Windows can't be recovered

[Elizaro]

My son reformatted his computer and now Windows seems to be gone.  I have tried resetting the computer. I have been able to get the f11 key to work and tried resetting to factory defaults.  It gets to 46% and quits working. I did replace the battery as it originally wouldn't work because I was getting a message that the primary battery didn't have enough space.

And I have some how changed the language for the dianostcs to Swedish? Everything else is in English 

Am I beyond help? I am obviously not the most computer literate person

[WAWood]

@Elizaro 

That's OK -- that's why we're her to help...

Since the build-in reset it now working, I have to presume that your son's reformatting corrupted the recovery information, preventing you from using the built-in recovery.

However, it could ALSO be that the drive is failing, because a reset would fail then even if the recovery information was intact.

If your PC is new enough to support UEFI, you can use these steps to test the hard drive: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00439024

If not, to check the drive you have to follow these steps:
1) Press Esc key repeatedly, several times a second, while rebooting the laptop. Do NOT hold the key down, just press it over and over.
2) Eventually, you will see an HP Startup Menu -- that will look similar to the image below ...

3) press the Function key for testing the hard drive (usually F2) and let it run.

Please report back the test results.

[Elizaro]

Thanks for your reply.

When I try the f2 key which is diagnostics on this model,  everything is in a foreign language.   I don't know how that happened as everything else is in English.

[WAWood]

@Elizaro 

Sounds like you son really messed it up!  Unfortunately, corrupting it is a lot easier than fixing it.

You will need to see if there is a local laptop repair facility that can do a BIOS update for you.  That should reset the HP Start Menu back to English.  There's nothing we can do from here to reset that for you.

Good Luck

[Elizaro]

I  have the diagnostic back in English. Ran a fast test, because I wasn't sure which would be best. It says everything passed. One thing I did wonder about, the battery check says the primary -calibration required. I did replace the battery. The original said the battery didn't have enough memory.