Some "not so bright person" decided they would fix my laptop after a bad virus had it in a System Recovery loop, and hit some recovery option to reinstall windows. Well guess what? It didn't work.
It starts windows then says "Preparing Computer for First Use". Then it goes to starting windows.
Then I get an error "Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation."
I can't boot from the disc - it goes back to the above.
I can't get in safe mode or command prompt - it goes back to the above.
I don't have any discs that came with the computer, as it had none.
I have a recovery disc, but like I said, it won't boot from the disc.
I backed up my files with Puppy.
Help!!!!
Info - HP laptop, 1 year old, running Windows 7 64 bit.
What model is the HP?
Most newer computers have a Fn key (F11 or F12 usually) that will brong up a Boot selection menu. From there you can select your CD/DVD drive to boot from to reinstall the OS.
There is also quite likely a Recovery Partition on the hard drive that you can restore to factory state from.
The Users Guide should tell you this info.
I can't boot from the disc - it goes back to the above.
I don't have any discs that came with the computer, as it had none.
I have a recovery disc, but like I said, it won't boot from the disc.
Hi -
Is the recovery disc one that you burned using the HP recovery manager software? It appears that the recovery disc you have is INOP.
Entering "Pavilion dv4" at HP Support site returns ~300 hits. Look at the label on the bottom of the laptop for exact model number.
I would try to reinstall Windows 7 using the HDD Recovery partition. Try pressing ESC or F10 during bootup. Choose the option to restore the system to factory default settings.
