Unable to reinstall Windows 8 after malware infection

[Kellyannt]

Hello, I have an HP Pavilion 17 notebook running Windows 8, birth date 9/2013.

Product # : EOJ81UA#ABA

I unknowingly downloaded malware and the system became infected and crashed a minute later. Windows Defender displayed the detected malware notice right before. I have the Windows recovery disc set (straight from the company) which worked perfectly for a clean install in the past after a corrupt download. Not this time. Things are just getting worse.

First, I ran tests on the memory and hard drive - both passed.

I opted for the factory reset and used the discs to wipe everything and attempt a clean install of Windows 8. I could not get past "Software Installation", it looped and restarted that process 11 times before I gave up.

After, I tried to start over and I kept getting the Windows cannot complete installation" error. That just looped and looped with no result. I've tried so many things over the last 20 hours - F8, F10, F11, F12. Went into the BIOS, tried to boot directly from the disk, created a new account, pretty much any solution I've found on Google that has helped others with the same problem, nothing has worked.

I tried to restart the installation all over again and could not get past 58% on the second disk and kept getting this error :

Copy File Failed.
From : 😧 \PRELOAD\BASE20.SWM
To: C:\RM\Image\BASE20.SWM

I click OK, it restarts and I get a black screen with

Checking media [FAIL]
Checking media

And then this error message in a blue box: Selected boot image did not authenticate. Press Enter to continue.

And of course when you press enter, that just loops over and over again.

This is where I'm at now. I'm so frustrated and irritated and I have no clue where to go from here. I'm thinking this laptop has reached it's death. Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I can't help you with why the recovery disks aren't working, but see if this works...

You can make your own plain W8 OEM installation disk by downloading the ISO file at the link below.

This file will work with the product key in your PC's BIOS.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0W9PBigPy94aVJWSndyTFNFMzg/edit?pli=1

Then use this tool to transfer the file to a 4 GB USB flash drive or a DVD.

The tool will make the media bootable.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

If you can get W8 to install that way then go to your notebook's support and driver page to install the drivers and available software.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Pavilion-17-e000-Notebook-PC-series/5375409/model/5395210

[Kellyannt]

Thank you! I will try this. Just out of curiosity, is it common for the recovery disks to work at first and then all of a sudden stop working? That one has me puzzled.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

It is not common for that to happen, but occasionally it does.

The fact that you ran the hard drive and memory tests and they both passed, seems to indicate that it is a problem with the recovery media.

However, if a plain W8 OEM installation flash drive or DVD does the same thing, then it is probably a hardware issue of some kind or another, because there would be no reason for a plain W8 OEM installation disk or flash drive not to work.

But this is a free way to see what happens.