G560 PXE error; OneKey Recovery seems to work, but then I get BSOD upon boot

Question

I've got a 3-year old G560 and a few days ago, I ran into a PXE error out of the blue. I didn't really change anything about the computer's setup, and it may have been caused by commuting the laptop.
I already went through the whole F2 setup regimen of disabling network boot, changing over to compatible mode, trying every combination of boot order, etc.
When I was in compatibility mode, I was able to get the OneKey Recovery to work. There's no DVD involved, seems like it's stuck in that partition. I never set a restore point, but I didn't mind a factory reset. So I did the OneKey factory reset and it took about 15 minutes and it seemed to be okay, but then when I try to start the laptop, it will show the Windows logo, freeze there for a few seconds and then it flashes the blue screen of death for a split second (impossible to capture the error codes).
If I try it in safe mode, it shows the files that are being loaded, and it BSODs right after classpnp.sys
Now, I guess my main question is if OneKey will appear to work and yet maybe the HDD (hard drive) does not work. Could it be a matter of just replacing the hard drive? I did pull out the hard drive and re-mount it. Also the motherboard and re-mounted it. Is the OneKey function separate from the hard drive?
The laptop is so old that I wouldn't want to invest much money in its repair (warranty is past expiration date), but it's also been my daily computer, so I wouldn't mind if it was just a case of replacing a hard drive. With these problems, would it just be possible to make Ubuntu into my primary operating system by using an install disc?

Answer 1

hi stophammertime,
Welcome to the Forums.
It looks like you have some bad sectors on the HDD that's why the OKR didn't work or for some reason, OKR worked but the bad sectors corrupted the OS installation files. To verify this, you will need to run diagnostics on the HDD (try ultimatebootcd as it has diagnostic tools for ever brand of HDD's)
Also, the OneKey Recovery runs on a hidden partition on the HDD (usually the last few sectors of the drive). It's possible to trigger the OneKey Recovery if the partition structure isn't damage but if the target drive has bad sectors (i.e. Drive C:\), it may fail to image the drive or corrupt the installation files.
If verified that you have bad sectors on the HDD, you will need to replace the HDD and from here, you can:
1. Use a recovery disc to restore the default OS (this is only psosible if you have created one using this method)
2. If you can still read the COA product key at the bottom, you can burn an ISO copy on this website and use it to clean install Windows into your PC (if you get issues activating Windows, try to activate by phone).
3. Scratch Windows and use Ubuntu as you're primary OS.
Hope thish elps
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