Yesterday, while gaming, my laptop crashed and displayed an error that disappeared too quickly for me to read. After restarting, it got stuck in a loop trying to boot or prepare a startup repair, and now, two days later, I've discovered that there's no operating system installed. The SSD is visible in the BIOS, but I can't see any disk drives and I'm having trouble installing the necessary drivers to get Windows back on my HP Pavilion X360 Convertible. I've read something about needing to initialize drivers, but I can't even get to the point of installing Windows!
3 Answers
Quick question—do you remember how full your OS drive was before this happened? Also, if you can, check your drive's wear level using something like Medicat or Hiren BootPE; that might help determine if the drive's failing.
I faced a similar issue with drive detection—not fun! I can offer a step-by-step guide that might help, but having access to another computer can make it a lot easier. Here's the link: [Link]—let me know if you need further assistance!
Thanks for the steps! I’ve gone through them, but I'm still stuck because the install button won't activate.
It sounds like you might need the "Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver." If you can't disable it in BIOS and switch to standard AHCI mode, download the driver from the HP support page tailored for your laptop model. It's usually in a .exe format, so use 7zip to extract it, and then find the files in the "F6" folder. Load those from a USB drive during the Windows setup.
I've put the RST on a USB, but the install button stays inactive every time I try to click it.
I can't recall exactly how full it was, but I had just done a Windows restart and deleted a bunch of files. I try to keep it clean since it's not a powerful gaming machine. Thanks for the suggestion!