Windows 10: Fail to reload from recovery drive after erasing C:

Asus laptop, originally Windows 8, upgraded to Windows 10. Needed to reset and erase my data so that it was safe to sell machine. Created bootable recovery disk on 32GB memory stick, made sure boot order put USB stick ahead of hard disk, then rebooted.

Went to command prompt then wiped disk by formatting:
format c: /P:2
Closed command line window then selected to restore from my recovery drive. Says it was recovering, but then get message:
There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made.

Have trawled the web for answers but they all assume you still have a system on C:. Have tried all the command line fixes I can find. Does anybody know how to fix this?

:)

 

Recovery from failed hard drive

Hi,

To assist you better, please answer the following questions;

• 
  What is the make and model of the hard drive?
  
• 
  Did you get any error messages while using the failed hard drive?
  
• 
  When you say failed hard drive, are you referring to external hard drive or internal hard drive?
  

I suggest you to refer to the below Microsoft help article, which explains about the recovery option in Windows 10 and check if it help.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/windows-10-recovery-options

Get back to us for further assistance, we will be glad to help you.

 

Recovery Drive

Hi,

Thank you for posting your concern. In some cases, this could happen if you created a system restore point on your computer. Windows will use the recovery drive to revert to the previous time where your computer is working properly, or where you created
it. Please don't attempt to put any files in the recovery drive or the restore process will fail. To give you more suggestion and helpful information, we would like to more about your computer. Please answer the question below:

• Did you make any changes to your computer before this issue occurs?
• Have you install Windows Update before getting the Recovery drive?
• Which version of Windows are you using? To check it, follow the steps through this
  link.
  

In the meantime, you can check the files inside the recovery drive and confirm if there are essential files that you need.

We'll be waiting for your response.

 

Help! File recovery software?

Anyone have any suggestions on good software to recovery as much data as possible from an accidentally erased hard drive? Workin on a client pc and it seems he took it to geek squad once and they may have erased the hdd. Preferably a freeware one but ill pay if necessary. This guy has tons of photos from his tour in Iraq and they are priceless! if i can recover at least some it will be worthwhile for him....and me!