Envy x360 CANNOT do a clean install of Windows

[UweM1]

I am trying to help a coworker who ran into a BitLocker issue. Long story short, he has no key.

I wiped his drive, using a live Linux, and formatted it to NTFS.

When I try to perform a clean install from a Flash drive, I do not see any partition to install Windows to. With Diskpart and list volume, all I see is the flash drive, not the SSD. Because I was suspicious of the drive I installed Linux Mint fully, just to see if it's alright. That worked like a charm. Diskcheck and HP diagnostic all pass. I also used a live boot with GParted and formatted again. Still no change. When I attempt the Windows clean install, I;m not shown any drive to install the OS to. I have come across others with this issue but could not find a solution.

[iomare · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Could this be the problem

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06983517

If not, let us know the exact model or product number of the machine

HP Notebook PCs - How Do I Find My Product Name or Number? | HP® Customer Support

Hope it helps,

David

[UweM1]

Looks good, but there is no RST driver  under Driver-Storage, only Realtek Card Reader drivers. I used the serial number (CND0463BL6) to look up the model. There are two RST drivers under Driver-Chipset. But these are .exe, no zip files, but the instructions tell me to extract them to the USB drive.

[iomare]

OK

You can use software such as 7zip to extract .exe files

https://www.7-zip.org/download.html

Hope it helps,

David

[UweM1]

I just tried with WinRAR. It extracted but when I select load drivers during Windows installation it doesn't find any. Is the RST from the Chipset area the correct one? Like I said, there is no RST driver under the Storage section.

[UweM1]

Okay. I'm one step further. Thanks, David. Now the drive shows up and I can click format but when I try to proceed I get "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one....". If I go to the Repair Options I can now finally see the drive with Diskpart but when I restart the clean install I have to go through the RST driver load again and after that it's back to "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one...."

[UweM1]

It finally works!!! I had to delete the partition during the install and then have the new ones created. But the key was your initial help, David. Thank you and have a great day!

[iomare]

Sorry just getting back to you now after some time. I was at the sea.

Anyway, glad you worked it out and have the machine back up and running again. I use a lot of trial and error in my work 😀

Take care,

David