Which Windows Recovery to Choose

[Sobek5150]

Hello! My wife's HP decided to go belly up on the boot screen. I think it's the boot manager. I found resources through an HP forum to fix this for Windows 7, and here's where I get confused.

We upgraded her from Win 7 to Win 10. According to HP I can only recover back to 7 and reinstall 10. However I'm wanting to try and repair first with the Recovery Disc option. Moreover the other information I found regarding the boot manager uses a command window to recover the manager.

My worry is use the wrong recovery and really messing things up. Any thoughts? I might just try to use 10 first and if it doesn't work try the 7 option.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[holdum333]

Hi Welcome to Windows Central. The recovery option you chose depends on the issues you are having with W10. Here's a guide from MS that might help you decide.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options After you are familiar with that. Here's a video that might help you. If you need more help, I'll try to help you and other members might hopefully join us!:wink: Restore to a earlier time is always my first choice, but it doesn't always work. You could try the repair. Next a refresh/reset. It's possibly that you might have to do a clean install. Keep me informed and I will do my best to help you solve this problem.:grin:
https://youtu.be/5Zkvlcnv-UU?t=1

 

[Sobek5150]

Hi Welcome to Windows Central. The recovery option you chose depends on the issues you are having with W10. Here's a guide from MS that might help you decide.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options After you are familiar with that. Here's a video that might help you. If you need more help, I'll try to help you and other members might hopefully join us!:wink: Restore to a earlier time is always my first choice, but it doesn't always work. You could try the repair. Next a refresh/reset. It's possibly that you might have to do a clean install. Keep me informed and I will do my best to help you solve this problem.:grin:
https://youtu.be/5Zkvlcnv-UU?t=1

Hey thanks for the reply. Yeah, those options would work well if it weren't an HP.

HP has its own recovery built in so despite being on Windows 10, I don't have the typical windows 10 recovery available. The good news is that the HP recovery let me backup all her files. I could do a complete wipe, but wanted to try a repair first.

 

[holdum333]

Hi Thanks for your reply. I have no idea what you just posted. Good luck! That's the best I could come up with.
"Those options would work well if it weren't HP" What does HP have that's different from other PC manufactures? Sorry I don't have a clue!
Please keep us updated on your progression with your issue and post back with your solution!:wink:

 

[shmsnh]

Even with HP, you will have access to the Windows 10 screen above.

I know because I too have an HP laptop.

 

[holdum333]

Even with HP, you will have access to the Windows 10 screen above.

I know because I too have an HP laptop.

Thanks friend for joining this thread. Your help is always appreciated. Team work is good. I have no idea what the OP is saying?

 

[Sobek5150]

When I boot her computer into recovery using F11, the Windows 7 splash comes up not the Windows 10. Then a gray background with a main window that's called "HP Recovery Manager".

The typical Windows 10 recovery is not available to me unfortunately otherwise just do a reset keeping her files but allowing the system to reinstall the OS.

 

[Sobek5150]

Even with HP, you will have access to the Windows 10 screen above.

I know because I too have an HP laptop.

How do I access this then from boot? Since my recovery goes straight to HP Recovery Manager.

 

[Sobek5150]

UPDATE: Put the windows 10 recovery tool on a USB to boot from which worked - sort of. Repair option found nothing wrong.

Used Command line to try and do a "bootrec /rebuildbcd", found a BCD installation file on the recovery drive, however now when I choose the "Y (yes)" option to rebuild that onto the system I get an error saying the drive is not recognized.

Did some research and found that recovery USB sticks don't work well in USB 3 ports. Even on USB 2 ports can be iffy.

Used Windows 10 media creation tool to make a DVD with the install files to try again. I'll let you know if I have success.

 

[holdum333]

Hi ! I have the media creation tool on 3 different PNY flash drives and they all work perfectly. I have a Toshiba laptop with 3 USB ports. I have no problem with any of my USB ports. I don't know where you're doing all this research. Anyway, good luck with the DVD! You can always use the tool to perform a clean install!:wink:
Let us know how things go for you!

 

[Sobek5150]

I'm glad to hear it all works well for you! Unfortunately, through other forums I found that it is common for USB 3 and sometimes 2 ports to have issues with utilizing bootrec and bcdedit in dealing with retrieving boot files off the USB to repair.

The good news is after using the media creation tool and running the full repair from that DVD, it fixed system errors and the computer now boots properly. I promptly put in a good restore point for future issues.

Thank you all for trying to help.

 

[holdum333]

Thanks for the update! I'm glad it worked for you. Come back often and share your knowledge with the forum!
I wish we could have helped instead of just trying to help!:wink:

 

[shmsnh]

Excellent. I'm glad you managed to sort it out.