Recovery manager failed, Error code = 0xEFFFFF08

[SharmaAmit]

Hi Support Team,

I am getting error message/code = 0xEFFFFF08, while using recovery manager, i have treid following steps so far,Please advise how i could restore windows 8/10 on my machine:

• Bought machine on 21st July 2015,machine came with Windows 8, i created recovey image on USB flash drive 32 GB (3.0)
• Recovery image was created successfully
• In 1st week of August 2015 ,i got autoupdate on my machine for windows 10
• Windows 10 was installed successfully but somehow i noticed a delayed boot uptime inwindoes 10 so thought of going back to Windows 8 since it's apretty new machine with good configuration
• I did not create backup media for windows 10.
• I used recovery manager "restore to factory condition" option to go back to windows 8 by pugging in usb stick on right hand side usb port of the system
• I used restote without backing up files option and it took more than 2 days to perform the steps before getting the above error mesage at close to 92% stage.
• I was wondering why it could take so long to recover the machine, i read some posts online and then somewhere in HP forums it was mentioned that try to plug in the usb stick on left hand side port and then restore.
• I plugged in USB stick on left hand side, it went back to 92 %  with in 15-20 minutes of time but again got the same error message close to 92 or 94 %
• I unplugged the usb stick and tried again at same port with same error message/code, In total i have tried 4 - 5 times trying different options with no luck.
• Please advise, how can i restore windows now, at the moment no OS is installed on the mahcine , i treid the hard disk and memory check , both passed and seems to be working fine.

Thanks in advance and looking forward for your support.

[tpetras]

Greetings,

You can't use HP Recovery Manager within Win 10 to factory reset the PC. The Win 8.1 HP Recovery Manager program and the Recovery Partition are useless on Win 10.

Boot to the USB Media using USB 3.0 port and run the recovery offline. USB offline recovery steps can be found here. Please carefully review all info for offline USB option.

This should set you back to Win 8.1

If this fails then your recovery media is bad. You will either have to: (1) order recovery media from HP or you could: (2) download Win 8.1 from Microsoft here. You will have to use a different PC running the same version of Win 8.1 that is factory installed on your PC. You will have to reinstall drivers provided by HP. This second method requires more effort and time to get the PC in proper working order.

I am not employed by HP.

TomP

[SharmaAmit]

Hi

I am sorry . i forgot to mention that i was running recovery manager only in offline mode, Therefore i presume i don't have any other option left rather than to order recovery media from HP.

Another Question - One of my friend has made recovery disk for win 10 on usb flash drive, is it possible that i can use that usb stick and enter my product key while installation?

Thanks or your response !

[tpetras]

Greetings,

You can use the Win 10 USB install media if it is the same version of Win 10 and your Win 10 install activated prior to the problem. A USB Microsoft Recovery drive may not help as you now have no operating system to repair, refresh, or reset.

You will not enter any product key when reinstalling Win 10. Skip both requests.

Win 10 will activate if the initial install of Win 10 activated.

You can get Win 10 install media here

TomP.

[tpetras]

Greetings,

One clarification.

Are you booting to the USB recovery drive or booting to the HDD Recovery Manager? There is a slight difference here.

You may be running the HDD recovery app instead of running the USB recovery program. Even though you are offline you may still be running the app from the Recovery Partition.

Just a thought.

TomP

[SharmaAmit]

Hi Tpetras,

Thanks for your feedback,though i am using USB stick only as i believe HDD is completely reset and can't do anyhting on the machine except going into debug mode to perform hardware sanity checks.

I am trying to install windows 10 (as i had a successfull installation earlier) on the usb stick 8gb (2.0) but for some reasons its failing (getting error code -0x80070005 - 0xA003) everytime i try to run the media creation tool given in the link provided. It installs succcessfully but post installation, it veirfies the installer i presume and there it fails and when i check the usb stick, i do't find anything on it.

Can i create installer for windows 10 from any machine or it needs to be windows 8 machine, i was trying to create windows 10 installer from windows 7 machine.

Thanks for all your help and time!

[rmhutchins]

Error Code 0xEFFFFF08 simply means (believe it or not) that you need to use a different USB port on your computer!  I tried 3 out the 4 USB ports on my laptop before I found one that works.  I don't know why!  HP said to use a USB port on the LEFT side!  Well, after getting the error code several times, I tried a different USB port, and everything worked just fine!

When I called HP, they told me I had a bad recovery disk / flash drive; the guy at HP was totally wrong!

I, finally, found a HP Support webpage - which said: "Insert the USB recovery key into a USB 3.0 port on the left-side to perform a recovery process."

SEE: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03967414