Windows 10 "could not find the recovery environment"

[Trice]

I've got two issues here, one that led to another.

My brand new Spectre x360 arrived two nights ago and naturally I was excited to unpackage it, set it up, and get going. After turning it on and setting up Windows 10, the first thing I did was check for any updates. It proceeded to download the big November Windows 10 update. Immediately my wireless cut out. I checked the device manager and the wireless adapter disappeared - just gone. Which meant the laptop was unable to detect any networks, which of course meant no wireless. If I rebooted the adapter appeared but would stay disconnected no matter what I did.

So that's one problem. After a bit of research and tinkering around, I decided that rolling back to the previous version of Windows 10 (that came installed on the laptop upon arrival) should help alleviate the problem. And sure enough, it did. My wireless came back without issue.

But that created a second problem(s). I started getting weird behaviors, like error messages from the pre-installed McAfee software and the Windows Store crashing after less than a second. At this point I thought, I'll just reset it to factory settings and start over, fresh and clean.

But when I try the "Reset this PC" function, Windows Recovery tells me it "Could not find the recovery environment." I can see a partition on the machine. This laptop has no DVD drive so I don't have a recovery disc option.

Any advice on how to access the recovery environment, so I can reset my laptop and (hopefully) move on to tackle the Windows 10 wifi problem?

[CherylG]

I would use HP Recovery Manager to see if HP Recovery Environment is able to do a System Recovery or Factory Reset.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05336119 (Link Updated 04/25/2017)

If no joy with that you will need to order Recovery Media on usb flash drive from your support page. It is the last one in the list.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-spectre-13-4100-x360-convertible-pc/8499273/model...

[Trice]

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@CherylG wrote:

I would use HP Recovery Manager to see if HP Recovery Environment is able to do a System Recovery or Factory Reset.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05336119 (Link Updated 04/25/2017)

If no joy with that you will need to order Recovery Media on usb flash drive from your support page. It is the last one in the list.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-spectre-13-4100-x360-convertible-pc/8499273/model...

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Thank you for mentioning the HP Recovery Manager. I failed to mention it in my original post, but I tried that as well.

As best I can tell, two options in the HP Recovery Manager apply to me - the Windows System Reset and the HP Recovery Environment.

The Windows System Reset brings up the same two options that the "Reset this PC" function does - "Keep my files" or "Remove everything" - both as options to reset the computer to factory state. I get the same error message about "could not find the recovery environment."

The HP Recovery Environment gives me one option, which is to restart my computer and enter the recovery environment. I click "ok" and the computer reboots without incident. However, once it reboots it starts up normally. Nothing else happens - no recovery environment, nothing. So clearly it's not working.

Very frustrating.

[CherylG]

It sounds like you are going to need Recovery Media on usb flash drive. You can order it from your Support page- last entry in the list of Software/Drivers:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-spectre-13-4100-x360-convertible-pc/8499273/model...

You could also try contacting HP Support with you problems. You might possibly get Recovery Media for free if you tell them you didn't get a chance to make your Media before the windows update and now Recovery partition appears corrupted and useless.

If you live in the US/CA, contact HP info Here.

If you live in another part of the world, start here>>Contact HP