HP stream 11 - USB Recovery boot disc?

[noddy347]

Hello, I have a problem. Since my Stream 11 had Windows 10, 64 bit installed on its tiny HD, I wanted to change to the smaller, 32 bit version. Hence I tried to achieve this through the Windows 10 reset function. This generated an error however, after which I decided to do it myself through installing a fresh copy of Windows directly on the HD (not through the built-in functions of Windows). 

I created the correct bootable USB and set the laptop to boot from USB. This started the setup program as is normal, but after deleting the existing partitions I still could not install Windows on the HD. I got the following error message: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style" 

A quick search showed that this problem was a common one, and could be easily solved through diskpart-list disk-
select disk 0-clean-exit. After following these steps I encountered a different problem: the laptop now seems unable to find the HD at all. When starting the laptop the following error message appears: "no bootable device insert boot disk and press any key"

Now I cannot find any more solutions, other than using a recovery disk/USB, or other HP Recovery Media. I have not been able to find these on the HP website however. Where can I find the required software and how should I proceed from here to get my Stream 11 working again? 

Thanks in advance! 

Kind regards, 

Ron

[WAWood]

@noddy347

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

What you need is something known as HP Recovery Media.  

HP Recovery Media is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities. In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks. You have to order these from HP; they can not be downloaded.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click "Update". If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the "+" symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Service:

If you live in the US or Canada, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/phone-assist.html#section1

If you live elsewhere, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-contact-us.html

NOTE: After you get through, stay on the line until you are finally able to talk to some one -- it can take a while!

If you have trouble finding a phone number, then try: 1 (800) 474-6836
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However, HP Customer Support is generally not available on the weekends, so you might have to wait until Monday to contact them.
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If HP no longer provides Recovery Media for your model, a couple of other sites you can check are: http://www.computersurgeons.com/ and http://www.restoredisks.com/

Once you have the media, read through this: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00006110

Good Luck

[kyle_b]

You would not want to use 32-bit Windows on the Stream 11, it will not save much storage space and you will not find all the drivers that you need, the touchpad for one has no 32-bit driver available.  You can either order the recovery media from HP or create a 64-bit Windows 10 install USB which hopefully will recognize the disk.  If not, you might have to do some more work with the command line utilities to fix it.