Resetting hp laptop to factory settings and it's taking over 12 hours and still not done

[anissageee]

I backed up all my files on a drive and wanted to reset laptop to factory settings and it's taking over 12 hours to do this and still not finished. It says installing Windows and doing it again and again over 10 hours and it won't change... Is it broken ? Can I exit this

[Geek26]

Hi,

once the system restore has started it can't really be cancelled, well it can but you won't get very far as Windows won't be fully installed.  It appears something has gone wrong in this case so as a first port of call I think you should boot the computer again from HP recovery media and try it again if it still doesn't reset then there could be something wrong.

James

[anissageee]

So if I cancel out of the installing Windows, so I have to recover material and then try again ?

[anissageee]

How do I get out of the installing Windows screen that's been doing that for 10 hours ?

[Geek26 · Accepted solution]

I would advise holding down the power button until the computer turns off then turn it back on and boot it from the recovery media again like you did previously if you still have issues after this we can do further checks.

James

[anissageee]

Thank you. I will try it.

[Geek26]

No worries occasionally it can just get stuck either that or the recovery media is defunct. If this is the case contact HP support and see if they will send a new set out.

James

[anissageee]

I held the power button to turn off. And waited a couple minutes and turned it back on. A screen popped up saying there was something wrong with Windows and asked to restart pc or choose other advanced options. I chose to restart pc and it went back to where it left off. I don't know what to do now?

[anissageee]

It's a brand new computer, only had it for a month. And I don't have a lot of stuff on it for it to take so long to reset

[Geek26]

No we don't want to reboot into Windows you need to boot the computer from your recovery CDs and start the process again.

James