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Windows 8x reinstall

jsfitz54 said:
Maybe because you didn't delete the old screwed up partitions first!
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No hes not getting to the stage to select hdd to install on ,thats the issue it stops before on detecting the hdd
 
SnakeDoctor said:
the legacy support is nothing to do with usb port . It the exchange between the old legacy boot and the UEFI boot ( new boot method) on the sata port

So was it able to detect the hdd on install? on legacy boot

I also had an issue with a clients laptop on format , had a windows 8.1 rtm licence key was unable to find an iso to work for that key
Even chatted to Microsoft ,they gave me all the link to the 8.1 iso's they have but non of them worked
The only option would be to contact the brand supplier if unable to get the licence to activate , for a recovery media
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So far no I can't get the driver issue corrected... I can't get past that driver issue to install Windows. Please see my Post #16 at the screen shots to see if I have this right. In this BIOS there seems to be 2 places... 1 to disable Secure Boot and 1 to disabled UEIF. I have those both set to disable.
 
BlackHawk1 said:
So far no I can't get the driver issue corrected... I can't get past that driver issue to install Windows. Please see my Post #16 at the screen shots to see if I have this right. In this BIOS there seems to be 2 places... 1 to disable Secure Boot and 1 to disabled UEIF. I have those both set to disable.
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It looks correct , did you save setting with F10? check incase . Sometime i press esc and does not save on those bios's

If Legacy boot does not work , I think you will need to slipstream the ahci/sata/raid drivers into the Windows iso then burn to disc
May be easier if not sure just to get recovery media from hp for windows 8
 
SnakeDoctor said:
It looks correct , did you save setting with F10? check incase . Sometime i press esc and does not save on those bios's

If Legacy boot does not work , I think you will need to slipstream the ahci/sata/raid drivers into the Windows iso then burn to disc
May be easier if not sure just to get recovery media from hp for windows 8
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yes I did F10 to save the settings. I thought it was right, but at this stage who knows... I am up on zero sleep with this mess. I even used two different programs to back up ALL of the drivers from within Win8. I put those drivers on a flash drive and had the Win8 install disc search the flash drive looking for a driver it may need... NO LUCK! This sucks!
 
Here is a shot of the drivers from the one program...
 

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Sorry if this has already been suggested. Have you tried using a boot USB drive? You'll need a flash drive bigger than 4GB, the W8.1 ISO and the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool. That would let you bypass the DVD drive.

I've found a handful of USB drives that won't work as boot drives (the tool says that it couldn't make the drive bootable or that the files couldn't be copied) even if the drive worked fine ass a boot drive with Linux Mint or memtest so YMMV.
 
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My edit above (post 25) was not seen:
EDIT: It sounds like you are trying a repair from inside Windows as compared to booting from disk or usb.

Is there a Bios update you can apply first?

You should be able to go from a Bios load, straight to Windows install off disk or usb, without any special drivers.

If any security encryption was used in the Bios then you need to clear the Bios by pulling the battery or moving jumpers to clear it and start from scratch.

Try moving the HD to another computer for a full format.

TRY a Windows 10 iso, most drivers are included.
 
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I would suggest trying a windows 8 Iso from the microsoft site . I did battle to get a working link on there site , if link down use chat support and ask for a link to win8
Im pretty sure its got to do with the the windows not seeing the sata controller ,because it does not have the necessarily sata/raid/ahci drivers on the disk to load the sata controller prior to detecting the hdd
Which then need to be slipstream into the disk and reburned , have needed to slipstream a few on windows 7 and 8 i think, especially on HP units .

If able to post the exact model of the- hp omni 120 , ill search around in the morning for other solution .
 
In response to post #32 and #33...

I have not tried to install from a USB (Flash drive) yet. I am using a Windows 8.1 DVD burned to a Verbatim disc. That DVD was made from a Win8.1 iso I got directly from the Microsoft media creation tool.

I am not doing a repair inside of Windows, I am booting from the DVD disc to try and do a fresh install of Win8. Once this other driver scan is done I might remove the drive and install a formatted spare drive I have to see if I can install on it.
 
SnakeDoctor said:
I would suggest trying a windows 8 Iso from the microsoft site . I did battle to get a working link on there site , if link down use chat support and ask for a link to win8
Im pretty sure its got to do with the the windows not seeing the sata controller ,because it does not have the necessarily sata/raid/ahci drivers on the disk to load the sata controller prior to detecting the hdd
Which then need to be slipstream into the disk and reburned , have needed to slipstream a few on windows 7 and 8 i think, especially on HP units .

If able to post the exact model of the- hp omni 120 , ill search around in the morning for other solution .
Click to expand...


Thanks. I do have a Win8.1 iso I got and made from MS at this link... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8

I used the media creation tool to make it. I had one already, but made another because someone suggested my original disc could be bad. However that wasn't the case.

As far as drivers go if you look at the screen shot I left in post #31 I believe those will show the drivers you speak of. I had the Win8x install disc scan those drivers and yet it came up with nothing to correct the issue.

The HP is Omni 120 is Product No: H3Z76AA#ABA
 
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Thanks. I am going to do the BIOS next, but I would be shocked if that did the trick... something is being missed here and I don't have a clue as to what it is. At the moment I put a spare 1TB hard drive in and got the same results. For the heck of it I then tried something else... I changed SATA Emulation from AHCI to IDE and got the same failed results. :(
 
I wonder why the MS media creation tool won't see my 32GB flash drive when I try to make make Win8.1 install media with it? It sees my built in media card reader slots though. RUFUS sees the flash drive just fine.
 
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jsfitz54 said:
Try reformatting the USB drive to FAT32.

Try using YUMI: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/
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I'm using RUFUS now to do FAT 32. I noticed when I loaded the Windows.iso into RUFUS it auto changed from default FAT32 to NTFS. I had to manually change it to FAT32. I will give this FAT 32 a try as NTFS and RUFUS gave a invalid disk message when trying to install Win8x from the flash drive.
 
Oh well I tried RUFUS 2 times and both times when booting from the flash drive I get "Invalid System Disk. Replace the disk and then press any key." WTF?
 
BlackHawk1 said:
I'm using RUFUS now to do FAT 32. I noticed when I loaded the Windows.iso into RUFUS it auto changed from default FAT32 to NTFS. I had to manually change it to FAT32. I will give this FAT 32 a try as NTFS and RUFUS gave a invalid disk message when trying to install Win8x from the flash drive.
Click to expand...

Go back and also look at your post #16 and look at the first picture regarding "clear secure boot keys" and "Key Ownership" "HP Keys" : the bios most likely needs to be cleared if these were set and :they would key to the hard drive, also.

CLEAR THE BIOS FIRST
 
Found this... You cannot start a computer from a USB flash drive that is formatted to use the FAT32 file system. So for the install media (in this case a flash drive) to work it must be NTFS I take it. I normally use DVD's to do restores so the flash drive option is new to me. I just think DVD's are more reliable so that is why I use them instead.

Ok here is an update...

As of this moment it looks as if Win8x is installing on the drive. I tried and tried on my 1TB spare drive and couldn't get it to work either. I then tried 3 times making boot media with the MS Win8x media creation tool and RUFUS... on the 3rd try it seems to have worked. Seeing that it was now going to install on the 1TB drive, I took the original drive, wiped the partitions, and made it one large drive of 500GB. I don't know what the exact formula was to this. Was it the different USB port I inserted the flash drive into? Was it something else I did in the BIOS? I am not positive... LOL! I have been up on 3 hours of sleep trying to get this done. Windows shows a status of "Activated" so I guess this Win 8.1 install was compatible with the HP Win 8 OEM key. I will post the final result in this thread, but as of now things are looking good. It's great to have people in this forum helping, it's greatly appreciated!

jsfitz54, I did clear things out in secure boot keys "cleared" early on in this process. I did however see that it seems to reset back each time you go back in to the BIOS. I did "clear" and left Key Ownership at the "HP Keys" setting more than once. Maybe that reset I see is just a default even though it gets cleared at the time you clear it... I think you know what I'm saying. Once it is cleared is it cleared for good unless someone assigns a new Key to it?

I wish there was a "apply defaults" in the BIOS that would allow this to go as smoothly as it is setting the defaults back to the way they were originally! I spoke too soon... after applying defaults in the BIOS the drive won't boot now unless things are set to Legacy. It also seems like some features in the BIOS are not accessible. Any reason why? Is it something tied to the hard drive and the original partitions? Is it bad that this thing must now be at Legacy settings vs UEFI secure boot? Or is there a way to get it to work with running it in Legacy?

 
BlackHawk1 said:
I wish there was a "apply defaults" in the BIOS that would allow this to go as smoothly as it is setting the defaults back to the way they were originally! I spoke too soon... after applying defaults in the BIOS the drive won't boot now unless things are set to Legacy. It also seems like some features in the BIOS are not accessible. Any reason why? Is it something tied to the hard drive and the original partitions? Is it bad that this thing must now be at Legacy settings vs UEFI secure boot? Or is there a way to get it to work with running it in Legacy?
Click to expand...

You should look at how to format and use UEFI partitions: http://www.bing.com/search?q=UEFI+partitions?&src=IE-TopResult&FORM=IETR02&conversationid=

There is nothing wrong with a "Basic Disk" setup, (AKA a Legacy setup.) As your partitions were broken already, the only way to restore it like HP had it, would be to order the proper "media replacement disks".

I personally like the PC setup without the HP bloat.


HP Consumer Desktop PC BIOS Update (ROM Family SSID 2AF5)

Version:8.07 Rev.AMar 23, 2015

HP's Terms of Use 8.07 Rev.A 2.9 MB Mar 23, 2015 32-bit or 64-bitDownload 64-bit

HP's Terms of Use
Details
Details

This package provides an update to the HP Consumer Desktop PC BIOS (ROM Family 2AF5) for supported models running a supported operating system

File name: sp70491.exe

Release details

Released: Jan 26, 2015

Version 8.07 Rev.A

Fix and enhancements

Improved security of UEFI code and variables. HP strongly recommends promptly transitioning to these updated BIOS versions.
** After this BIOS update has been installed, previous BIOS versions cannot be reinstalled.
 
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Thanks! No doubt... I also like an install without all of the bloat as it's faster and less cluttered with junk. So there was no way around this situation? Even if I had made the disk GPT on another computer (GPT is a must for UEFI?) I still would have been forced to use Legacy because I didn't have the HP media discs?

I got the BIOS update as you suggested and applied it. I then had to go back into the BIOS and switch everything back to Legacy as it reverted to defaults. My guess is any benefits from this BIOS update are negated because I'm now using Legacy vs UEFI?
 
While i am sure you have solved your problem, if you have not...

since the key is in the bios, try installing win10, microsoft seems to imply that win10 installer "sees" oem keys that you in bios (Windows 10 gets A digital entitlement Activation)
 
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