I had a version of Windows 8 installed on a secondary hard drive for testing purposes. When I no longer needed it, I uninstalled it and formatted the hard drive. What's odd is that the Bootloader for Windows 8 is still there, and throws up an error screen saying it can't find critical system files.
Ive tried restoring the MBR using my Win7 disc, but to no avail.
I have Windows 8.1 installed and then I installed Windows 7 afterward and now the system is using the Windows 7 bootloader as opposed to the Windows 8.1 bootloader. What I want to do is get set the Windows 8.1 as the default bootloader.
View 4 Replies View RelatedSo I'm using linux on my hp laptop where was previously windows 8. I have made backup of Windows 8 with HP recovery manager on a dvd and completely formated hdd. Now I want to install windows 8 but only on external hdd. I have tried using official windows 8 iso but it says that my key cannot be used to install retail version of Windows 8.
View 2 Replies View RelatedSo i have a 12 duo, and it has been acting slow lately and i figured it is time to bring it back to its younger days. I tried doing the reset within windows 8, but it asked for installation/recovery media, which i don't have. And i know what you're thinking, just use the recovery partition. No can do... it is gone. I do not remember getting rid of it but anyways, its not an option. I tried creating a recovery usb via this link but my key did not work for retail versions. What can I do?
View 4 Replies View RelatedMy daughter brought her Gateway NE71B laptop to me because it was running like a snail. She had NO anti-virus software so I plugged in an external HDD and created what I thought was a Recovery Partition. When I had the computer boot to the external drive I tried the auto repair twice and failed both times.
When I tried to recover from the external drive I got an error message that said I/O error that could be caused by the fact that a portable device needed to be plugged in to continue.
Didn't know what to do so I unplugged the drive and tried again. No bootable devices found. Plugged the external drive back in and got the same I/O error. So I thought I'd just order the recovery media from Gateway. The day it arrived, I put the System Recovery disk in, It booted to the recovery screen with 3 options; Full recovery (original factory setup), Full recovery after removing data and Exit. I've tried both the first 2 options and up pops a window that says; Recovery must be done in Legacy Mode.
So I changed the bios from UEFI to legacy, restarted the computer with the Sys. Disk still in DVD tray, It start to load the recovery screen and up pops a window that says; Recovery Can Only Be Done In UEFI Mode.
If I were to guess, I would say I have an MBR virus and it's playing tricks with me. I've ordered a new identical hard drive to install when it arrives and hope to be able to get the recovery media to get back to normal.
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.
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?
View 6 Replies View RelatedIs it possible to upgrade from Windows 8 32bit to Windows 8 x64bit or trick the PC into thinking its x64bit so I can install x64bit programs
View 3 Replies View RelatedAny way yet to upgrade Windows 8 to 8.1 doing an in-place upgrade so no applications, drivers, etc. have to be re-installed? I know installations will be able to do in-place upgrades using the Windows Store but I've only seen activations regarding complete-wipe upgrades. I'm not particularly worried about activation at this point since I know I'll be able to activate on 8.1...but actually doing the in-place upgrade is what I'm wondering about right now.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI changed my new HP laptop to windows 8 yesterday. love the OS except when i try to type. the cursor moves all over the place, stalls and sometimes even disappear. this didnt happen with windows 7 at all. i know there is a touchpad issue. i have disabled the touchpad (i use a wireless use) and it came back on. i then removed the driver for the touchpad and it still works. i have resorted to downloading a program that "locks" the touchpad when the keyboard is used and none of these have worked. four times while writing this i have had keyboard issues.
View 1 Replies View RelatedCan folders be placed on the Start Screen? I would like to keep little-used legacy programs and their files as well as little-used Metro programs in folders on the Start Screen.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI'm wanting to upgrade my laptop to Windows 8. I currently have Ubuntu 12.10 installed alongside Windows 7. I've had a lot of trouble getting ubuntu installed and working (AMD graphics ) so I'd like to just leave that as is.
Is it possible to just install windows 8 over W7 in the same partition? How do I go about doing that? Is it as straight forward as just putting the disk in or is the whole secure boot thing going to cause issues? I want to do a clean install rather than using the upgrade assistant to install Windows 8 over W7.
I have 2 identical HP i5 desktops running 8.1 which was updated from 8. I want to put a cloned drive from computer A in the other computer B so they will appear identical with all the apps etc. I am told that I will get a configuration error in computer B because the product key in BIOS won't match. Will the computer even run with this error to allow me to fix it? I am told to get a toolkit called the Microsoft toolkit which allows extraction and insertion of keys. I think that approach would let me make computer B product key be the same as A. But in doing this I would lose the valid key in computer B. I would like to change the product key in the cloned drive to be correct for computer B.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI've decided to go ahead and reinstall w8pro given my extensive messing around with it has finally caused some quirky, unexpected results - it's a relatively new installation, so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle, didn't get a chance to install a lot of third party programs and such. The thing is, I did purchase and install the Windows 8 media center pack - how do i go about getting this back? do i have to contact ms? I'm fairly certain that i don't have an activation number for the pack, if i recall i just paid for it online and then was allowed to download it and install it.
Also, i thought i would go ahead and do a clean install all over again as opposed to a reset or refresh given i want to make certain that i'm starting from scratch again... or do you think a reset or refresh might be the better option (i'm not concerned about keeping any personal settings or files intact).
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
Since a few days, I owned a new WeTab to play around with different tablet operating systems.
I'd like to install Windows 8, Android and Ubuntu in parallel and use the new GUI bootloader from Win8 to choose what to boot.
I started with installing Win8 and installed EasyBCD to modify the bootloader. A little test configuration shows the correct function of it.
When I start to intstall Android the fist time, everything was fine, but after installing ubunto the Windows 8 Bootloader turnd from GUI to text mode.
also
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
common Win8DVD repairoptions
can switch back to GUI mode
is there a trick to get the GUI back, because without Keyboard on the tablet it's quite hard to select an option :)
Ad. Info:
WeTab with 80GB SSD, 2GB RAM
Partition:
sda1 ntfs 350MB Windows Bootloader
sda2 ntfs 20GB Windows Partition
sda3 ext2 200MB /boot for Ubuntu
sda4 extended partition
sda5 swap 4GB /swap for Ubuntu
sda6 ext4 20GB / for Ubuntu
sda7 ext3 4GB / for Android
Destroyed bootloader?
bootrec /fixmbr and /fixboot do nothing in my case
I have the blue win 8 bootloader with my os's but this is what it says when I choose Ubuntu
View 3 Replies View RelatedI have recently Dual Booted my Computer with Win 7, XP and Windows 8.1.
I now cannot boot into Windows 8.1
I installed Easy BCD and was able to make a bootloader but i can only boot into Win 7 and XP
I have removed a Linux Distro from my dual boot, it was running GRUB2 as the bootloader and now I need to repair windows to get the bootloader fixed and overwrite GRUB with the normal loader.
However for whatever reason, it is notoriously difficult to do this without a disc or having made a backup drive within windows before things went tits up.
Is there a simple way to install a recovery disc onto a USB, boot from USB and then repair?
I have a Lenovo S10-3t convertible touch tablet/netbook that I am creating a multiboot scenario for.
To cover all the details, here are my disks and my partition setup.
640GB HDD as the primary drive
32GB SDCard as the secondary drive.
Primary HDD has these partitions:
MBR PARTITION SCHEME
Partition 1: Windows 8 Pro 64-bit (492.33GB) NTFS, with Win 8 bootloader
Partition 2: Mac OS X Snow Leopard (79.28GB) HFS+ Journaled, with standalone mini-chameleon bootloader
Partition 3: Linux Mint 15 64-bit (23.28GB) EXT4 Journaled, with GRUB2 on this same partition
Partition 4 (in extended partition): Linux Swap (1.27GB) ...swap space
The SDCard has these partitions:
MBR PARTITION SCHEME
Partition 1: Dedicated to ReadyBoost (5GB) FAT32
Partition 2: Android x86 4.2.2 (24.84GB) EXT3, legacy GRUB SHOULD be in the MBR of this disk
I am using the Windows 8 graphical bootloader to manage everything, as it is a touch-screen tablet, and I like having the touch support for the bootloader. So I would PREFER to use it if possible.
I have currently added entries for OSX Snow Leopard and Linux Mint Olivia to the Windows 8 boot manager, and all three OSes chainload properly to their respective bootloaders and are happy with each other.
Is it possible to chainload the Legacy GRUB bootloader in the EXT3 partition on the SD Card that has Android on it with the Windows 8 Bootloader? And, if so, will you walk me through this process?
There's a couple of reasons...as this is a touch screen tablet I would prefer the convenience of having an option to boot Android from the touch-enabled Windows 8 Boot Manager instead of having to fold the screen away from the keyboard, press FN+F11 and selecting the SD Card as the primary boot device every time I want to go into Android. I could have android on a fifth partition on my HDD, but one of the reasons for having Android on flash memory is BECAUSE I have a mechanical HDD, and I use Android if I'm actively moving the laptop around in a rough environment (say, walking or in a moving vehicle for example, and the HDD would be off since it isn't needed). I know I could use an SSD, but I prefer having a mechanical HDD in my laptop for my own reasons.
I am using a combination of VisualBCDEditor and EasyBCD, and I cannot get either to see or acknowledge the existence of the EXT3 partition on the SDCard (though they all see the EXT4 and HFS+ volumes on the primary HDD, and the FAT32 partition on the SDCard...)
I tried to install ubuntu 13.04 x86 on my 16 GB flash drive using the pendrive program. When i restarted my laptop and selected boot from usb drive i then selected install ubuntu on my dva2 using ext4 and "/" on mount. After finishing the process i restarted my laptop and i was keep booting in ubuntu os without even asking me if i wanted to boot in windows. I then removed usb from laptop and the only os that exists is ubuntu. The only thing i noticed is that in the partitioning menu earlier where i selected the 16 GB flash drive, it also said Windows 8 loader next to it something that was a bit strange since my windows was installed on my 240 Gb ssd. I enter in ubuntu without usb and i can see all my files from windows desktop. Is there any possible way to recover my windows?
View 9 Replies View RelatedI have a new XPS L521X that came with Windows 8. I hate Windows 8 so I decided to install a generic copy of Windows 7 the other day. I'm now having issues with Windows 7 and would like to factory restore the system, but since windows 7 overwrote the MBR, I am not able to access the Dell recovery. The hard drive still has the PBR Image partition, I just don't know how to boot from it. How I can boot into the Dell recovery and restore back to Windows 8? Is there some sort of UEFI boot option I can just add in the BIOS?
View 11 Replies View RelatedI have (perhaps I should say had) a multi-boot system. Originally I installed my 6 Windows OS's and then installed my two favorite Linux distros. I like the ability to customize the Grub menu which Linux gives me. Unfortunately Grub did not detect all 6 of my Windows installations but one of the boot options it did detect took me back into my original Windows menu which showed all 6 of the Windows systems. So that's the setup which I have been using successfully for the past few months. (One boot menu which boots into another). Today my Windows boot menu has become unusable and probably corrupt.
At first I had the problem that I was only able to boot into Windows 8.1 (no windows menu at all). Then I used EasyBCD which I had inside Windows 8.1 At first EasyBCD indicated an inability to load any boot file at all. Subsequently after rebooting into 8.1 a few times more I tried it again. It then showed a boot menu but with only Windows 8.1 listed. I subsequently was able to use the add operating system function to add all the other Windows systems again. I then clicked save to save the new configuration. Now I do see all six Windows systems at boot but neither of them, even Windows 8.1 will boot. Where I should start to get back into one of these six Windows operating systems so that I can possible use the EasyBCD repair function to access the others. I think I had EasyBCD installed inside each Windows OS At the moment I am dependent on Linux alone for Internet access. I trust this is clear.
As nothing in Linux has changed, I assume I need to fix the problem from the Windows side of things. I do have that one option when I get into that blue Windows 8 style boot menu to "change options" I thought EasyBCD would have restored the Windows 7 style text boot menu but it did not. Other than that I have the various Windows installation disks and a Win7 repair disk as well as various full partition backups on an external hard drive. What do do about a corrupt bcd file without being inside Windows, and I don't know much about EasyBCD. Would a refresh/reset of Win 8.1 from the install disk be a good way to start? I did get the message of "files missing" when I tried to do a system recovery drive while inside Windows 8.1 today, so there are issues with that OS.
when I installed it (Windows 8 32 Bit DP), I now don't have the option to select Linux on my Boot (Linux Wubi Desktop 10.10) and with Windows 7 I did.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have a Dell XPS 8500 win 8.1. I recently installed Linux Mint 17 on an external HD which booted from GRUB. I now removed Mint 17 ok but I'm left with a reference to 'UBUNTU' in my bootloader. I'm unable to remove this reference. this reference to UBUNTU prevents me from booting from a LINUX USB. I think I need to repair the bootloader but can't and I have tried all sorts of.....FIXBOOT, FIXMBR. etc.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI have just bought an AIO Asus desktop with 1 Tb of storage. The c: (Windows)drive is allocated 100gb and the d: drive 931gb. I just want to transfer all the data from my old computer. This was pretty much all in the folder c:>Users>Myname, but when I try to transfer it all into the same folder on the new computer, obviously with 100gb there is not enough space.
View 2 Replies View RelatedIf 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.
I am trying to create recovery discs from "Dell backup and Recovery application" however when i was asked to insert the second DVD,the optical drive keeps rejecting the DVD. The application will not continue to burn the second DVD and appears to be frozen. I tried with different brands/makers of DVD and also -/+ R. Unfortunately .Issue remains. I was able to find this article 593906 Published on 2013-01-21 ( relative link [URL]... ).
Although i have done the updates ,i am still not able to create recovery discs !! Current Issue: after inserting the 3rd Disc application gives the following message "Dbr.exe -No disc found" and stays there and rejects the DVD. I spoke with Dell's Greek Support team. I was told that warranty does not cover sw support even if my unit is less than a week old. Furthermore i was informed that although "Dell backup and recovery" application says DELL is not actually a Dell product thus they can't support it. They suggested my to use windows 7 file recovery instead (which needs at least 8 DVDs !).
(Model : inspiron 15 3521) .
I purchased that HP came with windows 8 installed with a product key. I recently purchased a samsung 120GB SSD and wish to install my windows 8 onto the SSD and leave the HD as just a storage drive. When I purchased the computer it came with windows 8 installed and no installation CD. How do I go about obtaining an installation CD, or do I even need one to install it onto my new SSD.
View 7 Replies View RelatedI would like to see my pictures made with my Canon 40D (.CR2) as thumbnails instead of photoshop icons. windows 7 or windows 8 updates aren't working....
are there any Camera RAW plugins for Win8.1 allready ?
I would like to have native Windows plugins, no IrfanView or something.....
