Factory Reset HP Pavilion 15-aw030ca (Touch)

[SharkyCA1]

The issue seems to be I replaced the factory HD with a different model and the factory restore USB drive I got from HP keeps failing after running for hours to restore!

I have tried running the HP Cloud restore but same issue, I am trying to clean everything off but retain a running laptop, the original hard drive is a Toshiba MQ01ABD100 1.0TB  and the replacement is an SSD drive WDS100T2BOA 1 TB .

Anything anyone can suggest??

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

Your only other option would be to use the Microsoft media creation tool to make a bootable W10 installation flash drive and clean install W10.

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

After W10 has completed installing, you can install the drivers and available software from your notebook's support page.

HP Pavilion 15-aw030ca (Touch) (ENERGY STAR) Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support

[SharkyCA1]

Thanks for the feedback Paul, i was hoping there was a patch to enable a different HD other than factory!

I do have a functioning Windows backup image I can use but it has a lot more of my personal info on it that I want to clear!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome. 

[PeteC22]

If this is a new SSD drive that you are attempting to recover to, make sure that the SSD is recognized in BIOS and has been initialized, otherwise the recovery USB isn't "seeing" the drive you are trying to install it to.  

If the SSD drive has been initialized, but is not set up as a Windows drive, you may need to install Windows before running the recovery - but I'm not 100% sure on that.

If the SSD has already been running as the boot drive, then of course it must be something else.  Why are you doing a factory re-install?  If the SSD was running previously and there is a system error, it may be an issue with the SSSD drive itself.  Aside of that I'm at a loss as the WD SATA 2.5" 1TB drive should be otherwise compatible.