Windows 10: Factory reset from a recovery drive failed, now no OS was found

Hi,

I wanted to reset my computer windows 10, upgraded for free but the original product key is a windows 7 to factory default since it had a lot of stuff in it and had become very slow. I tried to factory reset it at first with the Reset this PC option, but I got the “There was a problem resetting your PC” error no changes were made.


So I tried using a recovery drive with the recovery media creator. But the same error occured after I booted from the drive and started recovering the PC. Now I get the "No OS was found" error at boot up. I cannot access to my computer anymore.


I wanted to download a windows 7 ISO to try restoring my computer since my product key is windows 7 but I get "The product key you entered appears to be for software pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options"


I really don't know what to do at this point. Thank you!

:)

 

How to factory reset Cisco 1700 Router

Hopefully I can help you here....its a very common thing to happen.


First, I take it you dont know the passwords for console access or telnet/ssh?

I will assume that these devices belong to you.

step 1. Plug a cisco console cable into a serial port on your pc
step 2. Plug other end into Cisco console port
step 3. Using hyperterm or putty or similar connect to the serial port
step 4. boot router, and make sure you clearly can see the output (this confirms you have good serial comms)
step 5. if this fails, adjust the comm port settings (9600, 8,1,n are the default)
step 6. now you have to do the only hard part...send the break command:

Break command list: Break Commands

Go down the list and match your OS and SW and try the sequence suggested.

If this fails several times do what I do: Install putty (free) and then to send a break so you can get into rommom just hit "ctrl-a b".

 

Win10 Reset This PC/Recovery Drive fails, overwrites wrong drive!

I appreciate you are taking the time to reply, but those links aren't applicable.

I replaced the drive. I have a new NVMe drive with nothing -- no OS on it.

I want to re-install with the factory image which was created with the create recovery drive option.

I'm looking for an answer that tells me IF is possible to tell the Recovery Tool / Reset This PC, which drive to use.

I'd prefer an option that doesn't require disassembling the laptop to disconnect the HDD in order to run the recovery tool.

I suppose one possibility might be to:

1. use a set of Win10 media to create generic install on the NVMe drive,
2. wipe the HDD so there doesn't appear to be a (partial) windows install there.
3. Try the Recovery Drive/Reset This PC to see if it can restore the system disk from the recovery drive to the desired (factory) state.

 

Win10 Reset This PC/Recovery Drive fails, overwrites wrong drive!

System: Lenovo Thinkpad P51, 2 drives, 1 x NVMe, 1 x HDD.

I replaced the NVMe drive and attempted to reinstall Windows using a USB Recovery drive created on this system before any problems. This failed and would have resulted in data loss if I didn't have other backups. From my perspective, there seem to be a
number of critical bugs in this recovery environment for machines with more than 1 drive.

Steps:

1. booted from USB recovery drive
2. Select Troubleshoot
3. Select Recover from a drive
4. Select either Just remove my files or Fully clean the drive

Result:

1. Appears to be working, but fails at 77% in. Error message "There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made."
2. There was no prompt for which drive to use. The existing HDD was silently repartitioned. No changes were made is an incorrect statement. There was no windows install on the HDD.
   
3. The repartitioned HDD was never made bootable. So the system still can't boot into Windows.

Problems/Bugs:

1. No prompt for which drive to reset/install windows on.
   
2. No information about which drive has been selected before prompting to proceed.
3. Misleading information "No changes were made". when one of the drives had been repartitioned.
4. No information about what failed or how to get to any logs. How should someone attempt to troubleshoot the problem?
5. There doesn't seem to be an option to force a particular drive to be used as the system drive.
6. Some of the menus for Troubleshoot are lacking "Back". In some cases you need to select an operation before you get to a point where you can hit cancel. There are no assurances when you select those options that you will be given a chance to cancel.

Questions:

1. Is the reset my PC / Recovery drive utility usable on a multi-drive system?
2. Without physically removing drives (the bios/uefi doesn't have a disable option AFAICT) how do I set which drive is the system drive to be installed/updated/etc.?
   
3. Should I be attempting to file any bug reports?

Note: I'm aware that I should be able to use the media creation tool on another system to do a generic Windows 10 install. However, I'd prefer to reinstall the factory environment with the OEM drivers already installed.