HP 2000-2b89WM, product c2m42ua#aba, apparently Win8, 64-bit.
I'm trying to help out a friend with a dead laptop. Hard drive was damaged and machine wouldn't boot. Got a new hard drive and the recovery disks from HP, but recovery disks just say that the recovery failed, and the log file references two other log files that don't exist. So.
I'm trying to flash the BIOS to the latest version - maybe that'll help. Trouble is, the only computer I have available to create a USB disk with the BIOS on it is a 32-bit XP machine (Dell). The BIOS utility unzips its files, but after saying what it can do (update this device, create recovery USB, copy BIOS image) it crashes the XP machine.
1. How do I get the BIOS image (apparently a .bin, not in the unzipped utility files) onto the USB so I can update the BIOS? (I can get to diagnostics mode, but it doesn't find the BIOS file on the USB.)
2. Any other recommendations for getting the recovery disks to boot? (Tried setting clock to 2012, resetting BIOS to factory defaults. Recovery disks are pristine - no scratches, no dust.)