"accidentally" cleaned hard drive

zachemicals

Estimable
Nov 3, 2014
5
0
4,510
well I messed up. I used diskpart and cleaned my entire disk including windows 8 operating system. I did this in order to use windows 7. I have windows 7 on the pc now but there is no network adapter so I have no internet. It's an HP Envy m6 laptop and I just need help fixing this. The computer with the hard drive has no internet so I can't download any recovery tool. Thanks
 
Solution
I looked a couple places and the tech support From HP says that Win 7 is not supported on that laptop therefore there are no Windows 7 drivers available for it. You can TRY and go here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=4132&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=5312177

Download the network driver onto a flash drive and try to install it but there is no guarantee it will work. It looks like they simply didn't make any drivers for this laptop for windows 7. Maybe a generic Lan driver might work if we can find out what type of Lan it is. I'm not sure if you have the Realtec, Intel or Qualcomm LAN in there. If you can find it out you can do a google search on something like Intel Wireless LAN Drivers for Microsoft...

Brighttail

Estimable
Oct 24, 2014
15
0
4,570
I looked a couple places and the tech support From HP says that Win 7 is not supported on that laptop therefore there are no Windows 7 drivers available for it. You can TRY and go here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=4132&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=5312177

Download the network driver onto a flash drive and try to install it but there is no guarantee it will work. It looks like they simply didn't make any drivers for this laptop for windows 7. Maybe a generic Lan driver might work if we can find out what type of Lan it is. I'm not sure if you have the Realtec, Intel or Qualcomm LAN in there. If you can find it out you can do a google search on something like Intel Wireless LAN Drivers for Microsoft Windows 7 and download that driver to see if it works.
 
Solution

Brighttail

Estimable
Oct 24, 2014
15
0
4,570
Not unless you have the original DVD rom, but then you are installing win 8 drivers on a WIN 7 system. You are going to need to go to a friends or somewhere with a flash drive. Just remember that there is NO support from HP on your laptop with Win 7. So you are going to have to:

1. Find out what LAN controller you have there.
2. Google to find the drivers for Windows 7 (Realtek, Intel, ect)
3. Load them up on a flash drive
4. install and hope it works.

There is every possibilty you may have to go back to windows 8. If then you may call HP and ask for a new recovery disk.
 

geofelt

Distinguished


Borrow a pc with a usb drive and use it to download drivers.
Presumably your laptop has a functioning usb port.

If windows 7 drivers are not listed on the HP site, download windows 8 drivers which should work.
Or, find the device name and type in device manager and look for drivers for that chip.
 

Brighttail

Estimable
Oct 24, 2014
15
0
4,570
If you are going to reinstall win 8 I would not suggest it because HP would have their own "customized" version of win 8 with drivers and utilites on your computer. If you are going to reinstall win 8 get the disk for that laptop from HP otherwise you may lose functionality on programs and such. You could buy it and get the lan driver from that, true and then install all the drivers and utilities from HP, but that is going to be more expensive than going to a friends or repair shop and asking them to put one LAN drive on your Flash drive.
 

geofelt

Distinguished
Not that easy.
The reason you need a driver is because windows can't include ALL possible drivers. It may well be included on the windows 8 install disk, but not as a separate file available as a driver update.

What are you using to post this?
 

zachemicals

Estimable
Nov 3, 2014
5
0
4,510
Using my phone to post. Would HP be able to send me a recovery disk for my specific computer? I purchased it October 2013. If not I'll try using another computer and adding the drivers to a flash drive
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator


Try getting the drivers onto a USB from another PC.
If that fails, get a factory reset disk set from HP. It will almost certainly cost, though.
 

geofelt

Distinguished
I thought as much about the phone. Amazing devices.
Might it have a usb connector or sd card that you might use?

The recovery disk from HP will be an image of the original windows 8.
That will not get you to windows 7.

I suppose you could load windows 8 and then download the drivers to a usb stick on your laptop first.
Then do windows 7 again. But it seems so much easier to just borrow another pc for the task.
 

zachemicals

Estimable
Nov 3, 2014
5
0
4,510
I got the drivers on a flash drive and transferred them to my computer but ran into some problems because of compatibility issues so eventually I got HP to send me a recovery disk for just a small shipping fee. Thanks for all the help!