"There was a problem resetting your pc"

Question

A few months back i bought a new ssd along with a version of windows 10 pro, since then my computer has accumulated alot of trash and games i no longer play. Therefore, i attempted to Factory reset my computer and was greeted with the message 'There was a problem resetting your computer', once i was given the choice to log back into windows the same message popped up with the addition 'Nothing was changed', this makes no sense and i repeated the process many times.
However, i really need to reset this pc and i cannot use the media creation tool because i cannot afford a new windows key at the moment.

Answer 1

Hi,

Since the reset did not complete, your Recovery Image may be corrupt, your best option is to clean install Windows 10, which will also repair your Recovery Image,

Firstly, you could try to fix this issue using command prompt:

1. Go to Settings-->Update & Security-->Recovery-->Advanced startup, click Restart now.
2. In the new window, Select Troubleshoot --> Advanced options --> Command prompt.
3. Next, select the administrator account.
4. Now provide the credentials for the admin account you opted in the previous step.
5. Finally, in the Command Prompt window, type following commands and press Enter key after each:

cd %windir%\system32\config

ren system system.001

ren software software.001

You can now close the Command Prompt window, which takes you to Windows Recovery Environment screen.
Select Continue option to get into your operating system.

If that doesn't work, create an installation media for Windows 10 using Media Creation Tool.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Since you previously had Windows 10 installed and activated on that PC during the installation process skip the steps which ask for a product key and select the option 'I am Reinstalling Windows 10 on this PC', and activation will not be an issue, your PC will have a digital entitlement stored on the Microsoft Activation Servers

Hope above information can help you.

Answer 2

You may need to get in touch with the vendor about issues with the Factory reset disk. As to using media creation tool add your device here

https://account.microsoft.com/devices/

and there should be no worries about the product key.