Windows 10: Having difficulties resetting my Pc. Getting 'insert your windows installation or recovery...

A friend of mine gave me his computer but asked me to wipe it clean... When I try to reset the pc it says 'insert your windows installation or recovery media'' I don't know what that means and how to do that. Please can you help?

:)

 

Missing Recovery Environment

Hi Alan,

Here is a link containing several useful suggestions to help you recover Windows 10. Since the error message that you got tells you to insert your Windows installation or recovery media. We suggest the perform the steps listed under
Use a recovery drive to restore or reset your PC or you can also follow the steps under
Use installation media to restore or reset your PC. Please see the link below for more details:

Recovery options in Windows 10.

Regards.

 

Resetting from Windows 10 to Windows 8.1/Windows 8 stuck at "Insert your Windows installation or recovery media to continue"

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community, we appreciate your interest in Windows 10.

As per the description I understand that you are trying to perform reset of Windows 10 to previous operating system as your device is affected with viruses and stuck with error: insert your Windows installation or recovery media to continue, we will help
you with this issue.

Do let us know the following to assist you better with this issue:

• Have you tried any troubleshooting steps to resolve the issue with virus affected on your computer?
• How exactly are you trying to perform reset on Windows 10?
• Have you inserted the recovery image of the previous operating system while performing reset?

As a workaround, I suggest you to refer to the below Microsoft article about how to reset your computer and check if it helps.

Recovery options in Windows 10

There are options in Windows 10 to perform Reset on your computer without losing the data as mentioned under the section
Reset your PC.

Note: I would like to inform that using recovery drive will remove your personal files, apps and drivers you installed, and changes you made to settings.

You can deploy scan for viruses using Windows Defender and check if it helps.

Protect your PC

Hope it helps. Reply to the post with an updated status of this issue and required information, we will be happy to help you.

 

Questions about recovery/reset this PC within Windows

Thanks I did see that.

As above if I navigate I get to-- regardless of option chosen








Or these options after selecting " trouble shoot "









I was hoping my efforts was going to be relatively fuss free and not have to create any media creation backups or ISO.