: "Recovery did not complete. Please press one of the following buttons: Record journal, Details, Retry."

"Record journal" saved a binary file named E:\RMSaveLog.wim, which I do not know how to read...

"Details" produces a long text file, unfortunately on screen only. I do not have the technical knowledge to interpret it.

That's it. The experience is very frustrating. I know I can download a generic Windows installation ISO from Microsoft, but I would much rather get back to the original HP installation which is more tuned to the HP hardware, I feel.

I'd appreciate it very much if someone can help.

[WAWood]

@finlam 

I primary reason that resets fail is due to a failing drive.

If your PC is new enough to support UEFI, you can use these steps to test the hard drive: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00439024

If not, to check the drive you have to follow these steps:
1) Press Esc key repeatedly, several times a second, while rebooting the laptop. Do NOT hold the key down, just press it over and over.
2) Eventually, you will see an HP Startup Menu
3) Press the Function key for testing the hard drive (usually F2) and let it run.

[finlam]

Thanks. I tried your suggestions. Although my machine supports UEFI, the first procedure doesn't apply to SSD drives, which mine is. I then proceeded with the second option. I ran the extensive tests (4 hours!) Everything came out fine, except that the Short DST and Long DST checks were reported as "not available". I assume this is normal for a SSD. The SMART check and Optimized DST check were successful.

So I am still stuck 😢

[WAWood]

@finlam 

I didn't notice anything in your original post about using as SSD.  IF this PC came with an HDD and you migrated to an SSD, the built-in HP recovery function will then NOT work.

At that point, you have no choice than to do a clean install.

[finlam]

I can be wrong, but I thought the HP Spectre x360 13-415 only came with a SSD. But you are right, I should have mentioned it. Sorry.

Now, I must be very stupid or I didn't use the right words, but a clean install is exactly what I have been trying to do, using either the recovery partition or the USB key I created. I backed-up my data, repartitioned the disk into a single partition, and chose the options to reformat the disk and recover to factory defaults. All my attemps aborted as mentioned before.

What is it that I don't understand?

[WAWood]

@finlam 

What you are doing SHOULD work, as the drive issues with HDDs that prevent resets from working don't affect SSDs.

Also, the recovery drive you made SHOULD work, especially if the replacement SSD is the same capacity as the original.  I have done this myself a couple of time and never had an issue with it.

All I can suggest at this point is using the HP Cloud Recovery tool to make another recovery drive and seeing if that works.

If your PC is a 2016 model or newer, you should see if you can make a bootable USB recovery drive using the HP cloud recovery tool on a working PC.

The recovery drive can then be used to install Win10 and the HP drivers and utilities that originally came with your PC.

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

[finlam]

Even though my PC is a 2016 model, it is not supported through the Cloud Recovery tool 😞.

If you are not tired with me yet, here are my last thoughts before giving up:

Searching through YouTube, I found this video, which gave me hopes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5_-VkjqYaM.

The "incomplete recovery" error message is exactly the same as mine. So I tried to replicate the "fix", but in my case the Ctl+Alt+Del sequence didn't work. I wonder if there is another way to invoke the task manager at that point...

I also was able to decipher the log file produced by the error. I haven't found a way to send attachments on this forum, but I posted the file here (it is a plaintext file):

http://dl.free.fr/sdDFLnSVn

... just in case you would know what to do with it.