HP windows 8 Recovery

So, I have been trying to re-install windows 8 on a laptop that i was given to repair. apparently they have had a new hard drive put in it and ever since then it has been coming up with the Windows Recovery but fails to recover and will not go into safe mode. It will also not go into advanced recovery.

This thing is annoying the hell out of me. Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

Did they clone the previous drive?

 

As far as I know no. HP apparently sent them the drive after they spoke with them and walked them through installing. But the recovery hasn't worked for them at all.

 

Does it actually finish?

 

Yes, the recovery goes all the way through. It hangs at the end at 100% but they finishes. After restart it says that recovery failed and gives the option to retry.

 

I'd test that drive...I had the same exact issue (but with 7) with a client. The drive failed tests when I pulled it out and tested it.

 

Well after much cking with for awhile longer I figured i'd try smething. During the recovery process there is a option to skip installing HP's extra programs. When I did this the OS completed installing and booted up just fine. Looks like it was an issue with whatever they have bundled on the disc. Though if rhey continue having issues in the future I will see about testing the drive.

Thanks for the help.

 

Will be interesting to see. In my case, skipping that disc worked too.