HP Factory Restore USB tells me it can't install Windows, "Error 0123 - Contact HP Customer Support"

[Dreahnian]

I recently purchased a larger NVMe drive for my Omen X 2s and purchased a USB recovery drive from HP to perform a factory install.  First of all, the USB drive they gave me isn't bootable, but the UEFI files are there so i just started install using UEFI file mode.  It does a few things, then gives me the error:  "Error 0123 - Contact HP Customer Support."  The error could not be more vague, and I didn't see anything more verbose in the logs on the USB drive.

Bad drive maybe?  I can't get a hold of HP customer support because it just keeps routing me to the Virtual Assistant which doesn't get me anywhere, then I eventually end back up at the support page, which doesn't have any phone numbers or anything.  Please help me!

[WAWood]

@Dreahnian 
Sorry, but in terms of HP support, you are essentially stuck -- as HP will not furnish phone numbers in the US and will not allow us to do that, either.  You have to go online through the US website and fill out the service ticket request to then get contact information.

But if your PC is still working and all you want to do is upgrade to a larger drive, then consider using a free utility to make an image of your current install and a boot USB stick, because with those, you could then swap drives, boot from the USB stick, plug in the other USB stick containing the image backup and restore that to the new drive.

------------------------

I personally prefer to use third-party Backup solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 60% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 24GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

[Dreahnian]

@WAWood

Thanks for the reply!  I used the Windows Media Creation Tool to create a working thumb drive, installed windows manually, and then downloaded and installed the drivers manually.  It works, but I spent the $50 on the factory restore one so that I can wipe again if I have/want to and not do all the manual stuff.

I still want a working restore drive, but the HP support site doesn't seem to be working correctly, it just loops me back to the Virtual Assistant which doesn't offer any actual assistance.  They don't seem to have a way to put in a ticket, contact via email, or any queue system.  I really like the HP products, but if this is the level of customer service they are going to provide, I might have to move on.