Trying to reset a Windows 7 laptop to factory settings, but was provided XP recovery discs

[higgsy1746]

Hi,  I purchased an HP ProBook 6545b Notebook PC (NN245ET) way back in April 2010.

It came with Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 and has Windows 7 stickers on the laptop top and bottom.

When trying to log on recently, I received the following message "The User Profile Service service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded."

I managed to get the Administrator account working and could log on using that.

But as the machine is 10 years old and had been glitchy lately, I decided this was a good opportunity to copy my files of interest to an external hard-drive and gut it of 10 years of rubbish.
So I tried to Reset the Computer to Factory Settings.
However, I had the following issues

1. RECOVERY MANAGER

Once I had copied my files of interest, I tried to use Recovery Manager, but the machine doesn't have Recovery Manager on it.

2. F8 ‘REPAIR YOUR COMPUTER’

I tried to use F8, but it does not give me the “Repair Your Computer” option

3. F11 FOR RECOVERY

I tried to use F11, but I kept a "Windows failed to start" message with Status: 0xc000000f

4. DRIVER RECOVERY DISCS

I tried to use the discs provided with the laptop for recovery; however, they are all for XP (took me 10 ***ing years to need them / notice).

5. XP PRO SP3 OPERATING SYSTEM DVD - REPAIR

I tried to use the XP Operating System DVD anyway, to see if it would give me the repair option, but no Partition provides a repair option, only the Install or Delete options.

6. XP PRO SP3 OPERATING SYSTEM DVD – INSTALL C 

I tried to install XP onto the C drive, but I got the message it was too small.

7. XP PRO SP3 OPERATING SYSTEM DVD – INSTALL D

I tried to install XP onto the D drive, but I got the message it was not compatible (I assume because its Windows 7).

8. RUN WINDOWS

I tried to log back into my Administrator profile, but now I cant even run Windows and just get the "Windows failed to start" message with Status: 0xc0000001

9. WINDOWS 7 ISO FILE

I tried to download the iso of the Windows 7 cd associated with my product code (albeit, my product code is very worn and much of it illegible) but was told “The product key you've entered appears to be for software which was pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options.”

Help!

I am a total loss what to do!  Every bit of advice I can find has proved either impossible for me to do, or to have made things worse!

Essentially, Windows won’t start, and I think I need to run a Windows 7 cd in the machine.

But I only have been provided XP recovery cds, and they have made things worse.

So the only advice I can now find is to contact the manufacturer, i.e. HP.

Can anyone help me with the following??

• Why was I sent XP recovery dvds for a Windows 7 machine;
• How do I get a Windows 7 Recovery dvd in place of the XP ones;
• Spell out in idiot language exactly what I need to do to perform a factory reset on this machine, given all of the above.

Please help 😞
Many thanks

( Ugh... I cant even get the jpegs to work... )

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Here is the link to the W7 Pro 32 bit English (US) ISO file you can download and make a bootable installation/repair disk.

The link will be good for 24 hours from the time of my reply.

https://download.microsoft.com/download/C/0/6/C067D0CD-3785-4727-898E-60DC3120BB14/7601.24214.180801...

Since you can't read the product key, you won't be able to activate the installation.

Use the Microsoft tool that I zipped up and attached below that you will need to transfer the ISO file to a DVD or USB flash drive so that it is bootable.

I doubt HP has or sells W7 recovery media for your PC anymore. 

You can call them at the link below and ask...call the number for Computing products for business.

https://www8.hp.com/uk/en/contact-hp/phone-assist.html

[higgsy1746]

Thank you Paul, thats tremendous!
I'll give that a try today.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

If you are able to read the key you should be able to install W7 with that file.

Also, if you can read the key, and would prefer to install W7 Pro 64 bit, I can give you the file download for that version too.

[higgsy1746]

Apologies for late reply, work took over my life for a couple of days.
But I did manage to get my laptop to boot from a USB and did manage to install Windows 7 🙂
The laptop is missing a heap of preinstalled stuff, but it now works so I owe you a huge debt of thanks!

Ran a wee check and the machine is compatible with 64-bit OS, so if I can be greedy and take that download off your hands too I'd be very grateful.

Just thinking out loud now really, as the computer works again which was the main thing, but I've also found an 'HPFactory. wim' file in the HP_RECOVERY (D:) drive, which im taking to be the image for factory restore (which still appeals given the missing software).
I still don't have Recovery Manager on the machine (somewhat obviously) and whenever I try to do a Restore I get told there are no Restore Points on the computer.
F11 still isn't working on startup.
And I tried downloading EasyBCD and booting from the above .wim file, but then I get told "0x0000017 (ramdisk device creation failed due to insufficient memory)"
But I'll have a further play and see if I can get the factory reset working.

If that fails, I'm still in a much better place than before you helped me out!
So thanks again Paul!

[higgsy1746]

Just found that HP only preinstalled Recovery Manager with Vista on the Probook 6545b.
They didnt put it on the Windows 7 machines.
That .wim file has got me intrigued though! 😄

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

Glad you were able to get W7 to work again.

Unfortunately, I doubt you will ever find a way to get the recovery partition to work, and would not be able to help you with that problem.

When you install W7 x64, I would delete every partition on the hard drive leaving just one partition of unallocated space.

You should be able to get all of the drivers and most of the pre-installed software you need for your notebook from the link below.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-probook-6545b-notebook-pc/4021366

I would also install the W7 AMD chipset driver for your notebook from the link below...select the W7 x64 file.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-8-series-chipsets/870

Below is the link to the W7 Pro x64 English (US) ISO file.  The link will be good for 24 hours from the time of this reply.

https://download.microsoft.com/download/0/6/3/06365375-C346-4D65-87C7-EE41F55F736B/7601.24214.180801...

What you can do once you get your notebook set up the way you want, use the free Macrium Reflect utility to make a system image and store it on a portable hard drive. 

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Then the program will also have you make a bootable rescue DVD or USB flash drive that you boot from to access the image stored on the portable hard drive.

You can update the image any time you want.  I personally use this software and found it easy to use and I even used it once or twice to restore an image due to my finagling with stuff and coming out on the losing end to the PC.  😊

If you need any help finding any missing drivers, please let me know, and I will be happy to assist you with that.

[higgsy1746]

'Finagling' is a great word 😂
Excellent, i'll get on all that this weekend.
Thanks Paul!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.