Windows 10: Windows 10 Free Upgrade DESTROYED my brand new Notebook PC

Honestly,. I have never heard of installing/upgrading an OS doing this kind of damage before. And the way it's set up you have to do an upgrade/activate before you can do a clean instillation.

 

I contacted Asus about my tablet that got bricked while trying to install an earlier beta of Windows 10, and they said I could send the device back to them and have it re-imaged. In the case of the tablet, that was the only option. I can't imagine they wouldn't offer to do the same for a netbook.

 

If either of these "problems" would cause an upgrade to fail, then any halfway-decent Upgrade tool would check for these AHEAD OF TIME! If it found these problems, and could not fix them, it would display an error message, stop the upgrade, and return the machine to its original state -- not just keep charging ahead and trash the PC! BTW, I checked BOTH of these on my laptop and BOTH came back with no problems -- and the upgrade still trashed my laptop.

I did just that, for a second pass, and it STILL trashed my laptop.

 

Trashed your laptop as in physically broke it or just screwed up the software on the hard drive that can be fixed with re-installing the original Windows that came from the manufacturer via USB/DVD?

 

@Unsatisfied: I'd be happy to take a look at the system if you want to ship it to me. PM me if interested.

 

Delightful, just delightful. *Smile

 

Assuming this means the laptop came with 'Windows 8.1 with Bing' then the approach suggested here won't work:

.. because (unless they've changed it recently), you can't download Windows 8.1 with Bing, and the embedded key in the laptop motherboard won't work with regular Windows 8.1.

 

There are those of us that have Windows 8.1 install media with the keys for that Windows 8.1 media which can be used - you just have to have the knowledge how to enter the key manually and activate using slmgr commands.

I too would be more than happy to help out the OP if he sends the Netbook to me. If I can't fix it, I'll send it back on my own dime. If I fix it, you pay me for shipping it back.

 

Sorry I didn't mean to suggest it wouldn't be fixable by folk who have access to the Windows 8.1 with Bing media and/or spare product keys.

But whereas the approach in the tutorial mentioned by Ztruker would allow most members of the public to re-install Windows 8.1 (not With Bing) themselves without needing something from Microsoft, the 'with Bing' edition puts it out of the reach of what most people can do themselves. (Happy to be corrected on that if I'm wrong.)

 

According to this:
Download Windows 8.1 ISOs, Legally Free from Microsoft | PCsteps.com

Windows 8.1 with Bing is just the single language addition.

I can't verify this because I don't have a Windows with Bing 'puter. If someone were to send me a "destroyed" Windows with Bing netbook, I could try it out .

 

Ah I didn't know that - it's good info if it's correct.

As it happens I do have a '8.1 with Bing' device. (Well, I did until I put Win 10 on it.)

But I might take a backup, wipe Windows 10 and give it a go at some point just to see what happens.

 

The second, not the fist.

And, BTW, I spend the morning on the HP Support forums and I feel better now (I guess) because I saw post after post after post with folks ending up just like me after attempting to update their HP laptops to Win10.

So, maybe it's something that affects the HP OEM devices more than others.

 

According to the Microsoft webpage referenced in that article:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-refresh-media

It's not clear why they'd say that if it was a straightforward as downloading the Single Language edition. I might give it a go at some point, but I don't hold out too much hope.

 

Reading back over the thread, I have an obvious question:

You weren't able to boot the notebook from a USB flash drive to re-install an OS.

You have access to another machine, your father's.

Can you boot that PC from the USB flash drive? (Don't run the installer or do anything beyond simply booting the PC from the flash drive.) That would check whether what you have is, in fact, a bootable USB drive.

It's be better if you could have a PC savvy friend do that check. That would spare you and your father from any worries about messing up his PC.

 

Do you still have access to the Windows with Bing product key? Try running showkey and see what it says about your product keys. It should read the Windows with Bing product key from the bios. If it was on a printed label, you can type it into showkey and see what version it attributes it to.