Setup Installation :: Addressing Reset And Recovery Options?
Jul 16, 2014
i installed monitoring and filtering software on the computer. my kids just restarted the computer and choose refresh and it was gone. in win 7 i set a new restore point and deleted the previous ones solving that problem. i know that there is a way to not allow using the system refresh with group policy and regedit hacks but i would not like to have to go down that road.
how can i control what the restore and refresh settings do?
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.
my OS is Windows 8.1 64-bit. It boots just fine, but I suddenly found out that something wrong happened with my BCD store. Tried more workarounds but none worked. The last I found How To Restore Windows 8 Boot Options Menu ended on bcdedit error mentioned below. The problem indicates with following signs:
- bcdedit /enum prints error "The boot configuration data store could not be opened."
- bcdboot C:windows prints error "BFSVC Error: BcdOpenSystemStore failed with unexpected error code, Status
= [c000015c]"
- msconfig's boot tab shows empty OSes list (nothing on the tab is clickablle)
- the same with System Properties, Advanced tab, Startup and Restore dialog (OS dropdown has no entries)
- Trying to enter diagnostic boot by Shft + Restart doesnot seem to offer full recovery menu. It boots to GUI boot menu offering Continue or Troubleshooting, Troubleshooting submenu offers Manage UEFI options (this brings me to BIOS setup after reboot) and Shut down. No manage boot options, no other choices.
All of this point me to that my booting configuration is somehow ill (I wonder a bit that Windows still can start).
I partitioned my hard drive and installed a second copy of my Windows 8.1
I like to experiment with registry settings, tweaks, etc so I use the second installation as a guiney pig, leaving my primary copy untouched.
My question is how to I get the second copy listed on the graphical Boot Options Menu? Right now, I have to press [ESC] on reboot to select it in BIOS settings.
I just recently installed 8.1 on my desktop. These are the specs:
ASUS M5A97 mobo AMD phenom II X4 965 BE stock clocks crossfire HD 7770's 8gb DDR3 500 tv sata internal hard drive 7200rpm. 500w psu.
The problem is, I'm not able to boot up my PC. When I boot, I get the Berta fish logo, with a white dash in the upper left corner. It will stay there and load for as long as I let it. If I hit my reset button then it will take me to the startup repair options. Booting into safe mode from there yields the same result. The only way I've managed to fix it was either a refresh or a system restore.
So I installed Windows 8 whenever it came out and then updated to 8.1 last fall. Since then my computer has become bogged down and running really bad. It's time just start fresh but when I go in to the PC settings to restore it, it says I don't have the necessary files and that I need to insert a disc. Since I installed 8.1 from the store I have no disc to restore it from.
I saw some tutorials on activating 8.1 from 8 but I don't even know if I'm following the right ones or not. This was much easier to do in Windows 7. But anyways, how I can restore my computer.
I have just successfully installed Windows 8 (upgrade from windows xp).
Although I recall selecting the option for clean install the set up progressed on an upgrade basis. I must assume that I failed to accurately select the clean install option.
The Windows 8 upgrade to my five year old PC was successful. However, I was disappointed not to have done a clean install and wanted to remove unnecessary files including the Windows.old folder.
I decided to try out Windows 8 reset option in order to reinstall on a clean basis. After some hours it reached 98% and declared it was unable to complete. It offered to restart - not surprisingly message "no operating system on drive".
I wondered if I could load the Windows 8 pro upgrade DVD back in but was not sure that would work as windows Reset had reformatted my drive?
Fortunately, I created a rescue disk with Macrium Reflect immediately after my successful windows 8 upgrade so this got me back to a position just prior to selecting Reset.
Everything seems to be working fine but I am wondering how robust the Reset function is in Windows 8 and why it failed. Do I have some unknown hardware problem. I did wonder about running Chkdsk but I gather this is automatic at startup in windows 8. There are no messages to indicate anything wrong. Is there anything I should check?
My intention was to get familiar with windows 8 and then immediately upgrade to 8.1. Will I get an option to do clean install when doing an upgrade from windows 8 to 8.1? If I do a clean install of 8.1 is it probable I will get same problem as in Reset or is that an entirely different process?
Details:Dell Vostro 1710 (5yrsold) was running windows XP now upgraded to windows 8 pro
I recently installed linux on my Surface Pro, but decided to go back to Windows 8 since wifi doesn't work properly yet. I thought, restoring shouldn't be a big deal, just insert the recovery USB you made and factory reset it. Boy, was I wrong. Any time I try a factory reset, it fails around 97%-99%. Windows won't even start booting. I kept trying it until I decided to try installing Ubuntu on it then trying to reset it again, hoping that would fix something.
The reset still fails at the same point, but now instead of not booting, it says "Recovery: Your PC needs to be repaired." At first it was because an EFI file was missing, so I booted into the recovery drive again and tried an auto-recovery. It fixed the EFI issue, but it's still at the same screen with WindowsSystem32configsystem missing. How to get my Surface Pro working again?
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?
New Windows 8 Pro with WMC install to a new Intel SSD on an old Dell Inspiron 530. I got everything activated and working fine, and then I swapped the SSD for the old HDD to finish getting all my data. But when I swapped the SSD back in, I can no longer get Windows 8 to boot--it goes into automatic repair, but none of the options are available to me. Refresh won't work, reset won't work, I can't even get system restore to work (it shows me two restore points available, but it won't let me select them.)
This was a clean install, so it has the 350MB recovery partition. I believe the RAID is set properly (I have no straight up AHCI option in BIOS, but I installed Windows 8 under RAID [it shows "AHCI Bios enabled!" during POST], and remembered to change to IDE mode to boot the HDD, and back to RAID before trying to boot the SSD).
I've always been able to troubleshoot these sorts of problems under XP or 7, but I'm just not familiar with these Windows 8 processes (or SSDs/AHCI/RAID stuff) yet. I've got all the linux tools, Hirens, etc. available, and can verify that the files on the SSD appear to be fine. I could reinstall if necessary, but really don't want to have to deal with the upgrade and re-activating--and even if I do have to reinstall.
I have a Dell inspirion 15 laptop running Windows 8.1. A while ago I decided to try Ubuntu out. I installed it alongside Windows 8.1 in dual boot configuration with its own separate hard drive partitions. This means that when I powered on my laptop a GRUB menu (Linux boot manager) would come up allowing me to choose between Windows and Ubuntu. However, Ubuntu was more pain than it was worth so I decided to uninstall it. I did this by deleting the hard drive partitions that Ubuntu was installed on using Windows Disk Management. Now when I power on my laptop the GRUB menu still comes up but there are no options to choose from, only a command line interface. I now have to type Code: exit
which exits GRUB and takes me to my BIOS Boot Manager which looks like this:
Boot mode is set to: UEFI; Secure boot: OFF
UEFI BOOT ubuntu (ST500LM012 HN-M500MBB) UEFI Onboard LAN IPv6 UEFI Onboard LAN IPv4 Ubuntu (ST500LM012 HN-M500MBB) Windows Boot Manager (ST500LM012 HN-M500MBB)
I then have to select Windows Boot Manager to boot into windows.
Why GRUB is still there even though I have deleted the Linux hard drive partitions? Also, why is Ubuntu still listed on the BIOS Boot options? And why is it listed twice?
Recently my computer has been encountering problems involving speed and whatnot, and I have found no method of fixing them. I have been looking to reset my PC, and went to do so through the built-in tool that is supplied on my ASUS laptop, by pressing F9 at startup. I chose to reset my PC, but it returned an error saying the recovery partition couldn't be found. So I went to do so through the PC settings, and it rebooted my computer and told me the reset failed. I checked and found the recovery partition using MiniTool Partition Wizard, so it still exists.
Apparently this is an error other ASUS users have found after updating to Windows 8.1. I don't know how to solve this problem, and figured I may as well reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 8 without all the ASUS bloatware and garbage. So I hunted for a Windows 8 ISO file, and failed. I've tried multiple methods. One involving using a product key to download Windows 8 to an ISO file through Microsoft's Windows 8 Setup, and that failed because the product key was OEM BIOS-based, and not retail.
I can either try and do a factory reset by somehow fixing the recovery partition through some miracle, or;With extreme luck find a Windows 8 Core ISO setup, and install that and refind the drivers for my PC.
Got a mates computer that would not boot normally, so button mashed f8 to bring up safe mode, uninstalled the crap, ran an antivirus and checked for registry errors with an outdated reg cleaner, there were heaps of errors which I could do nothing about as I had no internet at the time, so I decided to do a complete reset of the PC through the f8 boot menu.
It went fine until I woke up the next morning to find that when it boots all I get is the error message at the toshiba boot screen saying "Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation" there is no mouse pointer so I smash enter, it restarts and does exactly the same thing on next startup. I can't seem to get f8 to work after the reset and I'm stuck!
I know that by using recimg, you can make a custom refresh image. And I hear that you cannot use it to reset Windows to factory state. is that so? if so, how do I do that?
Also, is it possible to store the recovery image in a hidden partition. hidden in the sense, the drive letter is not automatically assigned when you refresh/reset Windows, nor can you do it from Disk Management. only from diskpart. however, if i can still use reset while keeping the recovery image in a hidden folder in C: drive, that is still fine i guess.
The thing is, the recovery partition of my Dell Latitude 10 tablet is destroyed (it's Dell's fault though) and even though i can easily recover Windows as I have an iso image and can use the USB to reinstall windows like we normally do on our desktops, i want to sell the tablet and i want to make it recoverable via the recovery features in Windows 8. without the ability to recover, the value of the tablet will be pretty low. if all else fails, i will have to buy a cheap USB flash drive, make it a recovery drive and give it with the tablet. sucks!
It is fine if i have to update to Windows 8.1, if it makes it possible in Windows 8.1 even though it was not in Windows 8.
I have a HP Envy x2, with Windows 8 pre-installed. After I upgraded to Windows 8.1, I started to notice many problems such as; the tablet wouldn't start all the time, the secure boot was disabled (but I fixed that), the app store doesn't work all the time, and Windows Update can't check for updates. The HP did not come with a recovery thumb drive or DVD. And I need "recovery media" to be able to refresh/reset my PC. I have tried multiple times to create a recovery drive, but my "Key" for Windows 8.1 is not valid and I do not know where my Windows 8 "Key" is.
My mom purchased a Windows 8 Dell laptop that was a store display. I want to reset it to factory default settings but I don't have a CD or drive...is there any way to accomplish this without the CD?
I' am currently using a custom made laptop which I had to repair due to an hardware failure. After I got the PC back I reinstalled Windows but the product key I had wasn't working properly any more. Knowing that after an hardware change this is not an uncommon problem, I just used the option "Activate by phone" and everything went fine.
Unfortunately the last day I got the blue screen with the error 0xc0000021a, which I know is caused by misconfigured system files in the computer. Moreover this error is really similar to the error I got prior the hardware failure (0xc00000e). So I figured that maybe the Windows 8 installation I have (I purchased before Windows 8.1) has some problems, and maybe I can solve them by reinstalling directly Windows 8.1, instead of reinstalling Windows 8 and then upgrading it from the store.
The problem is that when I launch the Windows 8.1 set-up program to create a media for recovery, when asked for the product key mine doesn't work. I think this has something to do with the hardware change and with the fact that I used the "activate by phone" option, but my Windows version is legit and I paid for it, and therefore I want to be able to reset my computer if I need to (like now).
I was using Ubuntu 14.04 on my laptop before. Now I want to install Windows 8. I have laptop's rescue CD. I get the following error when I tried to install Windows 8 on UEFI using the rescue CD:
"Unable to reset your pc a required partition is missing".
I think I have a problem about partitions type because Ubuntu uses ext4.
Have decided to take the plunge to reset my computer (because Windows Store would not open). Booted from the installation disk but cannot Reset or Refresh, I get "The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again."
When I tried to reset my laptop, it read "could not find the files needed". mine is an Acer aspire V5, it didn't came with an installation disc or media, i know it should have a hidden partition for recovery, but i think the system is having trouble with it. i think a malware might have done this, i got malware bytes, I tried norton online scan and eset online scan, but did not detect any. before this, i experienced my firefox browser icon on the taskbar progressing a download but cant see anything on downloads tab, i closed firefox several times, but it continued everytime i opened firefox, and it did finished its download.
Later i noticed explorer.exe is always having an established connection in TCPview, without me opening any apps. so i thought i really need to reset the computer, but this is my problem. I've already run Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth restore health on command prompt, but it showed no integrity violation.
I have an Acer Aspire M7710 which I installed Windows 8 on.
I wanted to use the reset windows option under the advanced settings option. After selecting the reset option it said it would reboot. This was about 5 hours ago and all I have had is a black screen.
Eventually I powered off my computer after 4 hours waiting as something seemed wrong. When I powered my PC back on I get nothing, just a black screen again.
I thought I would just boot from the Windows 8 dvd and reinstall but for some reason I can't boot from dvd anymore.
I googled around looking for option how I could enter my bios or change the boot order for cd/dvd but I can't get any keyboard shortcuts to let me boot from dvd or enter the bios.
I have an Asus gaming laptop that I got off of Craigslist awhile back. It did not come with any factory disks. I'm trying to do a factory reset and it says "Some files are missing. Your Windows installation or recovery media will provide these files." But I don't have any recovery media.
I upgraded the O/S to Windows 8 Pro from Standard in order to use the WMC and now the Sleep mode doesn't behave as before. How to reset it back to the factory settings? The Windows 8 RESET function under the Control panel returns it back to a fresh copy of Windows 8 Pro and not Windows 8 Standard. I also see a recovery partition on its Hard Drive.
