HP Stream 14 - reinstalling windows

[kl2285]

Bought an HP Stream in May and thought it would be sufficient for doing uni work, web browsing, etc.

Found that after a few months, Windows updates were using more and more storage space. Ended up having to delete literally everything apart from my antivirus software and Microsoft Word but the performance of the laptop was still disgraceful so I ended up buying a better one.

Decided to reinstall Windows and sell the Stream to someone who just needed a basic laptop as it’s no good to me, however I’ve been trying for three days and it’s still saying there’s not enough free space to restore it to factory settings. I’ve deleted everything that I can, used disk clean up apps, the free space now keeps hovering between 4-5gb and I have no idea what to do next.

All I want to do is put a clean version of Windows on! The retailer said they can’t help as I’ve owned it for more than 30 days. HP have been no help whatsoever, their advice was to get an external hard drive or to send the laptop to them for repair. I explained that’s it’s not an actual fault and it’s more the fact that the laptop isn’t fit for purpose but they didn’t seem to care.

Any ideas? My next step will be to take a hammer to the stupid thing because I swear it’s caused me so much frustration!

[CF4]

Hi

I am not familiar with the Stream, but am familiar with reading about the problem.

Piriform Ccleaner may be the answer.

Found this....

""

Power Off your device, press Volume down button first, then press Power button for 3 - 5 seconds (do not let go of the volume down button). Startup menu will appear, select F11 System recovery on the mini Screen Keyboard. On the "Choose an option" menu, select Troubleshoot then Reset your PC (to be surely safe, plug in your AC when doing factory reset).

Note: All your personal files and settings will be wiped out. 

"

System Restore Utility on the Notebook

If the operating system is a Windows Mobile Internet Experience, then press the "Esc" button continuously while you still see the "F10 = Setup Options" on the screen. Choose "System Restore" and press "Enter." For Windows 7, 8, XP, and Vista, press F11 every second until the Recovery Manager shows up.

"

""

If it would boot from an external device like USB then you can make a bootable device and wipe it, then just install a basic W10 or similar.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Then try this screen...

For a wipe of the C: where windows resides (which should allow a clean re-install) shut down cleanly, by unchecking the Fast Start Up option...

and use something like GPARTED,  https://gparted.org/livecd.php, it is not pretty to look at, but is pretty effective in cleaning up a HDD.