(initramfs) unable to find a medium containing a live file system

I tried looking for SUSE Studio ImageWriter but the openSUSE website claims that it is no longer supported for windows. I also tried dd since you brought it up but that still did not work.

As an update, I am still waiting for the cd/dvd drive I ordered, It will probably take about a week to arrive. Once It arrives though I'll try installing the os again and post the results.

In the mean time I have still been unable to solve the issue so if anyone has any other suggestions or ideas for things to try, I am still willing to try stuff.

Have you tried rufus?

Ok, I tried Rufus but I'm still getting the error.

The cd/dvd drive finally arrived, although unfortunately the laptop cannot seem to detect the external drive while booting, so I was unable to attempt booting off of the live cd.

I also managed to get a usb 3.0 device to test with but that did not work either.

At this point I'm really starting to run out of ideas for things to try, again if anyone can think of something I'll try giving it a shot.

Pro HP machines have an option to turn of 3.0 ports and have them viewed as a 2.0 port. Is that an option in your bios?

I had another quick look through the limited bios options, but I did not see anything that looked like what you are describing, almost nothing related to usb devices at all (with the exception of boot order).

what happens when you try a different distro?

I tried Ubuntu GNOME and Debian. Ubuntu GNOME had the same issue as Elementary, Debian on the other hand I can get to boot, since it's net installer does not have a live desktop environment.

I did not go too deep into the install while testing Debian but I would imagine at some point it would require an internet connection which I cannot supply without an adapter, unless It allows you connect through wifi which is probably unlikely.

Again I would prefer Elementary, but using Debian will probably be a last resort if I must.