Lost my OS system when resetting to clean through windows 10

My laptop (HP Pavilion dv7) has been running hot and it's been slow, someone suggested using the reset tool in the new WIndows 10, I got all my things off it and went ahead and starting it. I did the full reset thinking it would clear it all out and run better. This took forever to do, it sat 35% for a long time, I went over and moved the mouse (thinking it was froze) the screen flashed then went to the black screen, then it restarted and said....An operating system wasn't found. Try disconnecting any drives (which there were none) that don't contain an operating system. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart -

I did this and it's still saying the same thing. I bought the laptop with the OS already on it, I have no CD to use. Also I went into the bios (As told to) and it's not showing a hard drive anymore either, but they said to do diagnostics in bios, I did and that came back as passed. Any help and links please with this would be great, I want my laptop back Thank you for any help!

swte said:

My laptop (HP Pavilion dv7) has been running hot and it's been slow....

Also I went into the bios (As told to) and it's not showing a hard drive anymore either

Sounds to me like a hardware failure. You could try using a cable like this to connect the hard drive to the USB port of a known good computer and see what's on it:
USB 2 0 to SATA 2 5 Laptop Hard Drive Adapter 7 15 22 Pin Connector YG | eBay

That would give you a clue as to whether the problem is the disk drive or the motherboard.

More than likely a bad hard drive, but you may want to try to do a clean install first.

If you have access to another computer, go to Google, and type in Windows 10 media creation tool.

Find the link to go ahead and download the tool.

Run the tool, and it will ask you if you want to download Windows 10 or Windows 10 N

Download Windows 10, and make sure its x64. The tool will give an option to either create a bootable USB or create an ISO to create a DVD.

After creating the USB or DVD, insert and it should boot from the DVD. It will say, press any key to boot from CD/DVD. Hit the space bar or any key.

When the install screen comes up, click next, then click install.

Your Laptop will already have an OEM key embedded into the bios, so it should automatically know its Windows 10 home or PRO, depending on which one you have.

Click on custom install

If your hard disk partitions show up, delete all of the partitions, then when the whole drive says "unallocated space, click on new, and create and hit OK. That will create the necessary partitions to start the installation of Windows.

Once the partitions are created, click next, and the install will be underway.

Please note the media creation tool only downloads Windows 10 version 1511 at this time.

Also, if the hard drive doesn't format, or create partitions, then that would be a bad drive.

I can give this a try and see what happens, I just can't figure out how it was working, then using windows reset, now it's gone. Thanks!

NavyLCDR said:

Sounds to me like a hardware failure. You could try using a cable like this to connect the hard drive to the USB port of a known good computer and see what's on it:
USB 2 0 to SATA 2 5 Laptop Hard Drive Adapter 7 15 22 Pin Connector YG | eBay

That would give you a clue as to whether the problem is the disk drive or the motherboard.

How it can be working, then not stuns me. Also my laptop came with Windows 7 Home premium, I had done the free upgrade to 10.
I can try this, I had came across the mediacreationtool.exe and I have it on a usb, trying to make a cd out of it but having issues with that. Anyway I will try this again and hope it works. Thanks!

lmaneke said:

More than likely a bad hard drive, but you may want to try to do a clean install first.

If you have access to another computer, go to Google, and type in Windows 10 media creation tool.

Find the link to go ahead and download the tool.

Run the tool, and it will ask you if you want to download Windows 10 or Windows 10 N

Download Windows 10, and make sure its x64. The tool will give an option to either create a bootable USB or create an ISO to create a DVD.

After creating the USB or DVD, insert and it should boot from the DVD. It will say, press any key to boot from CD/DVD. Hit the space bar or any key.

When the install screen comes up, click next, then click install.

Your Laptop will already have an OEM key embedded into the bios, so it should automatically know its Windows 10 home or PRO, depending on which one you have.

Click on custom install

If your hard disk partitions show up, delete all of the partitions, then when the whole drive says "unallocated space, click on new, and create and hit OK. That will create the necessary partitions to start the installation of Windows.

Once the partitions are created, click next, and the install will be underway.

Please note the media creation tool only downloads Windows 10 version 1511 at this time.

Also, if the hard drive doesn't format, or create partitions, then that would be a bad drive.

My laptop (HP Pavilion dv7) has been running hot

The DV series overheating issues are well documented across the web. Be sure to blow out that fan carefully before yo go any further.

Also, if the hard drive doesn't format, or create partitions, then that would be a bad drive.

Even if you do get windows installed test the drive right away.

swte said:

I can give this a try and see what happens, I just can't figure out how it was working, then using windows reset, now it's gone. Thanks!

But it looks like you had symptoms of a problem before using Windows reset:

swte said:

My laptop (HP Pavilion dv7) has been running hot and it's been slow

Hmm. Does your laptop have the COA on the laptop with the product key? Your Windows 7 key should work with Windows 10, since you have already activated your laptop with Windows 10 already, it will reactivate itself once you reinstall.

Yes also test your hard drive after the install. I see you are having troubles burning. Make sure you are burning to a blank DVD and not a CD as a CD doesn't have enough space required to fit all of the setup files on it.

Hope you can get it reinstalled.

Hardware failures happen all the time. I've had systems that have ran great with no problems, then boom, something may go bad, such as the hard drive, memory, CPU, or even the Motherboard. I've had a few failures in my 10 years as a computer tech

I guess I didn't word it right and catch that I do keep the fans clean, and I'll check it if I actually get it installed. Thanks!

Porthos said:

The DV series overheating issues are well documented across the web. Be sure to blow out that fan carefully before yo go any further.



Even if you do get windows installed test the drive right away.