OS Reinstall

[tgmaz]

The hard drive on my laptop crashed.  I put a new hard drive in.  I did not have a Windows 8 media (the machine came with W8 installed) and does not have a built in CD/DVD drive.  I did have a USB external DVD drive so I loaded a Windows 7 media in.  It booted but when it came to install the OS, system said it did not have a USB/DVD driver which means I cannot get the O/S installed.  Any ideas how to get past this issue?  Thanks for any help.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I can give you a free way to install W8.1 using the W8 product key in your notebook's BIOS, but if you would rather have W7 on there, you need to boot your external USB DVD drive from the notebook's USB 2 port.

W7 does not have the USB 3 drivers in order to proceed.

[tgmaz]

Thanks.  Laptop has 2 USB on right side & 2 on left side of keyboard.  Which USB port is #2?

[tgmaz]

I have tried all 4 of the USB ports, it still comes up with the "A CD/DVD device driver is missing. "  Setup wants a floppy, CD, DVD or flash drive with the driver on it.  I assume the installation DVD (Windows 7 Ultimate) would h ave the driver but setup cannot seem to find it.

I do have a valid W8 key that came with the system but I do not have an installation disk or flash drive.  How do I get one?

The odd thing is that the laptop boots from the DVD and gets part way through the install, copies the files, then bombs wanting to load the DVD driver...

thanks again...

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

Strange...the user guide indicates that all the USB ports are 3.0, and the product specs indicate that one of the ports is USB 2.0.

So, if your model doesn't have an internal DVD drive, it is too much trouble to install W7.

Here is a way to install W8.1 using the W8 product key in your notebook's BIOS.

Install W8.1 by creating the Microsoft installation media, using another Windows PC, if yours is not working...You want W8.1 64 bit.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8ISO

If you are asked to enter a product key during the installation process, use this generic key.

This is the generic key for W8.1 'Standard.'

334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT

When you get to the screen that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows,' delete every partition on the hard drive, leaving just one partition of unallocated space. Click Next, and W8.1 should begin to install.

If you had to enter the generic key, manually change the generic product key to the W8 key in your PC's BIOS in the PC settings menu.

After you get W8.1 installed, and you had to manually enter the W8.1 generic product key, you will need to run the free utility I zipped up and attached below, that will show you the W8 product key in your PC's BIOS.

I have also zipped up and attached below, the Microsoft tool which hopefully will transfer the ISO file to a DVD or USB flash drive so it is bootable.  Or you can use a free utility such as Rufus.

Then you can install the available drivers and software from your PC's support page.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-ENVY-15-j000-Notebook-PC-series/5354982/model/53...

[tgmaz]

Paul, can't thank you enough for your help!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.