Recovery disk

[Joel14]

That didn't work.

Joel

[Paul_Tikkanen]

And nothing showing up under F9...

Well, it is possible the recovery media is defective.

The only other suggestion I can offer would be to make your own bootable W8.1 installation media and see if you can boot from that... you can make either a flash drive or DVD.   With the DVD, you will have to select the legacy DVD drive to boot from.

Install W8.1 by creating the Microsoft installation media, using another Windows PC...You want W8.1 64 bit.

If you live in an EU country, you probably have to use the W8.1 N ISO file download.

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

Only 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

If you had to enter the generic key, manually change the generic product key to the W8.1 'standard' key in your PC's BIOS in the PC settings menu.

After you get W8.1 installed, you will need to run the free utility I zipped up and attached below, that will show you show the W8.1 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.

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-Notebook-PC-series/7771345/model/8542717

[Joel14]

That didn't work. At the end of the process, it said that files were copied successfully but it was unable to make USB drive bootable. i tried it anyways but there's no EFI file there.

Joel

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I would make a bootable DVD from the ISO file you saved then.

That is your only hope.

If that doesn't work either, unfortunately I am completely out of ideas.

[Joel14]

That was my thought. I'll have to see if I have disks around here. Thanks.

Joel

[Paul_Tikkanen]

If you don't, I think you can buy a 5 pack of DVD-Rs unless you can get a 50 pack cheap.

Depends on how many times you need to burn DVD's.

[Joel14]

Thank you Paul for all your help. I was able to get the USB to boot. I downloaded a new copy of bootsect.exe and made sure that it was in the same folder as the ISO. Then the software you gave me worked. I couldn't have done it without your help. I'll mark it as solved as soon as I get my money back. They say that will be in 24-48 hours. I'll give them a few more days. We'll see. Thanks again.

Joel

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Anytime, Joel.

Glad to have been of assistance, and happy to know your notebook is back up and running again.

Paul