Windows Reset Not Visible

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Megahertz said:

X551MA specifications
Your disk has many partitions. As it came with Win 8.x there should also has a Factory recover partition to restore Win 8.x and a System partition. Both normally has no letters assigned to them.
On your fist post, every time you boot it runs a check disk on SystemPartition, that can be the Fat32 UEFI partition, that also has no letter assigned to.
Lets see what is on your disk.
Open Disk Manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc), expand the window and columns and take a snapshot of the whole window and post it here as an attachment.
As the laptop came with win 8.x and now has Win 10, it has a lot of trash, starting with useless partitions. I would make a backup of all data and do a Clean install, deleting all partitions and starting from a clean disk.

My only concern is that this is not my laptop. I have no mandate to delete items (beyond useless partitions, recycle bin items, etc). I certainly don't want to return his laptop, and later have him ask me about missing applications and files. That's why I wanted to do a Windows Reset, overwriting the existing OS with a fresh version while keeping all of his files.

And, as I've mentioned, I have run 2 chkdsk /r /f commands as an administrator (both were clean), and an sfc /scannow that found no integrity problems.

Why not try:
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

NavyLCDR said:

Why not try:
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

Got through the first 9 steps without a hitch. Then, when I clicked Next, waiting for Step 10

boweasel said:

Got through the first 9 steps without a hitch. Then, when I clicked Next, waiting for Step 10

Is the version of Windows 10 you are doing the install from (USB flash drive/DVD/ISO file) equal to or higher than the version installed on the computer? If you are trying to do the install from version 1809 and the computer has version 1909 installed, for example, it won't work.

NavyLCDR said:

Is the version of Windows 10 you are doing the install from (USB flash drive/DVD/ISO file) equal to or higher than the version installed on the computer? If you are trying to do the install from version 1809 and the computer has version 1909 installed, for example, it won't work.

From post#1 I have a friend's laptop - an Asus X551M, running Windows 10 v1903, build 18362.900.From post#7 Somewhat involved using the PowerShell, but it never actually brings up the version number. Or at least not a version number that corresponds to the version number displayed in the winver command. What is listed in the DISM tool tells me that the version on my DVD is 10.0.18362.

dalchina said:

I have screen OCR'd your error message for you for search purposes.
Need to know more about your partitions. Please post a screenshot like this (not with Disk Management):


E.g.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/were-having-trouble-determining-if-your-pc-can-run/57434ae6-89d7-41c6-9f00-4aa68f502a44

Sorry, we’re having trouble determining if your PC can run Windows 10

Your Recovery partition is in an unusual position, and there's no space for manouevre. (Sometimes Windows requires to create a new Recovery partition - although yours is fairly large - the first one, not the factory reset one at the end).

Would be glad to post a similar screen if only I knew how to do it. What do I have to do to display that screen?

boweasel said:

Would be glad to post a similar screen if only I knew how to do it. What do I have to do to display that screen?

Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of

Although the previous screenshot mentioned in post #16 was from MiniTool Partition Wizard Free.
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Wizard Free