Recovery Media For Hp Laptop

[Lorna Schildt]

Noboot image on hard disk. The website doesn't list any recovery media for my laptop. The instructions say "If the recovery media is not in the list of available software, the media is currently unavailable. Go to HP Customer Support to contact HP for options. " Got the laptop in August 2021 and the 90 day warranty is expired. The website only provides options of virtual assistant which is useless or HP Support Community to contact HP. So here I am following the instructions to contact HP for support to get recovery media for laptop I have had for little more than a year.

Well, I created a new system recovery USB flash drive and tried to boot with it. A few screens flash by quick and then I get an error window [22:11:51.17][startnet] Error, Get failure from Dynamic Recovery Tool. An earlier recovery drive was created a couple months ago using the computer that now needs to be recovered. That drive boots with the same error window. I didn't create that recovery drive myself so had considered it suspect.

Well that error looks like it has some history I will have to go through, the latest from just a couple weeks ago at -Operating-Systems-and-Recovery/Not-able-to-run-hp-recovery-too... which does not have a helpful reply yet.

I see another thread that says the guy finally installed a new SSD and was then able to boot with the Recovery Flash drive without error and re-install the OS. I ran the long form HD hardware diagnostics that takes like 12 hours to run and it says there is no error with the HD (or any other hardware) and all is well. So I am assuming I don't need a new HD.

I created another bootable flash drive using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool. It boots and goes into the windows installer. The installer asks where to install windows and gives the only option as Drive 0 Unallocated Space 13.4GB total/free. It's a 2TB HD. Don't know why the installer is not seeing the entire HD or reformatting it as needed. Don't know what the partitions on the HD might look like but it's however it came from HP. The installer seems to imply that Drive 0 is a partition. Needless to say the installer says 13.4GB is not big enough and to select another partition.

The installer also gives an option to repair which brings up a menu of several tools one of which is the command prompt. Running Command I can see the C drive which shows 2MB used and about 30GB free. Nothing close to the 2TB that should be there but still more than the 13.4GB the installer says is on Drive 0. Looks like the installer put a few files on C drive today.

So still don't know what's going on with the HP installer or the MS installer or if the partitions on the HD somehow got fowled up (causing the HP installer error) and neither installer seems to be reformatting the HD partitions. Have not seen any instructions on having to do partition work before using the installers. Or perhaps the HD is no good even thought it passes all the diag tests. Wondering if I need to do a low level format on the HD which I haven't done in years and don't know what tools are available now for that now. A proper system recovery tool should be able to do everything needed to get the OS installed and running on the HD.

OK, using diskpart from the command prompt booted from the flash drive windows installer I can see that the C drive is actually the flash drive, not the HD. There is also an X drive, also the flash drive, but diskpart doesn't show X in the volume list.

Diskpart shows only DIsk 0 and DIsk 1, Disk 1 being the flash drive. Disk 0 is apparently the HD. Diskpart shows the Disk 0 size as only 13GB with 13GB available consistent with what the windows installer reported. Diskpart shows no partitions on Disk 0.

This is NOT the main question. Anyways, I'd take the HDD out and connect it with an external USB 3.0 enclosure to a working computer. Then you can use any disk management program to find out just what the heck is happening. Easiest to use in my opinion is minitool partition wizard to completely delete partitions and see if you can get it back to factory condition. Also, it would be interesting to see some SMART values on this. However, this is not the main question.

HP diagnostics are not perfect. However this is definitely weird. As I said, I'd physically remove and try to get it straightened out on working Windows or Linux machine. Also, I don't know what kind of hdd you have. Hard drive manufacturers upload tools on their sites so you can factory reset them....

That means that you can buy an m.2 ssd and install that alongside the hdd. Then you can install windows on that drive, and in that way try to also repair your 2tb hdd from within a working Windows system.

Why is this the main question? Because this is a laptop running a 10th gen (for crying out loud) intel cpu, and you have it chained down to a spinning hard drive anachronism. You have to use a solid state drive for main storage boot drive, like yesterday...... If however you decide to replace the hdd, you should opt for a 2.5" SATA III SSD.

But the plot thickens. I had not noticed it before but there is also already an Optane SSD labeled 16GB installed. And running HP hardware diagnostics again I see both the HDD and the SSD (shown as 14GB) listed. I had not looked at the disk list before, I had just let it test all drives. Running a quick check on the individual drives it still says both are OK.

So the disk I see using DISKPART as 13GB is apparently the SSD, not the HDD. DISKPART is not seeing the HDD at all. Which seems weird to me considering the HW diagnostics sees it which I assume means the BIOS sees it.

And according to DISKPART as mentioned earlier the SSD has no partition on it and it's not assigned to any volume. And as reported by the windows installer the SSD is not large enough to install the OS. Apparently the windows installer is able to see the SSD as unallocated space even though it has no partition.

So I'm not sure the purpose of the SSD or if it had even been in use before. My wife uses this laptop so I had not really looked at it before it stopped working. We got this laptop as an HP certified refurb to replace another laptop HP could not repair due to parts availability. So perhaps the SSD was not configured when they did the refurb. The product spec that HP provided me with this laptop makes no mention of an SSD, only the 2TB HDD.

Forgot to mention I did check the WD website for any diagnostic tools but it seems the only tools they have need to be installed on windows so I would not be able to use without pulling the HDD and connecting to another laptop.

I wish you always got an OS Installation disk but that's not the case anymore. I've bought hardware and been given a restore disk, or even instructions on how to burn my own disk with their software...

I depends - I have a Lenovo L512 laptop and needed to replace the hard disk in a Lenovo W500 at work but could not find its original installation CDs. I reinstalled Windows 7 using my L512-branded recovery disk without any problems.

However, in addition, as a system builder, you are only allowed to use the media shipped with the licence, whilst I do not know anyone who has been sued/fined, it is a grey area. (Technically, MS are no worse off from you doing this).

The big companies are typically BIOS locked, so you can (typically) use any Lenovo disk with any Lenovo laptop and just skip over activation. If the disk is from another manufacturer, you can try using it, it will most likely fail automatic activation, and you have a small chance that it will work by typing the code manually (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't), the only downside is the machine may be "branded" if there are OEM customisations on the setup disk.

That laptop originally came with Windows 8 and it could be set to boot from a UEFI prepared USB or a Legacy prepared one. Your USB needs to be the right sort. Put your iso on a Ventoy prepared one Ventoy

I am curious about Ventoy as it appears to have wider potential. I have periodically considered if there is a way to use a single USB drive for OS installation software. While I the priority is the Vaio at the moment, I will share my results when I test it in the wider scheme of my operations.

How do I boot from USB on Sony VAIO?

Connect a bootable USB drive to the Sony VAIO laptop.Power off the PC and then press the Assist button to enter the boot menu window. Or restart the PC and then press the boot menu key like F11, Esc, or F10 to open the boot menu window.Choose Start from media (USB device/optical disc) option.

I doubt the problem is with the USB drive created as I used the information in both posts to create the drive and tested it in another machine each time before trying it on the Vaio. Both methods came back with Operating System Not Found. So it is back to the searching for a solution.

In the specific case of Ventoy, it is giving me some interesting ideas. So far copied a Windows ISO and Ubuntu ISO and saw where I could now choose which of them to install. Kool stuff and I am going to see how far I can take it and report back. If it delivers what I figure it will then I will certainly spread the word of it among my associates and encourage them to donate to the project.

I am not sure about this device having a Network Boot option and I am starting to suspect that the storage may either be damaged or that the device might be a victim of a UEFI infection. Was reading ESET ( UEFI Rootkit cyber attack - first-ever discovered ESET ) about this problem affecting a large number of devices across many brands. Having moved from the conventional BIOS to this EFI system, it turns out that it has now opened the door for a few more security issues. I guess there can never be a dull day on the farm.

In respect of the Ventoy and other suggested tool, THANKS for that. Had a closer look at Ventoy and will certainly be using it to concolidate and organise my USB drives. I am actually going to open a topic under General Software asking for other suggestions that can make my tool kit better AND I will be mentioning that (if you do not mind) you opened my eyes to these.

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