Hard reset laptop, OS deleted

[fkm1996]

Hi all,

Just yesterday I tried using my laptop, at which point it froze and I had to force it to shut down. After several failed attempts at switching it on again, it gave me the error message that it found no bootable device.

Looking on the HP website, I saw that they recommended a hard reset, which I performed. However, now when I switch the laptop on it asks me to install an OS.

I do have a repair disc, however I have no system image for my own laptop which I can use to resotre it (I do have my files backed up). I've tried using my brother's laptop's system image (we have the same model), but my laptop would not recognise it on the external hard drive on which it is saved.

Does anyone know how I could get my OS back without purchasing a new install disc?

Thank you in advance for the help!

Extra info in case it is relevant: 

Laptop was purchased in Summer 2012

Upgraded to Windows 10 from 7 in Summer 2015

Have had no problem with Windows 10 until now

[DavidPK]

Hi,

As long as the previous installation of Windows 10 had activated Ok after the upgrade from 7, you can just create your own Windows 10 installation media and perform a clean installation as detailed in the guide on the following link.  Note: At the activation screen, select 'I don't have a Product key' - Windows will activate automatically once the installation has completed.

http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

Regards,

DP-K

[fkm1996]

Fantastic, this has got me to the "Where do you want to install Windows?" screen. Four partitions are available:

Drive 0 Partition 1: SYSTEM

Drive 0 Partition 2

Drive 0 Partition 3: Recovery

Drive 0 Partition 4: HP_TOOLS

I cannot install windows on any of these partitions as all the partitions have an MBR partition table, and Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.

I'm able to press "Refresh", "Load driver", "Delete" and "Format", but unable to press "New" or "Extend". Pressing "Format" for any of these files gives me a warning that:

"This partition might contain important files or applications from your computer manufacturer. If you format this partition, any data stored on it will be lost".

Any further help will be greatly appreciated!

[DavidPK · Accepted solution]

Hi,

As long as you have a back-up of your personal data, I wouldn't be concerned about retaining the existing partitions and just convert the drive to a guid partition table - Recovery won't work anyway after a clean install, System will be replaced by efi and HP_TOOLS can just be downloaded again.

If the existing HDD has a mbr partition style, you can convert this to a guid partition table (gpt) as follows.

Open a Command Prompt- Option 1

Enter the following, hitting return after each entry.

diskpart

list disk

Assuming there is only 1 hard drive installed then enter

select disk 0

clean

convert gpt

when done type exit and hit enter.

Run the Windows 10 installation again.

Regards,

DP-K

[fkm1996]

There are two disks present, disk 0 having 931GB, and disk 1 has 7396MB. Should I still continue with your instructions, or do I have to do anything with Disk 1?

[DavidPK]

Hi,

Just convert and install to Disk 0.

Regards,

DP-K

[fkm1996]

Thank you for your help, this solved my problem and my laptop now works fine. You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

[DavidPK]

Hi,

You're more than welcome and good to hear it's Ok

All the best,

DP-K