Elitebook 850 G1: Hard drive replacement, OS restore

[wny2016]

I have an Elitebook 850 G1. The original hard drive has failed. I've got a new Samsung EVO 860 for a replacement, as well as a new copy of Windows 10 on DVD. (The original OS was Windows 7)

This Elitebook lacks a built-in optical (DVD) drive. I have the original HP Recovery DVD. I hooked up an HP 565S-H08 external USB DVD drive, and tried to boot into the Recovery DVD. I tested the DVD drive on a different laptop, as I haven't used it in a while, but it works fine. The machine does not try to boot from/access the external DVD drive.

I went into the BIOS to check the boot situation. Clearly, USB devices are checked. Secure Boot is off.

I have not installed the new HD yet.

When I turn on the machine, it just tries to boot into the hard drive, which fails, as it is not there - no attempt to access the bootable DVD in the external USB DVD drive. Anyone know how to get around this? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

See if this works...

Since you have Legacy mode enabled, and secure boot disabled, you have to boot from the Legacy USB device.

Restart the PC, tap the ESC key at the beginning of the HP welcome screen to get the menu of options.

Select the F9 boot options menu, and from that, select the legacy USB DVD drive and press the Enter key.

Watch the screen...if the PC goes to boot from the DVD drive, you should see a message...attempting to boot from DVD, press any key to boot frm DVD.  Press the Enter key.

[wny2016]

Thanks, Paul. When I do this,the only choice shown is "Notebook Ethernet" 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

That is very odd that no boot devices other than that one are showing up.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other ideas for you to try, other than trying the DVD drive from the USB 2 port if you have not done so already.

I have a HP 350 G1 which has the same chipset and processor family as your model, and I can boot from any legacy device I want by enabling legacy mode and disabling secure boot, tapping the ESC key, and selecting F9...USB, internal DVD, HDD...

[wny2016]

If I select the Notebook Ethernet (only choice) the system asks me if I want to sgin on as a Guest, which I select. This is the series of screens I can then access:

Then I get the screens attached here.

[wny2016]

One step further:

I installed a new Samsung EVO SSD. When I boot up now, the 2 options for boot are:

- Notebook hard drive

- Notebook Ethernet

But of course, if I select Notebook hard drive, it isn't formatted, co ntains no Windows install, and no boot happens. I don't see any way to fix this except to remove the new SSD, stick it in an external enclosure, and install a bootable Win 10  that way. Then just remove drive and put in Elitebook. 

[wny2016 · Accepted solution]

Here's the fix: After you install a new (unformatted) hard drive and the new boot option, Notebook Hard Drive appears, naturally, the laptop will not boot to a non-formatted, non-system SSD. BUT.... apparently having the hard drive in place somehow activates the machine's Boot Order as it is set.

After failing to find a bootable HD (first place it looks), it now does go down the boot "tree", finds the external HP DVD drive, and will boot as expected from an OS DVD in that drive. If there is NO hard drive physically in the machine, formatted or not, it will NOT proceed down the boot "tree", find the DVD drive and attempt to boot from it. An awful lot of fooling around just to install a new HD and OS!