Insert your windows installation or recovery media to continue
‘Insert your Windows installation or recovery media to continue’
Hi, I have an hp laptop running 8.1 and I want to reset my pc because it keeps bringing me to automatic repair. but it says insert your Windows installation or recovery media to continue, but I don’t have one.
Follow these HP steps to do a Recovery to Factory Settings (new condition), IF the Recovery partition is not corrupted
Scroll down towards the lower part of the link for information on reset outside of Windows.
Once again, only IF the Recovery partition is not corrupted
Or download the Windows 8.1 ISO and make your own installation Media.
This should assist you.
«Create installation media for Windows 8.1»
A similar Tutorial which may also assist you
«Create Installation Media for Windows 8.1»
In the first screen of this very simple wizard, you need to choose the following:
Language. English – en-us if you’re in the United States.
Edition. Windows 8.1 (Core), Windows 8.1 N, Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 8.1 Pro N, or Windows 8.1 Single Language.
Architecture. 64-bit (x64 ) or 32-bit (x86).
» How to Create a Bootable USB or DVD with a Windows 8 or 8.1 ISO»
Warning
This will not work to install Windows 8 or 8.1 for UEFI. For that, see this tutorial below instead.
How to clean install:
» How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1″
With Windows 8/8.1 The Product Key on preinstalled Operating Systems (HP, Acer, etc) is embedded in the BIOS in the Motherboard, so that the lost and/or worn C.O.A. Sticker problem is no more.
When you reinstall it will pick up the Product Key and activate the system automatically.
If it does not, follow these steps:
» How to Activate Windows 8 and 8.1 by Phone»
«Get help with activation errors»
«How to activate a Microsoft product by using Microsoft Product Activation Center»
This information may interest you if you do wish to keep a record of it:
«Windows 10 Embedded Product Key Tool»
«We’re proud to introduce the immediate release of our newest utility for Windows users: the NeoSmart Technologies Embedded Product Key Tool. Designed for users of Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10, our embedded product key tool will retrieve and display the Windows setup product key embedded in the BIOS or EFI, allowing you to store it for safe-keeping or use it to reinstall Windows with an official Windows setup image.»
Getting «Insert your Windows installation or recovery media to continue» error when resetting Windows
I’ve gone into settings and clicked on all of the reset options around about 10 mins after each other its showing up with
«Reset your PC
insert your Windows installation or recovery media to continue»
,but i don’t have them.
What Can I do? Please reply
Replies (3)
Thank you for posting your question on Microsoft community.
I would like to know some information about the issue so that we could help you better.
1. What is the reason of resetting Windows?
2. What is the make and model of your laptop?
I appreciate you for providing details about the issue.
If you do not have any installation media, you may create it by using steps provided in this article.
Refer:
Create installation media for Windows 8.1
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media
However, all of your personal files will be deleted and your settings will be reset. All apps that you installed will be removed. Only apps that came with your laptop will be reinstalled.
I hope this information helps.
Please reply with required information and do let us know if you need any further assistance.
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Thank You Ratandeep For Replying To Me.
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Thank you for your response.
Does your computer boot to the desktop and connect to the Internet?
You need another Windows machine to create an installation media.
As you mentioned that the computer is infected by a virus, and if it boots to the desktop and connect to the Internet, I would suggest you to run Microsoft safety scanner and check if it removes the virus.
Refer:
Microsoft safety scanner
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
Note: Any data files that are infected may only be cleaned by deleting the file entirely, which means there is a potential for data loss.
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How to deal with Insert your Windows installation or recovery media errror?
Here you will find out:
Are you ready? Let’s read!
Why am I seeing the «Insert your Windows installation or recovery media» error?
You will most likely encounter several error messages when using Windows 10. Fortunately, there’s a way to deal with any Windows error message.
If you are currently facing the “Insert your Windows installation or recovery media” message while trying to refresh/reset your Windows computer, the troubleshooting tricks below should help you out.
How to fix this error
Method 1: Run System File Checker
The “Reset” utility is built into Windows, so resetting a Windows PC doesn’t necessarily require an external connection (or using installation media). However, when malware or a virus attacks your PC, it damages, encrypts, or deletes essential files that make your computer function as it;s supposed to. This in turn can lead to you seeing the «Insert your Windows installation or recovery media” error. So, Run an SFC scan and fix Windows core files, which may help to fix this error. SFC scan runs through Command Prompt; and you will need to have admin access on the computer to run it.
Steps:
Method 2: Run Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
DISM is a command-line utility that only runs with admin privileges. It is designed to fix or mount Windows images or modify Windows installation media. The steps below explain how to run the DISM command.
Method 3: Use the Advanced Recovery menu to reset this PC
To launch Windows’ Advanced Recovery menu, which provides you with an option to reset your computer, follow the steps below:
Method 4: Reinstall Windows 10
Reinstalling Windows is one of the most reliable ways of fixing most Windows errors. However, this action will delete many of your important files, and there will be no means of getting them back. So before you do this, perform a comprehensive backup of your PC files by creating a disk image using DiskInternals Partition Recovery.
How to use DiskInternals Partition Recovery to create a disk image
You’ll need to remove the hard drive on the problematic computer and connect it to another computer. Afterward, download and install DiskInternals Partition Recovery on the new computer, and launch the application.
DiskInternals Partition Recovery is primarily for data recovery, and will help get back all lost or deleted files from your hard drive in four simple steps. After the lost/deleted data and files have been recovered, you can then go on to create a disk image to save everything on your hard drive.
Once you have completed the steps (that is, recovering the lost files and creating a disk image), remove the hard drive, reconnect it to the old (problematic) computer, and reinstall Windows.
FIX: Insert your Windows installation or recovery media error
Recovery options are there so you don’t have to turn to a clean reinstallation any time the system shows critical signs. That’s one of the best things about Windows 10.
However, what happens when even the recovery option is giving you a hard time?
Some users who, for particular reasons, tried resetting Windows 10, have had difficulties. The re-appearing error is Insert your Windows installation or recovery media.
If you’re in this group and the error is reoccurring after multiple tries to reset Windows 10, make sure to try out the solutions we provided below.
After that, you should, hopefully, resolve the issue at hand.
How can I fix Insert your Windows installation or recovery media error?
1: Run SFC and DISM
First things first. When even the recovery options won’t work as intended, we can say with certainty that the grave problem is at hand.
Resetting PC to factory settings shouldn’t require any external installation media or something similar.
It’s a built-in part of the system which utilizes system resources to refresh everything.
However, due to system corruption, it’s not unusual for errors like this to occur.
Either viruses or something else deleted some of the essentials files, the recovery option will lack resources needed to restore your PC to factory values.
Because of that, we recommend running System File Checker and DISM, respectively. These two utilities are built into the system and run through the elevated command line.
Here’s how to run SFC:
And this is how to run Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool:
2: Run Reset this PC from a recovery menu
This might be a long shot, but there’s a chance that Reset this PC run through the Windows 10 interface won’t work.
Run a System Scan to discover potential errors
Instead, you can access the Advanced Recovery menu and try restoring your PC from there.
In addition, since it’s hard to simulate this error, we can only assume that certain users were, afterward, unable to boot in Windows 10.
For that reason, we recommend trying this solution. Here’s how to access the Advanced Recovery menu:
3: Use bootable media as a source
If you’re still unable to perform a reset with the aforementioned approach, there’s another alternative.
If the procedure is unable to take resources from the system itself, maybe it will from the external media.
Even though it’s time-consuming, creating a bootable drive with Media Creation Tool is rather simple.
After you’ve done that, follow these instructions to reset Windows 10:
4: Install Windows 10 clean
Finally, if none of the solutions were useful, the only thing you can do is reinstall Windows 10 from scratch.
Of course, if there’s a way to back up your data, you should do it before formatting the system partition. That’s why backing up your data on a regular basis is of utmost importance.
Otherwise, you’ll get yourself in a scenario where a large chunk of your data is threatened.
If you’re not sure how to reinstall Windows 10 from a scratch, follow the instructions we provided in this article.
Finally, if even there you get stopped but this or similar error, we recommend checking the HDD health. Also, make sure that the drive isn’t locked.
That should do it. In case you have any questions or suggestions concerning the Insert your windows installation or recovery media error, we encourage you to share them.
You can do so in the comments section below.