HELP computer trouble

Unity Engine
1

I know this isn’t specific to unity, and not really appropriate for this forum, but I’m in kind of a dire situation. After two days there have been no responses to my posts on the HP forums, and I always get quick responses on Unity.

Two days ago, my HP Pavilion laptop --Windows 8.1-- encountered an error when booting, and entered a boot loop. I attempted to fix this by doing a refresh, and this seemed to be going fine. However, it entered a new loop where it would say “Windows is installing files” then would have to reboot and would do the same thing again. It finally eventually reached the lock screen, which at first was unresponsive.

After hard rebooting one more time, I was able to reach a responsive lock screen, however, my profile was missing. In its place was a profile called “Administrator” which was logged in. Upon clicking this option, there was no prompt for a password, a message appeared stating my account had been deactivated and I needed to contact my system administrator. Using switch user yielded similar results.

After this I used shift reset to access the troubleshooting menu. Attempted to load safe mode, which was unsuccessful. I then decided to do a factory reset, however the computer asked for recovery media.

I, of course, didn’t know I’d ever need recovery media, so I never made a recovery disk. I went through HP’s website and attempted to buy the recovery kit, but they are unable to sell any more physical copies for my product.

I don’t really know where to go at this point. I’ve seen recovery disks on eBay, but I don’t know if they would work for my specific computer, especially since it came preloaded with the OS, and they could be sketchy. I have access to command prompt, but not to any applications beyond the troubleshooting menu and task manager.

2

Put a second HD to boot from, install windows fresh and use it as your Primary drive. Use the old one as the secondary.

Building from scratch instead of getting a prebuilt is always better.

3

How would I do that? I don’t really have experience with external hard drives. Also, this seems cumbersome to have to have an external drive connected to my laptop all the time.

4

Open the computer and put in a new HD.

5

Why is this a better solution than fixing the software exactly?

6

Because you don’t have a recovery point and a fresh Windows install is significantly better than a packaged pc’s bloated Windows install.

1 Like
7

Is there not a way to do a fresh install without buying a new drive? Can’t I just empty the one I have and load Windows onto it? Buying and installing a new hard drive seems like overkill.

8

Sure, I was just assuming you had information you wanted to save from the original hd. If you want to use the same hd just pop in the Windows disk and opt to format the hd on install.

9

I don’t have a Windows disk, where do I get one?

10

Agree with LaneFox, the fresh install is probably the best approach. Removing/adding hard drives can be a bit of a pain on a laptop (Looking at you Apple). Another option you have is to setup a Linux LiveCD/USB drive. Of course you need a working computer, so give a friend a call! All you need to do is download Linux, I lean towards Mint. Then install it using Universal USB Installer. From there just drop the disc or plug in the USB and boot into Linux… You should be able to get access to your old hard drive and copy anything you need… After that do your clean install of Windows on the existing drive.

Keep in mind if there is something wrong with drive, aside from software, your new install will eventually crash and burn… So backup using dropbox, and external drive… Something… So you have a simpler fix down the road.

11

Thanks. I’ve already been able to secure a backup of all important files, so that’s not a problem. I don’t know how to reinstall Windows on a computer, I’ve never done that before. I can get a copy of the Windows 8.1 ISO, and put it on a usb drive, but I don’t really know where to go from there. Just plug it in? Or is there more to it?

12

If it rebooted during the refresh, there’s probably some bigger issue. Faulty memory or a PSU that has gone outside its tolerances.

Before starting the arduous process of reinstalling, I’d start by burning a memtest86 CD (from another PC or asking a friend), booting it and running it for a few hours to make sure the hardware is okay.

You don’t necessarily need the recovery DVD (it’s usually just a butchered Windows DVD w/OEM shovelware added to it), but the Windows product key would be handy. If it’s not written down physically anywhere, you can download “Hiren’s Boot CD” and attempt to recover the product key from your existing Windows install.

With the product key you can install Windows from any Windows DVD (same Windows version and edition, of course) since the DVDs are not locked to any product key.

As others mentioned, switching to Linux is, of course, also an option :slight_smile: - I’m writing this on KDE5 under Gentoo Linux. It wasn’t as big of a disruption as I feared and Unity, Krita, Blender, etc. all work the same as on Windows.

13

Got an email from HP saying my order for the recovery disk has shipped. I never got to the credit card screen, since after putting all my info in it said they didn’t have any more copies, so maybe I’m getting a free one…? Guess we’ll see on Friday.

@Cygon4 I did all the component testing right off the bat and determined there was no problem with the harddrive or motherboard. Is this something different you’re talking about?

14

Thanks so much for all your help. My computer is back to normal, and I was able to recover all my project files from my repository.

15

I was going to suggest you upgrade to windows 10. If your license for 8.1 is good, it is a free and viable upgrade(if your laptop can do it). I also suggest this because there is a publicly available ISO you can use to install it, and then one of the relatively recent updates lets you license it with a serial from older windows(which was not the case when it first came out). In any case, I’m glad you go things running. Windows can be a pain at times…many times.