Setup Installation :: Windows Recovery Media Not Recognized
Aug 22, 2014
All of a sudden I can't reliably play any video media on my Win 8 64bit computer -- was working fine yesterday and AFAIK nothing (other than perhaps Windows automatic updates) changed. My first thought was to try and restore but even though I'm sure I created a restore point it tells me there isn't one. Sigh.
Okay, so then I try to perform a reset (but keeping all my files) and it tells me some files are missing and to insert my recovery media. All well and good, I actually have that (and know where it is) but when I insert the disk it tells me it is NOT a recovery disk.
It is, of course, precisely that -- a Windows 8 Recovery Media for Windows 8 Products 64 bit. I am running an official copy of Win 8 (well, 8.1, but I have no media for that since it was a free update). Yes, it's OEM (Dell) but that shouldn't make a difference. And, more importantly, what I am to do now?
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Jun 22, 2013
Not sure if it's Lenovos only, but trying to migrate Windows 8 OEM to an SSD has been a huge pain in the ass. This process should not be as difficult as Lenovo/Microsoft has made it.
I purchased a Y400 along with a 256G SSD. I'd like to clean install Windows onto the SSD, I did not want to copy image. I went through forums for hours trying to put a recovery system on a usb with no luck (even with the instructions given by a Lenovo moderator on their website), I kept getting "missing partition drive". I broke down and paid Lenovo the ridiculous "shipping charge" of $59 for the recovery disks.
These are my steps so far:
-My SSD is installed and I removed the HDD (until Windows 8 was installed, I'd then format it)
-Put Disk 1 into the optical drive (Disk 1 states it's the format sequence and starting point for restore, Windows 8 actually on disk 2, I believe)
-Pressed the "Novo" button on the left side of the machine (gives options of Normal Startup, BIOS Setup, Boot Manager and System Recovery)
*FYI - Boot Manager lists: Windows Boot Manager and 2 EFI volumes (when HDD is plugged in, just the EFI's when uninstalled)
System Recovery only works with the HDD installed and it's Lenovo's One Key Recovery which just restores to a restoration point.*
Went into BIOS setup
Tabbed over to "Security"
Disabled the "Secure Boot"
Tabbed over to "Boot"
Changed the Boot Mode to "Legacy Support"
Changed Boot Priority to "Legacy First"
Saved then exited.
Pressed the "Novo" button once more, went into BIOS setup
Tabbed back to "Boot"
Boot device priority was now displayed with SATA ODD, SSD and Network Boot.
I reordered to boot from SATA ODD
Saved and exited
Upon restart, I pressed F12 (select boot device), and chose the SATA ODD
It went into a DOS looking screen and gives "No Bootable Device - Insert boot disk and press a key"
I've also tried variations of the above procedures for a few hours with no luck.
I have not tried to boot from "Lenovo Recovery System" (which is only available with the HDD installed), I figured it would default to the HDD and not let me chose to install onto SSD.
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Jan 10, 2013
I have a tablet that I installed Windows 8 Pro on.
Actually, I have installed Windows 8 Pro on 2 of these same tablets with the same problem.
They both have bluetooth and the bluetooth is on...and Windows 8 installs a driver for the bluetooth, but there is no bluetooth icon down by the clock in the systray.
From my understanding of Windows, if that bluetooth icon is not in the systray, something is not configuired right.
I can use a USB bluetooth dongle, and after it installs those drivers the bluetooth icon is present the systray. So, it likes the dongle. But, I don't know what the issue can be with the onboard bluetooth.
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May 29, 2014
I pay a used laptop Sony Vaio SVF 143100c from china , they install windows 8 Enterbrise and no other software or drivers
when I check I found a recovery volume on the hard disk I assign this volume and copy all the recovery content to external Hard disk, size is 18 GB
and the product key is valid for Win 8 RTM CoreCountrySpecific OEMM,
I don't have a Recovery Media disk or usb to return to Factory condition, how to create a recovery disk to access tis image and re install tis laptop to Factory condition
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Jun 20, 2014
If you have a recovery drive - that includes the recovery partition - made on one computer, but have a toshiba laptop with a bad drive (but the recovery partition is ok), can you replace/copy the partition on the recovery drive with the recovery partition from the bad laptop HD?
My friend's laptop would not boot, and would not factory recover, reset, or refresh. I tried to clone the hard drive before I started messing with the disc. It would not clone, but I was able to copy the recovery partition to a USB drive.
He never make recovery discs, so could not re-install, but I can borrow the recovery drive that my aunt made for her laptop.
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Sep 15, 2014
I set myself up as System Administrator during installation. When I try to load the software from CD for a 5510 HP printer I get an error saying I cannot do it because I am not a System Administrator. I have verified that my profile show me with that designation.
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Jul 16, 2014
My Acer Aspire A7600U-UR24 came with windows 8. I made a recovery drive by choosing "create recovery drive" in windows 8. After making the drive i installed windows 8.1 from DVD. Some time later I tried to restore it back to factory with my recovery usb. Every time I try I get "windows cannot find a system image on this computer" even though my flash drive is plugged in. I tried booting from the drive, doesn't seem to work. Not sure if my windows 8.1 version not being activated has anything to do with it (I installed 8.1 on 2 computers from the same dvd didn't realize i couldn't do that) . but I think I should still be able to boot from the drive.I was thinking if the problem is my flash drive, can I somehow transfer the system image from one flash drive to another?
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Mar 22, 2014
I'm trying to understand the licence on my Windows 8 Media. I bought Windows 8.0 last year, not an upgrade, and not with a PC.
It's got a section on installing on a PC for personal use. I want to un-install/remove from 1 PC, and install it on a New PC.
It's not clear how I achieve this.? The only 3 things it's say's I cant do:
- Use as upgrade
- Legalize a non-genuine install
- License more than 5 copies for commercial use.??
So is there a method to follow to avoid activation issues.? And it telling me this is already installed on another PC.?
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Aug 7, 2014
I upgraded Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 via the Windows store and so. Do not have a DVD or any media to do a refresh or recovery ... I need to refresh Windows 8.1 as many of my apps do not open.
I tried this from this site here. All went fine but when i went to refresh windows cannot find any media again.
How to: REFRESH your Windows 8.1 installation without installation media.
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Feb 6, 2014
I have in my possession an HP Pavilion a1230n desktop compulator. I was told that it crashed some time ago and was only used for simple things as it was deemed not trust worthy and stable. It was running Windows xp until about two weeks ago when the power at the person's house went out suddenly and the ntldr was corrupted and wouldn't boot, obviously the solution to that was to do a clean install but as xp is to be dead soon, the decision was made to go to the Windows 8.1.
It seems as if this is genuinely possessed by an evil spirit, as I was told by the owner, because LITERALLY NOTHING I've done is allowing me to install Windows 8.1, not even booting into the USB installer of 8.1, or even trying to run Windows 8.1. Normally I deploy Windows through DISM and my custom .wim file onto the hard drive and I boot into WinPE or a neutered Windows installer USB and apply boot files to the drive and it works just fine. That hasn't worked. I had 8.1 on the target drive, was actually able to get the DVD installer to run, although this was the second time since the first run of it didn't even find a hard drive when I plugged it back in, and apply boot files successfully. I restarted, but it ran for about a few seconds and ran into continuous reboots before it said that the install needs to be repaired.
Then I tried to actually run the DVD installer of straight up vanilla Windows 8 to see if maybe there was a CPU requirement not being met, but the installation failed about 47% through. I THINK the error code was 0xc0000221, not sure though. Next I tried remaking a THIRD USB installation of 8.1, but EVERY single time when I boot off into the USB drive, it takes at least five minutes (normally it shouldn't take so long) before any activity on screen shows. But EVERY time, it hangs up and restarts. The error code I got for sure with that was elxstor.sys 0xc0000221. In one of the failed attempts of installing, it was the same thing but with a different .sys file.
The thing is I KNOW for sure my .iso images of Windows are perfectly fine I was just recently used the previous USB installer to deploy 8.1 onto a laptop just yesterday but doesn't work on this PC. The compulator in question is 64 bit capable and as far as I know meets the Windows 8 CPU requirements. I've disconnected EVERY peripheral even the keyboard, and obviously reconnected the keyboard and ran it again. I've cleared the CMOS. I have the USB and keyboard connected to the motherboard's USB ports and not the headers. I've also gone to the extent of using a third party, non-partisan hard drive with Windows 8.1 deployed on it to try and install boot files on that to see if hard drive issues may be present from the PC's drive. That also didn't work nor did installing Windows onto that separate drive from the DVD work either. I've checked the PC's hard drive for errors, everything is ok.
I've installed Windows at least over 100 different times from VMs to many different PCs, but this is literally the first one to cause such an issue I can't even think of why. Although, thinking about it, I do remember once with a slightly older HP desktop when I was trying to run a Windows 7 To Go drive off of it, it just wouldn't run whatsoever and I had to fix the bcdboot files for it run again.
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Sep 3, 2013
I have a windows 8 laptop. I bought a SSD and want to move windows to the SSD and use the HDD for media and games.
How do I do this without windows forcing me to the error page
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Sep 15, 2014
I installed Windows 8.1 Pro Update using the MSDN iso (untouched) of Windows 8.1 Update (Multiple Edition).
Now, I would like to add the Windows Media Center feature. How should I do?
Is it possible to add this feature even if your computer does not have an Internet connection?
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May 17, 2014
I have upgraded my system from windows 7 to windows 8 through digital delivery (no dvd). later it was upgraded to 8.1 pro now its in 8.1 pro with media center. Now i want to do a clean install of windows 8.1 pro with media center but i have no media, i have only windows 8 purchase product key and current product id.
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Jan 22, 2013
I am trying to install a oem copy of windows 8 64 bit onto my desktop, using a microsoft install dvd. I've installed xp, vista, and windows 7 onto it without any issues whatsoever, however when trying to install windows 8, I keep getting an error in windows setup that states the following:
Load Driver : A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USP or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now.
Since I'm using an actual microsoft disc, and the hash checks out okay, I'm not really sure how to proceed, as it doesn't seem to be the disc image.
The solutions I've come across are vague, and usually relate to USB/VMware installs instead of using a retail DVD. How I can get past this error?
My system:
EVGA Z77 FTW Mobo, updated firmware/bios
Intel 3770k CPU
Antec Quattro 1000 PSU
Kingston HyperX 3K SSD
EVGA GTX 580 3GB GPU
LG M-Disc Super Multi DVD/CD Reader/Burner
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Jun 17, 2014
I did a factory reset on my windows 8, and it messed up, not completing. so it is now stuck on a cycle of 'preparing automatic repair' and 'diagnosing your pc'.
And I today recieved the windows 8 cd to reinstall the os.
But after I've chosen language, I get error message saying I'm missing 1 of the media drivers.
Computer: alienware m14x r2 laptop
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Jan 13, 2013
I installed Media Center & now I can't download a key for it!
I have 2 computers running Windows 8 Pro. I got the key for Media Center on one computer & everything works!!
I then loaded Media Center on the other Windows 8 Pro computer, but it will not let me download a key for it. It insists that I have downloaded a key!
I tried to reactivate back to my original installation & refuses to accepted that valid key!
I don't know how they know I have downloaded a key.
What do I do know? Reinstall the original Windows 8 Pro? There must be a way!!
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Jan 21, 2014
My computer crashed(?) and wouldn't go past the setup utility screen. I finally got my Windows 8 installation disc, now my computer is telling my it can't find a media driver.
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Jan 28, 2013
Is it possible not to have the partition "recovery"?
Because if you look at the two tutorials:
- UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums
- UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with
In the tutorial to install Windows 7 in UEFI, there is not that damn partition recovery, while in the tutorial for Windows 8, we can see it.
When I install Windows 7 (MBR mode), I avoid this partition "recovery" by creating a partition with a name before installation. I install the OS on it and everything is fine, no partition "recovery" But here, since one must delete all partitions, If I create a GPT disk with a partitioning tool before installing, is that it might be appropriate?
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Jan 12, 2013
When i try to install 2. OS on my PC , I deleted to win 8 and recovery partitions. How can i install new win 8 ?
I couldn't install because serial problem happen. Although i have a serial i can't enter. Win 8 use embedded serial and so I can't enter another serial. What can I do ?
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Oct 18, 2013
I run 3 HDS. 1 SSD, and 2 normal drives.
I just clean formatted my SSD and installed Windows 8 on it, which I always put on that drive.
However I am seeing a bunch of partitions, 4 recovery partitions. Are these normal? If not, how would I get rid of them?
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Nov 10, 2013
After upgrading from 8.0 Pro to 8.1 Pro, the "Windows 7 Recovery" desktop app had disappeared. How can I recreate the "Windows 7 Recovery" in 8.1 Pro?
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Jan 8, 2013
I have a new Sony vaio duo 11 running (or not) Windows 8 64 bit. I was away when it arrived. Number one son decided to set it up for me so that it would be working on my return. I now need to refresh or recover but am being told that some Windows files are missing. I have no media disk or backup. So how do I go about getting the missing files?
Every web site tells me to stick the Windows 8 media in. This doesn't seem to be a rare problem so why don't Microsoft make them available online? Alternatively, if I was to buy a Windows 8 64bit pro upgrade and install over, would this provide me with the missing files?
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Oct 18, 2013
Can i move old activated Windows 8 Pro with MC key to new computer (complete new build)? And how?
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Aug 6, 2014
I have some problems with my laptop ASUS K55VD. I had windows 8, but with the store of windows I have updated to windows 8.1.
I have tried to use the recovery partition, but every time I try appears a message. Failed to reset your computer. A partition of unity necessary is missing.
For that reason I have looking for some information, and with CMD commands like "diskpart". I have noticed that I have 8 volumen.
And in Computer Management appears this.
Then googling recommend to use EaseUS Partition, and some many things change. In the beginning, I had the same 3 partions in red and I don't know what happened.
But in diskpart change too, and I only have 4 volume, and it have dissapeared the recovery partition, and I don't know why?
Before to use EaseUS partition I have created a USB booteable with 9.79gb, and I had this:
But, in this days I have tried to create the USB booteable again, but I can't. And everytime I have tried to run the usb, appears to select the language, the keyboard, and then appears the same windows with troubleshoting and turn off (it returns at the previous windows in blue)
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Mar 25, 2014
it goes thru all 3 disks and then says failed...I have reset EUFI and CSM & formatted drive...it is maddening....I have 3 HP 2000 doing the SAME THING!!! what is going on with simple wipe and reinstall FROM THEIR recovery media...the other 2 are Toshiba using USB...
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Oct 4, 2013
It's too late for me to return the computer so I want to be able to use it, unfortunately I don't know his password and there's no chance he will tell me. I can't reset the password because it's linked to his email that I don't have access to.
So doing some research online I found some programs to recover the password that I could burn onto a disc and then boot from the disc. The problem is despite changing the boot order in the BIOS to but from CD/DVD (in my case I'm using a DVD), it doesn't boot from it and eventually just goes to the password login for Windows.
I disabled Secure Boot, I didn't have anything called Legacy Boot to enable, but I did disable something called Boot Quiet Mode, and once I did that when I first start the computer instead of getting a Gateway logo I get the Windows logo. I've searched the BIOS and can't find any other type of boot option.
I figure if I could get the darn thing to boot from disc I could try one of the many programs for password recovery but I can't get that far.
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Jul 16, 2014
My Acer Aspire A7600U-UR24 came with windows 8. I made a recovery drive by choosing "create recovery drive" in windows 8. After making the drive i installed windows 8.1 from DVD. Some time later I tried to restore it back to factory with my recovery usb. Every time I try I get "windows cannot find a system image on this computer" even though my flash drive is plugged in. I tried booting from the drive, doesn't seem to work. Not sure if my windows 8.1 version not being activated has anything to do with it (I installed 8.1 on 2 computers from the same dvd didn't realize i couldn't do that) . but I think I should still be able to boot from the drive.
I was thinking if the problem is my flash drive, can I somehow transfer the system image from one flash drive to another?
Here's the screens: at this point there should be an option for windows 8 but there's not.
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Oct 27, 2013
I purchased a Lenovo laptop with Windows 8 Pro preinstalled. It came with 500 GB HDD. I changed the DVD Rom with SSD/HDD tray to use for additional drive. I put an SSD in there and installed Windows 8 on it using a USB Recovery Drive, which I don't have anymore. So my current setup looks like this:
After upgrading to Windows 8.1, the license of some software I'm using got messed up and I couldn't manage fixing it, so the only option I've got left is to reinstall/reset Windows. But since the Recovery partition is on another drive, when I go about creating a Recovery Drive, the option "Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive" is greyed out. I've got stuff on my HDD, which I can't currently backup so I don't wan't to format that drive. I'm perfectly fine with formatting the SSD, that's what I want.
How can I reinstall/reset my Windows? The only option I see is to install Windows on the Hard Drive (by doing a backup and formatting it first), and then create a usb recovery drive and reinstall again on the SSD, but that's a lot of hassle and I'd need to find an external hard drive for the backup.
I intentionally left the Hard Drive in the original bay (as Disk 0) because of the better protection against falling compared to the added bay in place of the DVD drive.
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Dec 2, 2013
I built up a new PC featuring a brand new SSD (i.e fully unallocated). Then, I made a clean install of Windows 8.1 pro (64bits) using an ISO DVD. Using Windows disk management tool after the install, I can see that only two partitions have been created: one System partition in NTFS (350MB) and the remaining of the SSD is the C: partition while I was expecting a third one : a recovery partition. Of course, I do not remember a prompt during the install to ask whether I want a recovery parttion or not.
Is it normal ? Is a recovery partition useful knowing I have the install DVD ? If the recovery partition has some advantages, is there a way to create it after the install is completed ?
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Jul 13, 2013
I will need to do a complete system recovery. My computer originally came with windows 7 and then downloaded and installed windows 8. I have my product key. When I downloaded windows 8 it gave me the option of burning a copy of windows 8 to a dvd, however I did not do that. Whenever I do a system recovery will I be able to get windows 8 back without having to pay for another download?
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Jan 27, 2014
I recently decided to buy an ultrabook and I got me this one: LG Z360-7416, with a ssd and windows 8 (x64). As usual, it came with a lot of garbage installed which was using almost half of the ssd storage (128GB), so I decided to do a clean install. I got me a msdnaa copy of the windows 8.1 pro (x64). So, i used a pendrive to boot up on UEFI mode and selected custom install and when i get to the select partition, it shows everything fine, i select a partition and when a click on install, it returns an error saying it cannot install on my partition (i dont remember exactly what it says), and when i click on refresh, all my partitions vanishes, even going into the prompt and using diskpart doesnt show my partitions anymore. I tried to load some drivers, but it didnt work.
I was only able to install windows 7(x64), where nothing of these things happens, it installs realy easy. I tried to install windows 8 from windows 7, like an upgrade, but after it restarts, it gets stuck also. My disk is formatted on GPT, as im using EUFI on my windows 7 installation.
Tried almost a hundred times using all solutions i found online, but always the same result. And to get even more weird, some rare times it gets to the installation part, where it says the progress, but stays on 0% of unpacking files...
Its seens to be missing some especific driver to windows 8 be able to work with my ssd, but i cant get it right, but if it came installed with windows 8, it must be a way to make then work together.
Unfortunately i deleted the recovery partitions, so im stuck on windows 7.
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