Windows 10: I did a PC reset with Windows 10, it failed & now I have no OS at all

So I upgraded to Windows 10 last week, & after a few days decided I wanted to do the reset feature to have a nice clean install. I was also getting an annoying pop-up error that looked like some sort of malware, but virus & malware scans weren't getting rid of it.

Ok, so I do the reset, & opted for full clean not the quick one, just to make sure I got everything off there. It took quite a long time ( about 15-20 minutes per 1% progress), so I left it & came back later. When I got back I had an error message that said "There was a problem resetting your PC." with my only option being to click cancel. So I did. after that it brought me back to a reset screen, where I attempted to do the quick reset a few times, & it failed after a few percent each time.

At this point I decided to shut down & try again. When I booted back up I was greeted with the lovely message of "An operating system wasn't found. Try disconnecting any drives that don't contain an operating system. Press Crtl+Alt+Del to restart"...so my pc was wiped but the reinstall part failed somehow it seems, leaving me with nothing.

I created a bootable usb for Win10 from the Microsoft website, following their instructions to the letter. Installation seems to go fine ( Copying Windows files, Getting files ready for Installation etc). That screen finishes up & I get a Restarting in 10 Seconds screen. I let it restart & then I get stuck at a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner.

I have done some reading on this & tried everything I found, nothing has worked. I've let it sit, tried hitting Crtl to type password then hit Enter, I've unplugged my second monitor & any non essential USB devices, everything. I've tried installing multiple times, to the same result.

Also worth noting that I was unable to revert back to Win7. When I put my 7disc in I get a message saying "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk CD,DVD or USB flash drive, please insert it now. "
I've used this disc many times with no issue, & now I can't even reinstall 7?

If anyone can help, it would be hugely appreciated.

:)

 

Reset failed, now PC won't boot, no Os at all

Hello, thank you for the advice. However, I tried that already, and it didn't work. My best bet would be to do a clean install of Windows 10 and hope I don't need keys

 

Reset failed, now PC won't boot, no Os at all

Hi,

Thank you for the reply.

You can perform a clean install of Windows 10 on the same computer only after a successful upgrade is done in the first place.

How to: Do a clean install of Windows 10: How to: Perform a Clean Install or Reinstall of Windows 10

Keep us informed to help you further.

Thank you.

 

Go into BIOS and set it to Legacy boot mode, not UEFI.

 

Thanks for the reply, I will try that & report back.

Edit - I have an Asus Crosshair Formula V motherboard. I could not find an option to use Legacy boot over the UEFI

 

If you need to get a Windows 8.1 ISO to reinstall with, see here: Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 ISO - Download or Create

The updated Option One shows you how to use a Microsoft provided tool (mediacreationtool.exe) to download any version of 8.1 for either 32 or 64 bit, regardless of what computer (bit wise) you are running from.

Mediacreationtool must be run from a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 computer.

 

Aquapod,

You have access to a working computer? Either create another Windows 10 USB using the Media Creation Tool - or you can use the one you have already made, but it will get almost erased. Put the USB stick with the Windows 10 in the working computer (do not boot from it - put it in while the computer is running). Do not run anything from it. Then put in your Windows 7 DVD. Again do not run anything from it. Select all the files and folders on the DVD and copy them to the Windows 10 USB. Overwrite all files it says are duplicates. This just might make you a bootable USB that you can install Windows 7 from.

 

I have the same problem, I repeated the exact steps OP did. I have a laptop and windows 7 was pre-installed, so I don't have a windows 7 CD. I've tried the suggestions in the thread except using a windows 7 CD, but I'm still stuck. What's the easiest way I can get back my OS? (Not very computer savvy)

 

What version and bitness (32/64) of Windows 7 did you have?

Basic
Home Premium
Pro
Ultimate?

 

Windows 7 Home Premium x64

 

Thanks for the reply Ztruker. Question, how would I be able to use a Windows 8 iso if I didn't have 8 before? I went from 7 to 10? Also to answer your other post, it was Win7 Ultimate.

 

Thanks Navy. Yes I do have access to other working computers that are still running Win7 Ult. Interesting idea...so override my Win10 usb with the files for Win7 & try & boot up with that. I will give that a try when I get home from work.

Another note on my Win7 error...I tried 3 separate Win7 installation discs, all received the same error. I've never gotten that error before in all the Win7 installs I've done, be it a cold install or a reinstall. Very puzzled by that error.

 

You can't. You either need to install W7 or W10.
Here you can get the W10 ISO without having to build it.

Tech Bench

Using RUFUS you can put it on a flash drive and do a clean install (see option #2). If the W10 install was already activated (which it should have been, since you initially did an upgrade from your W7 OS), choose INSTALL, KEEP NOTHING, and skip every time it asks for a keycode.

 

Have you updated your BIOS? That error is commonly caused by a UEFI bios attempting to boot from a device/media that does not support UEFI. On my laptop there was a BIOS update that enabled UEFI. The USB that the Media Creation Tool creates is supposed to work with both legacy and UEFI BIOS and hopefully by just copying files over and not creating a new USB you will keep the boot capabilities and it will just run the new setup.exe that you copy over with the Windows 7 files.

 

Thanks, that's what I thought. Awesome I will try out that Win10 ISO. I had been trying the installer direct from Microsoft, which seems to install but then gets stuck at the cursor screen. Maybe this one & using RUFUS will work better. Thanks!