“I’ve had lots of ‘I’m not angry at you, but...’ conversations with frustrated Windows users” While on the trail of a missing SSD, Lee brokers peace on the PC Pro letters page then resurrects software that watched Queen perform at Live Aid
Lee Grant and his wife have run a repair shop in West Yorkshire for over 15 years @userfriendlypc
LEEGRANT
Even for experienced enthusiasts, the ability to dig ourselves out of technological mishaps is no longer a given. In the Windows 98 era, there were a myriad of simple tricks to be tried should a P-ATA drive lose a shoe. Windows 8 introduced “Refresh your PC” to reset an OS without data loss and, years later, the matured self-healing technology within Windows is as dependable as a cat’s promise to stay off the furniture. When the OS breaks, there’s a significant chance that the system recovery system is also stuffed.
It’s a double slap in the chops for the user. Not only has the machine croaked, but the damn thing can’t do anything about it. I’ve had lots of “I’m not angry at you, but...” conversations with frustrated Windows users, but even from my side of the workshop, PC resurrection isn’t always straightforward.
A lack of Intel-igence
The annoyed customer vacated our shop, leaving me staring at the HP laptop, which worked less than 24 hours ago but now won’t boot. It was a mid-range Windows 10 machine, and hardware tests showed it appeared to be electronically and mechanically sound. Why it wouldn’t start was anyone’s guess, and after several hours of poking it with different tools and troubleshooting strategies, it remained a non-starter.
This was the customer’s backup machine and, as the data on it was transient, the cheapest and fastest option was to reformat, reinstall, then see if it hiccupped during the process. Predictably, the built-in Windows recovery system had also died, so a bootable Windows 10 USB (via the Creation Tool found at pcpro. link/349tool) was required for a manual installation procedure.
This went swimmingly until setup declared it couldn’t find the laptop’s SSD. A quick delve into the BIOS confirmed it was present, but the Windows 10 installers (I have a few on file) refused to shake its hand. Despite scratching my chin reasonably hard for a few moments, I couldn’t work it out, so I had a glance in the manual and spotted that HP offered a documented solution for this predicament: the HP Cloud Recovery Tool (pcpro.link/349hp).
Normally I’m sceptical about manufacturer recovery tools, as their hit rate for improving the situation can only be described as Truss-like. I punched in the serial nu
