Notebook won't reboot after interrupting Windows 10 update

[martduff5]

Hi all,

Hoping someone can help me. My detachable HP Pavilion X2 10 was in its keyboard docking station, receiving what appeared to be a lengthy Windows 10 update (I had successfully ran with Windows 10 for a year with no issues). Unfortunately the computer was accidentally closed mid-update and when I next tried to turn on the computer - and every time since - it displays the HP logo, pauses, flashes a white box on the screen for a split second, then quickly displays the message "Attempting to recover your previous installation" followed quickly by "Restoring your previous version of Windows". The computer then restarts and goes through the same cycle again and again.

Through trial and error, I'm usually able to enter the Boot menu, HP Diagnostics tool, BIOS management etc. But I have no idea how to fix my problem once there!

Can anyone help?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The only suggestion I can offer if the factory reset option doesn't work would be to clean install W10.

Since your notebook came with W10, you can make your own plain W10 installation media by using the Media creation tool at the link below.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

The software will work with the product key in your notebook's BIOS.

Then go to your notebook's support page to install the drivers and available software you need...

You can recovery any files you want to keep if you don't format the drive, and just let W10 install over the existing partition where your current W10 installation is.  W10 will create a Windows.old folder.

After W10 installs, you can copy your files to your new W10 installation, and delete the Windows.old partition once you have recovered your files.

To delete the Windows.old folder, run the disk cleanup utility and when it gets to the disk cleanup window, click on the Cleanup System Files box, and it will run again, come back to the window, and you can check all the boxes to delete the files.

[martduff5]

Many thanks for the reply. The only thing worth mentioning is the computer cane with Windows 8.1 installed, I then upgraded to Windows 10 a few months later. Does this mean I'll need to install Windows 8.1 instead?

Also, once I've downloaded the appropriate Windows version, how to I go about installing this?

Many thanks,

Martin

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Martin.

In that case, just a slight variation to the above procedure.

When you get to the part during the installation process where you are asked to enter a product key, you select the 'I don't have a product key' option, and W10 will install and automatically activate once you are connected to the internet, since Microsoft has a record that your PC was previously upgraded to W10.

No need to reinstall W8.1 and then upgrade back to W10.

[martduff5]

You mention connecting to the internet, but at the moment I still can't get out of the restart loop- apart from being able to access the reboot menu, go diagnostics etc. How do I even get to the point where I can reinstall Windows? I did see an EFI reboot option somewhere, would that do it?

Also, I presume I'd need to download Windows 10 onto a USB stick, right?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

That is correct.

You will need to create a W10 installation flash drive from another Windows PC.

[martduff5]

Hi, I'm struggling to get this to work. I downloaded W10 (UK English, 64 bit) to a USB stick. When starting the laptop, I hit F10 to enter InsydeH20 Set Up Utility. I go into System Configuration > Boot Options. I change "Secure Boot" to Disabled. I change UEFI order so that "USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk" is at the top, followed by OS boot manager, then USB CD/DVD ROM Drive, followed by Network Adaptor.
I plug in the USB containing W10 and my charger cable, save the changes by hitting F10. The computer restarts but nothing different happens- I still get the looping screen mentioned in my original post.

Where am I going wrong?

It's worth noting if I hit F2 when the computer restarts, I enter HP PC Hardware Diagnosis UEFI (version 5.5.3.0), which is different. There are many options available system tests, firmware management etc, but so I'm not sure if that can help me at all.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Martin