[NUTTER123]

Was wondering if anybody could help me with this 1. I've made a slight oopsie with a new system and want to restore to previous vista install. No biggie. According to the piece of paper I got in front of me it says that at startup I should be able to press F8 and see a menu called advanced options with a option to repair my PC but I can't see that option? I only see the safe mode, safe ode with command prompt and all of that. I'm pretty sure I have a vista restore partition infact I know as I saw it on there the other day. It's a zoostorm system. This 1 as it happens:

This post has been edited by Tripredacus: 08 November 2010 - 08:45 AM
Reason for edit: removed link

[jaclaz]

NO.
F8 is a "windows internal" function.

To access a Recovery partition you are generally prompted before and key combo's like ALT+F10 are used.

In some cases you have to enter the BIOS to enable the Recovery partition.

The link you posted is not valid, please re-post it.

Post also EXACT make/model and possibly a link to the manufacturer site.

jaclaz

[Yzöwl]

Not that it makes any difference, but I think it must be one of the three here.

This post has been edited by Tripredacus: 08 November 2010 - 08:46 AM

[NUTTER123]

This should be the correct link?

www.greatuniversal.com/rf/gus/p.do?...&SNu=pca_id

The manufacturer's website is:

http://www.zoostorm.com (Be advised though it's not helpful as the site still says coming soon)

I'll expand a bit more. I wanted to restore my system back to default. I have a winRE section on my hard disk. The sheet of paper says clearly after the initial switch on (i.e. first screen) after that when it's saying boot from CD or whatever you should press F8 and you should have a list of options coming up on screen and top option should be "Repair my PC" But I don't have that. I can only see safe mode, safe mode with command prompt etc etc. I think I might have to use something called winPE or WAIK? but I looked up the instructions last night and it seems complicated. I managed to restore my system with a original vista home premium disk (which I found down the side of my bed) but it is genuine. Would save me a lot of trouble in future if I could get my option back.

This post has been edited by Tripredacus: 08 November 2010 - 08:47 AM

[Yzöwl]

Looking around the net it appears that you're not the only one having this problem, many customers appear to not have the menu options as you describe. Have you even got a Windows Vista/Recovery DVD?

You will need to contact Zoostorm, but your first port of call should be Great Universal, who will very likely provide you with a direct Zoostorm contact number etc.

[NUTTER123]

I've got a Vista DVD. Home premium (even if it's pre service pack 1) There's a number for zoostorm on the universal website so I'll give them a call on monday and take it from there. Don't get me wrong the system's great so far but the option for easy recovery in the future would be brilliant and a lot less time consuming.

[jaclaz]

It is very possible that zoomstorm uses a "proprietary" MBR, like the ones discussed here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...108515&st=0
from what you write it seems like the system is the same as used on Dell's and poossibly what's in the thread may help you.
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...08515&st=40

It is also possible that in the past some utility, like Partition Magic, MBRFIX, MBRWIZ, or any of the other ones has been (inadvertedly? ) run and the "proprietary" MBR has been replaced by a "standard" one.

Each manufacturer/OEM has his own ways to manage the Recovery Partition, some have a tweaked BIOS, some use encrypted files or proprietary formats....it's a mess.

If you already re-installed from a "normal" Vista CD/DVD and you repartitioned/reformatted, it is possible that the "proprietary" MBR is gone for good, and your only way out is the manufacturer, or is it possible that they used MS tools only and using the tools mentioned in the given post you can re-create the "good" MBR.

jaclaz

[NUTTER123]

I'm downloading the WAIK image file as I speak. (still 2 hours to go) and I'll definety look at they threads in a bit. Just to add too I didn't do a full reformat (booted into my hard disk via ERD 2008 and deleted certain folders) I reinstalled after that though. Never reaprtitioned or anything like that.

This post has been edited by NUTTER123: 17 January 2009 - 07:50 AM

[NUTTER123]

OK thanks to your links and following instructions on that site jackz I've got the option to repair my computer again via F8 startup (not sure if I should have used a SP1 image as the recovery is all SP1 and I have a home premium DVD without SP1) Now when I type recover though I get recover filename path I think it was. As far as I know my winRE partition is E drive.

[NUTTER123]

Thanks to Dell. I've fixed my problem by myself.

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/1900...9.aspx#19126869

I read the imagex part and in the end I went into the command prompt via the windows DVD and altered that line to my image in my e folder. I'm now restoring my system to as it was when I started wednesday. I am a happy bunny.

[jaclaz]

GOOD.

Happy bunnies:


are much better than a depressed one :
 cadburys3.jpeg (6.8K)
Number of downloads: 1

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 23 May 2012 - 08:29 AM

[NUTTER123]

jaclaz, on Jan 19 2009, 01:05 PM, said:

GOOD.

Happy bunnies:


are much better than a depressed one :


jaclaz

LOL. So true. The only prob i've got now well I reformatted my HD for a start but due to E: being hidden that's obviously safe and was untouched. The repair my PC option now just boots me into windows normally without giving me access to the possible recovery option but still I've worked out how to as I said get it up and running. Not totally 100% but at least I have the knowledge to restart totally if I'm ever stuck in the future.

[jengitsme]

Very happy Bunny now!!!
HD, repaired!!!



Thanks Jaclaz!

[afrin]

My not so happy bunny, my drive is still dead



Will try again !

[Schiiwa]

I have a relatedproblems and i´m still a sad bunny ^^

I read so much "blah blah FixMBR blah blah FDISK /MBR blah blah". I know these Commands but they just reset the MBR to default. So i decided to write to a dignified forum with professional bunnies, even thou i am not that professional!



Problem 1: FSC-Fault!?

I have here a fujitsu siemens Laptop with a Recovery-Partition (look the attachments).

Testdisk says "Bad relative sector". When i scanned with WinHEX, there was a massage about a sektor at the end, which don´t exist! I think there is a error in the Partition-Table, but don´t know how to fix, because there is a eisa-konfiguration, which is not that clear for me. I think siemens didn´t a good job here, because when two working-partitions "C: System" and "D: Data" were nearly full, the system freezed. I could indentify the file, which freezed the system when i wanted to chance anything at this file (eg. deleting it). BTW it was a MP3-File with 10 MB. I think the system had tried to access to the Sector, which doesn´t exist. So that is the first problem!!! But i don´t want to destroy more. I had evoked one problem yet, thats enough. This Problem will follow as "Problem 2: My Fault"

So far the recovery went fine apart from the fact, that it was not passible to install servicepack1 after restoring. As i explored the laptop the first tim about a month ago, there was no SP installed. The problem is an out-of-date-windows-image from the Recovery-Partition (from 2006)! When the ServicePack1-installation was completed, the system still booted, but wasn´t to use, because of RAM-problems. Maybe i should updated it before installing SP1 ... But not sure. Before installing SP1, i removed MSWORX, NORTON I-NET-SEC, ACRBBAT READER AND FSC-Tool for diagnostics. The behavour after that where strange too.


So i decidet to Install from a SP2-Integrated DVD.

Problem 2: My Fault:
Now, the Recovery option "COMPUTER REPARIEREN (repair computer) isn´t available after re-pressing F8 @ boot process. I thought, WINDOWS VISTA wouldn´t overwrite an well-oiled MBR, but it did didn´t it? I should have backuped the MBR!
I read something about BCDEDIT, but i don´t have the heart to do anything more, because i had a lot of work (recovering the SYSTEM about 4 times, scanning the HDD about 20 hours, installing programms and so on). Now i have a well-working vista on it, and don´t want to destroy that!

---> Is there an easy whay to add the "Repair Computer"-option to the F8-Menü, which boot´s the WinRE partition? If yes, please Step-by-Step

I think it works with BCDEDIT, but how!

Additional Information:
I grew up with DOS, then came win95, which is based on DOS. There the boot-up is simple (works or don´t works) and the boot menu was in Config.sys and Autoexec.bat But now, with windows Vista, which is preinstalled on this laptop, its a little bit more complex. I am really interessted in understanding the boot-process. the followings things i THINK TO KNOW:

- @Windows XP there is alittle partition about 8 MB which is nessecary for booting
- @Windows XP NTLDR is the boot-loader. This file is placed at the first sector
- The MBR contains the partitiontable, the boot-loader and some unimortant things like signatures and is 512 bytes (the first sector)!
- @Vista the BOOTMGR is the boot-loader. This file is placed at the first sector! But Windows says, that it is about 333,xxx bytes


The Scan with WinHex didn´t finished. I scanned before I RECOVERED the SYSTEM (The System was really jam-packed with lot of unused trash like AOL, T-ONLINE, OPEN OFFICE besides MS WORKS and MS OFFICE and much more), but after about an or two hours it froze, even though i booted the Windows XPE from CD. I will try it again, now i have a really nice-running windows vista, which is up-to-date.


The Hardware is OK. The RAM is testet overnight with zero errors.
The FSC_OTS and WINRE partition are untouched. The red-marked file at the bottom in the picture "Fat32 FSC_OTS-Partition Few Files2nd.jpg" is not deleted by me (I guess red-marked means DELETED, not sure). But this red entry was there from the beginning and recovery went well anyway!
The first PIC says, that the boot-partition is "C: SYSTEM" the second says "WINRE" marked with the *. Isn´t testdisk compatible with vista? I can remember, that it asked me to search for partitions created by vista, but now, testdisk doesn´t prompt that I will compare the Partition-Table with Winhex´s Part-Table ^^


See you later bunnies

Attached File(s)

•  1. Screen TestDisk.jpg (43.67K)
  Number of downloads: 28
•  2. Screen TestDisk.jpg (50.42K)
  Number of downloads: 27
•  Fat32 FSC_OTS-Partition Few-Files.jpg (66.29K)
  Number of downloads: 19
•  NTFS WinRE-Partition Files.jpg (57.95K)
  Number of downloads: 16

[jaclaz]

It's not very clear (to me at least) what are the actual problem/questions.

I can give you for sure that the partition table on that drive looks like having been manually made by someone extracting Bingo numbers (or using several sets of dices) instead of rationally and logically putting together senceful numbers.

Some more BAD news for you, most of what you think to know is either inaccurate, or incomplete or plainly wrong

Schiiwa, on 23 December 2010 - 01:18 PM, said:

I grew up with DOS, then came win95, which is based on DOS. There the boot-up is simple (works or don´t works) and the boot menu was in Config.sys and Autoexec.bat But now, with windows Vista, which is preinstalled on this laptop, its a little bit more complex. I am really interessted in understanding the boot-process. the followings things i THINK TO KNOW:

- @Windows XP there is alittle partition about 8 MB which is nessecary for booting
- @Windows XP NTLDR is the boot-loader. This file is placed at the first sector
- The MBR contains the partitiontable, the boot-loader and some unimortant things like signatures and is 512 bytes (the first sector)!
- @Vista the BOOTMGR is the boot-loader. This file is placed at the first sector! But Windows says, that it is about 333,xxx bytes

Namely:

• there is NO "need" (and I actually never seen) "a little partition about 8 Mb needed for booting".
  
• the first sector of a partition is the PBR or bootrecord there is NO need for NTLDR to be anywhere specifically in the filesystem (though some versions may need to be in the first 8 Gb ( maybe you are mistaking with DOS before version 7.x, where IO.SYS had to be first file in the partition )
  
• the booting of a NT/2K/XP/2003 happens with THREE (or in some now rare cases four) files:
  
  • NTLDR <. the actual bootloader
    
  • BOOT.INI <- the configuration file for the bootloader, a simple text file
    
  • NTDETECT:COM <- the detector of hardware that loads necessary drivers in protected mode
    
  • NTBOOTDD.SYS <- optional Mass Storage device for SCSI drives (or however for drive cards with extension ROM)
  
  
• The MBR contains the IPL CODE, the partition table DATA and the Disk Signature (and NOTHING else), the IPL code laods the bootsector of the Active (boot) partition)
  
• then there are normally (not in your queer partitioning ) 62 empty sectors, so-called hidden sectors - these on "unpatched Vista/7/2008 become 2047 - for alignement to 4 Kb size - default now
  
• then there is the bootsector or PBR of first partition (which starts at the first sector of the partition, and may be - depending on filesystem - one or more sectors long
  
• The booting of Vista /7/Server 2008 happens with THREE files:
  
  • BOOTMGR <- the actual bootloader
    
  • \boot\BCD <- the configuration file for BOTOMGR, a binary file using the same format of a Registry Hive
    
  • WINLOAD.EXE <- the actual OS loader

You may want to spend some time on this:
http://web.archive.o...part/primer.htm
and this:
http://thestarman.pc.../mbr/index.html
and this:
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/

in order to update and "fix" what you think you know.


Then, you may come back here and try explaining better the problem/issue you are currently having.
Or is the problem just that you have now a "standard" MBR instead of the original Fujitsu-Siemens one?

Just as was discussed for the Dell of the OP, it is very possible that the Fujitsu Siemens uses a "peculiar" MBR CODE.
Which EXACT model is that? (maybe with the model we can find the iutility that contains the "custom" MBR).

The fact that it has a WINRE partition should however mean that the setup is not very different from this one:
http://www.goodells....store/vista.htm
(and the F8 has nothing to do with the MBR)
This is the "normal" way to create a WinRE environment on HD:
http://www.svrops.co.../winvistare.htm
http://blogs.msdn.co...-hard-disk.aspx

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 24 December 2010 - 11:24 AM

[Tripredacus]

jaclaz, on 24 December 2010 - 07:58 AM, said:

there is NO "need" (and I actually never seen) "a little partition about 8 Mb needed for booting".

Finally, something I learned in college I can apply in real life!

I have seen ONE operating system that required a small partition (like 8MB perhaps) in order to boot. That is because said operating system wasn't an operating system at all, it is a shell. You know it, Novell sold NetWare Server 4 (and lower) as an "Operating System" but actually the setup required you to create two partitions. One very small partition (maybe 8MB if you like) where you install... DOS! Then of course you install NetWare in the second, larger partition. PC would boot, load up DOS, launch a program that started NetWare up. This was true for Netware 3 to 4.1, not sure about 4.11. Refs:
http://en.wikipedia....ategic_mistakes
http://www.myboogpag...-on-vmware.html

[jaclaz]

Tripredacus, on 24 December 2010 - 11:22 AM, said:

[I have seen ONE operating system that required a small partition (like 8MB perhaps) in order to boot.

Sure , we were talking of Windows XP, though.

jaclaz

[Schiiwa]

When i was partitioning with xp the full amount on XP, there was another 8MB partition.. Maybe it was unallocated 8MB... but there where always 2 lines. but not 100% sure

jaclaz, on 24 December 2010 - 07:58 AM, said:

It's not very clear (to me at least) what are the actual problem/questions.

Actual Problem:
Before installing Vista from DVD
When i chose "repair computer", the normal recovery-menu (like when booting Vista DVD and choosing "REPAIR COMPUTER") came up, but at the bottom, another option
was "Fujitsu Recovery Tool", where i could write the image (i guess *.WIM-image) to the "C: SYSTEM" Partition!
After installing Vista from DVD
- The Option "REPAIR COMPUTER" isn´t available at the boot-menu any more, in which u get when pressing frequently F8

jaclaz, on 24 December 2010 - 07:58 AM, said:

(and the F8 has nothing to do with the MBR)

...

\boot\BCD <- the configuration file for BOTOMGR, a binary file using the same format of a Registry Hive

...

The MBR contains the IPL CODE, the partition table DATA and the Disk Signature (and NOTHING else), the IPL code laods the bootsector of the Active (boot) partition)

That would stand for
- that the file "\boot\bcd" has to be edit
- that the MBR is in factory-state (because u said the mbr has nothing to do with the F8-Options and i didn´t change the MBR manually)

-----> that why i wrote, that i think it has done with BCDedit ... but don´t know the syntax even don´t if this is the solution

- I want to know, how to restore this option to understand the Vista-boot-process (where did the "REPAIR COMPUTER"-option took his information? From another Partition?

jaclaz, on 24 December 2010 - 07:58 AM, said:

Which EXACT model is that? (maybe with the model we can find the iutility that contains the "custom" MBR).

The Problem-Laptop of my girlfriend:
- "SIEMENS FUJITSU COMPUTERS AMILO PI1505"
- Vista is currently running

jaclaz, on 24 December 2010 - 07:58 AM, said:

Just as was discussed for the Dell of the OP, it is very possible that the Fujitsu Siemens uses a "peculiar" MBR CODE.
Which EXACT model is that? (maybe with the model we can find the iutility that contains the "custom" MBR).

Don´t want to restore Dell´s MBR, before beeing sure its working. Or can u tell me a Windows-based programm to backup and restore currently MBR? But however I would be worried about using Dell´s tool, because would be possible to apply some more changes! ---> REMEMBER: The Vista SP2, I installed from DVD, runs fine!

jaclaz, on 24 December 2010 - 07:58 AM, said:

I can give you for sure that the partition table on that drive looks like having been manually made by someone extracting Bingo numbers (or using several sets of dices) instead of rationally and logically putting together senceful numbers.

- Nobody changed somethin @ the partitions (That boched FSC!!!) --> thats why I never would by a siemens because of such problems (remember: After recovery no SP working)



You´re right, i should spend some time on your posted threads...after i posted my 1st post, i already was on this site: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/

i just read a post in another forum, maybe this would work

Backup the RUNNING C: partition to a DVD (JUST FOR ME FOR RESTORING MANUALLY)

simply copy the wim-file to "d: data")

Boot from the Vista DVD
Go to repair my windows

Click continue or next

Then go to DOS prompt..

At the DOS prompt. type:
E: (or whatever your DVD drive shows up as)
cd tools
imagex /apply d:\blahblah.wim 1 c:\


You will see the prosess start, wait until it finishes.. and the program will return (success)

Type:
EXIT (to close the DOS window.)

Press:
repair startup
and continue until it finishes
The PC will reboot




but i don´t like this solution. I want to have the recovery option "REPAIR COMPUTER" at the present installation of Vista SP2, that my girlfriend can recover from the original WinRE partition (in case she isn´t my girlfriend anymore .
If i managed this, i will do a complete RAW-Image of the complete HDD.
Then i will partition the HDD senceful and not as u said:

jaclaz, on 24 December 2010 - 07:58 AM, said:

I can give you for sure that the partition table on that drive looks like having been manually made by someone extracting Bingo numbers (or using several sets of dices) instead of rationally and logically putting together senceful numbers.

This post has been edited by Schiiwa: 25 December 2010 - 06:07 AM

[Schiiwa]

Here you can see the content of my WinRE partition

in the root there are 3 files, which could be important, but don´t know, if i can simply copy for example BCD to my System-partition

\Boot\Boot.sdi is also there


Additional:
Boot.wim is located In \sources and about 178 MB
Factory.wim is located in \Factory and about 3 GB

In \$#repair there are 2 cmd-scripts:
SetAutoFailover.cmd
$#setWinRE.cmd

Content:
$#setWinRE.cmd
call SetAutoFailover.cmd /target %1 /Wim /Disk %2 /mainos {current}

I think to know some parts of the important things of
SetAutoFailover.cmd are:
...

REM
REM Create WinRE boot entry
REM

%BCDEDIT% -create %WINPE_GUID% -d "Windows Recovery Environment" -application OSLOADER
%BCDEDIT% -set %WINPE_GUID% device partition=%DRIVE%
%BCDEDIT% -set %WINPE_GUID% path %WINRE_ROOT_DIR%\windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
%BCDEDIT% -set %WINPE_GUID% osdevice partition=%DRIVE%
%BCDEDIT% -set %WINPE_GUID% systemroot %WINRE_ROOT_DIR%\windows
%BCDEDIT% -set %WINPE_GUID% detecthal yes
%BCDEDIT% -set %WINPE_GUID% nx optin
%BCDEDIT% -set %WINPE_GUID% winpe yes

...

REM
REM Mark this installation as the recovery OS. This recovery OS identifier
REM will be used by other components to enable/disable auto recovery.
REM
%BCDEDIT% -set %WINPE_GUID% custom:46000010 yes

REM
REM Set the recovery sequence
REM

%BCDEDIT% -set %MAINOS% recoverysequence %WINPE_GUID%
%BCDEDIT% -set %MAINOS% recoveryenabled yes



I Attached the complete script

Greetings... Chris

Attached File(s)

•  SetAutoFailover.cmd (8.98K)
  Number of downloads: 34