System install mishap

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Woodster

PCHF Member
Jan 16, 2023
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Hello all!
Well, I screwed up. My old HP Pavilion was giving me trouble, running slow no matter what I did, so I decided to reinstall the system to see if it helped any. I wanted to just reinstall the system and not mess with my files, but there were two buttons, one for system install and one for format, (dont remember exactly what the buttons said) I accidentally hit format. And in a panic to stop the process, I hit the power button. So now when I turn on the computer, it doesn’t boot up and I can’t install from a boot disc either. I can boot from MiniXP system repair disc but I still can’t do anything to the computer itself. None of the repair tools work. Help?
 
when you started the format command, it would have started doing exactly that - wiping the drive.
first thing it does is rewrite the Master Boot Volume and destroy all the partitions.
depending on how long it ran for, and whether you did a low-level format or just a quick format, it would have then started over-writing all your files.

at any point during that stage, your files were toast the second the process was instigated.

you can try a grave robbing program like Recuva by Piriform but all these file recovery programs rely on the Fail Allocation Table being intact so it can hunt down all the sectors on the drive where the file lives.

your data is still there, it just can't be accessed because all the locations that made up that file are now lost to the system.

but you may want to try that process and hope you get lucky, especially if you have no backup of your data.

if you have no data worth recovering, I would bite the bullet, get out your original Win8 install disc and reinstall Windows from scratch.

or take this opportunity to install Win10 or Win11, and depending on the drive, even consider upgrading from a HDD to a SSD.
 
What is the serial number of your HP Laptop
Do you have any data you need to get off this computer? If yes then make a ubuntu bootable usb or dvd
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview NO install needed

Or here is a Youtube on how to make the usb

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Copy your data to an external drive or another computer/nas.

Insert the usb or cd/dvd and boot your system. You may have to change bios settings to boot from the usb or cd/dvd(every computer is different) We can help with this.

When the computer boots choose TRY UBUNTU and let the system boot.

When booted look on the left-hand side of the screen and click on Files icon
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Then click on Other Locations
1673935582501.png



Click on your drive for example Win 7
1673935623568.png



Click on Users Icon

Click on your name listed under users

You should now see your data e.g Documents Pictures etc.

Copy your data to an external drive or another computer/nas.

When finished Click on the shutdown icon in the top right-hand corner Click on Power Off
 
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