Want to format hard drive but OS is corrupted

[Arf402]

Hello HP community,

When I was factory reseting my notebook, the computer crashed and now on startup it says that there is no OS. I don't have warrenty or the windows key anymore. I made a windows recovery disk and am able to boot the system recovery options but none of them help. Will getting the HP recovery USB drive solve this problem? if not, what are my other options?

[visruth]

Hi,


Tap away F2 key as soon as you power on laptop, perform extensive hard drive and memory tests

What do you mean by computer crashed? Any error messages?

Which operating system came pre installed in this CTO (Configure to order) notebook?

What happens when you boot from Recovery discs? How did you create this discs (method)?


Regards

Visruth

[Arf402]

Hi Visruth,

Both the memory test and hard drive test passed.

When the computer crashed the screen went black and powered off immediately. When powered back on it displays "An operating system wasn't found. Try disconnecting and drives that don't contain an operating system." It powered off during the reset because of a problem with the battery which has since been removed.

It was originally windows 7.

We have a laptop with the same OS and type/model and we made the boot disk off that. When I boot from disk it brings me into System Recovery Options. It gives me the option to use recovery tools or restore using a system image but I dont have any. For the recovery tools option I select my Windows 10 OS and is comes up with the options Startup Repair, System Restore, System Image Recovery, Windows Memory Diagnostic, Command Prompt, and HP Recovery Manager. System Restore brings me to the HP Recovery Manager. For the HP Recovery Manager tool, System Recovery and Minimized Image Recovery are grayed out and unclickable.

[visruth]

Hi,


You've to do factory reset using HP recovery USB.

Since hard drive tests passed, doing factory reset with Recovery USB would be good enough.

If your laptop came with Windows 7 pre installed from factory, then you should be doing factory reset (system recovery) of Windows 7 using HP Recovery USB.

Do the other laptop have exact same product number and pre installed operating system (Windows 7)? If so, HP recovery discs of that will work in this notebook.

If no, you've to order HP Recovery USB from HP support directly.

Did your laptop have COA sticker on the back with 25 character Windows 7 activation code printed in it? Or do you have activation code separately given to you by HP.


Regards

Visruth

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

Since you had Windows 10 installed and activated you can use the free Media Tool from MS to create a Windows 10 usb or save the ISO to burn to dvd. Boot with it to install Windows 10. At the screen to enter license key Skip that. It will activate later using your machine id stored on MS servers.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

[Arf402]

Hello CheryIG,

Thank you very much for your help, I was able to successfully reinstall  Windows 10 without having to buy the HP Recovery USB!

[CherylG]

Happy to hear of success! Thanks for taking time to update us.