Finally, if the HP laptop’s hard drive is completely inaccessible or the operating system is corrupted, a more hardware-centric approach is required. The user must create a Windows installation media on a separate USB drive using another computer. With the USB inserted and the HP laptop powered off, pressing (for boot menu) or Esc (to enter Startup Menu) immediately after powering on allows the user to boot from the USB drive. From the Windows Setup screen, clicking "Repair your computer" in the bottom-left corner provides access to the same Advanced Options menu, ultimately leading to Safe Mode via the Command Prompt or Startup Settings.