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I had Windows 10 on a Samsung series 5 ultra laptop (came with 8.1, but I've upgraded it to 10). I decided to give the laptop away and instead of uninstalling all programs and deleting files I decided that reinstalling the whole OS would be easier and so created a bootable USB with https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10 (second option).
In order to get the booting from USB going I had to change the bios:
- disabled fast bios mode and secure boot
- changed OS mode selection to "UEFI and CSM OS" (The options are 1)UEFI OS, 2) CSM OS, 3) UEFI and CSM OS)
- modified boot order so that the usb would be first
In the setup I first deleted all partitions and then created a single new one and continued. When it was complete it restarted. After the restart the setup started again. I figured it's because of the boot order, closed the setup, restarted and changed the boot order so that the ssd would be first, saved and restarted. And now "All boot options are tried. Press key to recover with factory image using Recovery or another keys for next boot loop iteration" happened.
So I tried (meddling with boot order and doing the setup again) and failed a couple of times more, then decided to try installing windows 7 instead because I've done that previously many times. I used the ISO file I've always used and succeeded so far but the result was the same.
So my situtation at the moment is:
- I have windows 7 bootable flash drive
- the laptop has completed the windows 7 setup (may as well be windows 10 as it had exactly the same result)
- when I have the flash drive inserted, the setup begins after restart
- when I don't have the flash drive inserted, "All boot options are tried. Press key to recover with factory image using Recovery or another keys for next boot loop iteration" happens
What might cause this situation and what are my options at the moment?
I'm considering creating a recovery image in my main PC (win10) and do the F4 recovery in the laptop. Is it a thinkable option?
In the hindsight I see that there is a "reset" option in windows 10 which I should have used. But it's too late now.
Edit:
picture of BIOS boot
Harry
Posted 2016-12-25T18:32:03.437
Reputation: 1
maybe there's a good way you can look at what your current partitions are, and which are active. But i'm not sure off hand of a good free partition program that you can boot up and use to look at that. Gparted isn't very good(e.g. limited options re converting between partition types primary/extended/logical), but gparted should be enough to do what i'm speaking of. – barlop – 2016-12-25T19:48:31.360
also when you say you deleted all partitions, it's worth paying attention to what partitions your partition deleting program(windows setup?) showed you that you had, and whether that was what you expected. I'm not quite sure whether windows setup will always see any kind of partition, though maybe it will. I know for example if I was looking to delete all partitions where win7 was installed, then one partition i'd look for is a 100MB partition in the before.. so after, it shouldn't be there. And if that partition wasn't shown then i'd know it hasn't deleted all partitions. – barlop – 2016-12-25T19:50:50.163