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HP Notebook: The recovery partition could not be found


ahmad2080

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It is possible that from that command prompt you cannot access the ROOT of you C:\ drive? :w00t:

Try changing to the D:\ recovery partition and issuing:

DIR /S >C:\Recdir.txt

or try placing the output file on some other place, a USB stick would be allright, but I need to see a complete list with directory structure and filesizes to (maybe :unsure:) understand how the thingy is made together:

DIR /S >X:\Recdir.txt

jaclaz

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It is possible that from that command prompt you cannot access the ROOT of you C:\ drive? :w00t:

Try changing to the D:\ recovery partition and issuing:

DIR /S >C:\Recdir.txt

or try placing the output file on some other place, a USB stick would be allright, but I need to see a complete list with directory structure and filesizes to (maybe :unsure: ) understand how the thingy is made together:

DIR /S >X:\Recdir.txt

jaclaz

jaclaz:

You must have replied while I was editing the post.Check it up again plz.

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Yeah, I hate that "Recovery Partition not found" message.

NOTE: I claim no responsibility as to the consequences if you use the following information. I have no tested these tools on a Soft Thinks partition, only on a Windows PE partition. If you attempt the following, make sure you research how to install a standard MBR in case it becomes damaged with these tools.

There may be yet another option, and that would be to use the steps I had done in my Recovery Partition project. It requires the use of MBR.EXE, which isn't the same as MBRInst.exe. It is available on Terrabyte Unlimited's website. This is what needs to be done.

The MBR.exe needs to be put in the root of the recovery partition. You also need it in the root of the C drive. You run this command first from the MBR.exe on C. You can run it from Windows.

mbe.exe 0 1 /H

This sets the recovery partition to be hidden (as it should be)

mbr.exe 0 /install selm 10 11 "Press F11 for recovery" 0xC 0x1C

the 11 and F11 in the above line can be another number. They must equal each other.

You can now restart the computer. Press F11 and it should try to boot into the recovery partition. If it fails, you will get a standard error message like operating system not found, etc. If this happens then this method will not work for you. If you cannot boot into Windows after a fail, you need to run the command below somehow, via NTFSDOS or a PE CD.

If you are able to boot into the recovery partition, you must run another command before you can boot into Windows again. And that is:

mbr.exe 0 /reset

The reason is when you press F11, the recovery partition becomes Active and the C drive (may) become hidden.

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Tripredacus:

Let me first ask a question before trying that on the softhinks partition:

Is the problem that I have completly related to the MBR?

Is the MBR the primary reason why Softhinks can't see the partition?

I got in contact with HP online chat & with HP E-mail service but both didn't help.

they just keep saying that I have to buy the disks if I need them. I tried to make them tell me how to solve the problem technically but the only result was getting me on my nerves.

When I was chatting with their technican explaining the whole problem, I realized that I forgot to say (here in MSFN) that I once (before Partition magic and HP tool) executed the Recovery Disk creation and it showed how many DVD's I needed. At that time I didn't have the required empty DVD's so I simply exited the program.

The HP technican told me that the program was designed to be executed and burn DVD's only one time.

I don't beleive the 'one time execution' part, but let's assume that this is right. Then the problem of creating disks has nothing to do with PM & HP tool (Maybe they only affected the F11 function at start up)

If that is correct then MBR programs won't solve the problem. Right?

So if anyone tried to execute the Recovery disk creation twice and succeeded to reach the page where it tells how many DVD's are required, it'll make me sure that the problem cause is the MBR. Then I'll proceed Tripredacus's idea.

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The HP technican told me that the program was designed to be executed and burn DVD's only one time.

I don't beleive the 'one time execution' part, but let's assume that this is right. Then the problem of creating disks has nothing to do with PM & HP tool (Maybe they only affected the F11 function at start up)

If that is correct then MBR programs won't solve the problem. Right?

So if anyone tried to execute the Recovery disk creation twice and succeeded to reach the page where it tells how many DVD's are required, it'll make me sure that the problem cause is the MBR. Then I'll proceed Tripredacus's idea.

I am thinking it's probably the MBR. What bit you initially was using PM and allowing it to fiddle with the MBR.

And I believe the HP Technician is wrong! Once you Restore from the Recovery Partition, you are back to Factory Install (just like when you bought it). I did this already on that HP/Compaq I told you about. Resets everything on the recovered OS partition! Therefore, the option to create disks reappears. The sole purpose of creating the Disks is in case your whole HDD is wiped (or something) and you need to Restore (from somewhere). I did that several times as a test scenario (after Ghosting). And I can't honestly remember if the option to recreate the Recovery Partition existed after using the Disk Set (sorry...).

Your main problem seems to be (right now) getting booted into the Recovery Partition.

edit - and FWIW, if you used PM, then maybe you have PTEDIT (Partition Table Editor), although I don't know if it would help or not...

basic info on PTEDIT (now owned by Symantec) -

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/power...004063693751462

another tidbit (and ptedit download) -

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/power...src=bar_sch_nam

WARNING! The above info in last link could (probably would) destroy the special HP code (I believe to exist there).

fyi (more or less accurate) - http://www.datarecovery.co.za/partition_types.htm

Edited by submix8c
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@ahmad2080

Yes, we were cross-posting.

I'll have a look at the list.

Can you also check your "normal" partition for the presence of files MBRINST.EXE and MBRINST.INI, and if you find them detail where they are?

@submix8

The second link IS dangerous :w00t:, expecially beacuse it will make you edit the BOOT RECORD of the partition (read bootsector), that has nothing to do with the MBR.

PTEDIT is the DOS version.

PTEDIT32 is the Windows version.

There is a Freeware, beeblebrox, with most of the capabilities of PTEDIT32:

http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/

(but that will leave bootsectors alone) ;)

jaclaz

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And I believe the HP Technician is wrong! Once you Restore from the Recovery Partition, you are back to Factory Install (just like when you bought it). I did this already on that HP/Compaq I told you about. Resets everything on the recovered OS partition! Therefore, the option to create disks reappears.

Maybe the file that says that the recovey disk creation has been execyted lies in the Recovery partition, so it'll be untouched even with a full recovery.

Your main problem seems to be (right now) getting booted into the Recovery Partition.
No, I can set my recovery partition as Active and when I restart I can begin the recovery process.My problem is to make the recovery disk creation software on Vista to see the recovery partition so I can make the recovery disks.
edit - and FWIW, if you used PM, then maybe you have PTEDIT (Partition Table Editor), although I don't know if it would help or not...

basic info on PTEDIT (now owned by Symantec) -

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/power...004063693751462

another tidbit (and ptedit download) -

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/power...src=bar_sch_nam

WARNING! The above info in last link could (probably would) destroy the special HP code (I believe to exist there).

fyi (more or less accurate) - http://www.datarecovery.co.za/partition_types.htm

Thanks for the links but I can't trust symantec any more. It caused all of this trouble.
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Thanks for the links but I can't trust symantec any more. It caused all of this trouble.

To be fair :rolleyes: , it was you that caused the trouble by using improperly a tool, no offence intended :) to you, rest assured, but the guys at Symantec are already busy enough attempting to add some more bloat in the Norton "line" of antivirii that they cannot actually produce some accurate documentation about Powerquest Norton Partition Magic, explaining to the less experienced user that it is a dangerous app if used improperly. :whistling:

jaclaz

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Can you also check your "normal" partition for the presence of files MBRINST.EXE and MBRINST.INI, and if you find them detail where they are?
No, they don't exist in the Normal partition(c:\).

When I said that I was able to log into the recovery partition I was wrong.

When I set the recovery partition as Active (or using F8) I do log into the recovery manager, but when I opened a cmd there I found that I was standing on [X:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32]

Beside the X:\ partition (which is called the boot partition) there are C: & D: (My original partitions)

so the MBRinst.exe file that I showed you was from the boot partition not the recovery partition.

I don't know from where did the boot partition come from and what is its relation to the recovery partition, but I can list all of its contents [alot of .exe &.cmd files].

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Thanks for the links but I can't trust symantec any more. It caused all of this trouble.

To be fair :rolleyes: , it was you that caused the trouble by using improperly a tool, no offence intended :) to you, rest assured, but the guys at Symantec are already busy enough attempting to add some more bloat in the Norton "line" of antivirii that they cannot actually produce some accurate documentation about Powerquest Norton Partition Magic, explaining to the less experienced user that it is a dangerous app if used improperly. :whistling:

jaclaz

mmm, yeah that's fair. So you suggest to use the tool given by submix8c ?

EDIT: The tool that you gave me jaclaz : http://students.cs.byu.edu/~codyb/

is not comaptable with vista.

Edited by ahmad2080
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I don't know from where did the boot partition come from and what is its relation to the recovery partition, but I can list all of its contents [alot of .exe &.cmd files].

Yep, another DIR /S of that would be useful.

It's strange that noone reported this before, (I mean beeblebrox being incompatible with Vista), :unsure: maybe it must be run in some compatibility mode or whatever.

You can try using my MBRbatch, it should work under Vista too, though it's a bit cumbersome:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3191

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5000

However, for the moment there is no need for a partition table editor, since we don't know WHAT to edit. ;)

jaclaz

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Can MBRbatch really fix the whole problem?

EDIT: the DIR /s command on X:\ gave me a 1MB file (about 500 lines) which I can't Upload due to the 200 kb limitation.

Edited by ahmad2080
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Well let's look at the problem now. You've pulled off a full recovery. The original problem was you couldn't get to the recovery and couldn't make the discs. So now we are at the point where you need to make the discs? Or, wait you did say that you lost your function key after doing a recovery?

I want to make sure I understand exactly what is needed at this point. If you can get into the recovery partition, you do not need to use my steps at all.

I wanted to point out, the commands with mbr.exe, they refer to specific things. For example, let's take this:

mbr 0 1 /h

This is MBR (the program) and 0 (is the physical disk number) and 1 (is the partition number) and /h (means hide). Alternatively, there is an /uh which is unhide that could be used.

Now, if HP followed the Best Practices, the recovery partition would be the first partition, and the OS partition would be the second one. OK so I'm going to say if you want to do this step, you're going to need to do some diskpart action. For example:

List Disk

List Vol

List Part

these should give enough information.

As far as the CD burning deal. You execute this app from Windows. It obviously looks somewhere, like a file or a registry entry, to see if it made a CD before. ... I'm not sure if I should continue about that part of this thread...

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Well let's look at the problem now. You've pulled off a full recovery. The original problem was you couldn't get to the recovery and couldn't make the discs. So now we are at the point where you need to make the discs? Or, wait you did say that you lost your function key after doing a recovery?

I want to make sure I understand exactly what is needed at this point. If you can get into the recovery partition, you do not need to use my steps at all.

I'll restate everything to make sure everybody understands everything:

1-Everything works perfectly

2-Executed RecoveryDisk creation but didn't burn the dvds

3-Installed PM --> Recovery partition became invisible.

4-Installed HP tool --> Recovery partition became visible.

5-RecoveryDisk creation software doesn't work (The recovery partition could not be found) & the F11 function key became disabled.

6-Tried some programs to undo all of this.[Acronis,EasyBCD,MBRInst,..]With no +ve results.

7-Used F8(advanced boot loader) to apply a full system recovery, which was done perfectly except an error about MBR--> "MBR string is too long 30 bytes.It should be 16 bytes"

8-Tried the F11 function --> still doesn't work.

9-RecoveryDisk creation software still doesn't work (The recovery partition could not be found)

My condition now:

10-can perform a full sytem recovery using F8(advanced boot loader) then "Repair my computer" then "Recovery manager"

11- F11 at start up doesn't make the recovery manager begin ( as before in 1)

12-can't create recovery disks because of the error message (The recovery partition could not be found)

I think that both [11 &12] are related to the MBR. So if I could fix the MBR as it was before, the f11 will work & the SoftThinks software will see the partition as a recovery partition. [and that's all what I need]

NOTES:

-If fixing MBR fixed [11] and didn't fix [12] then the HP technican was right about the one-time execution, so I'll order the recovery disks.

-If fixing MBR fixed [12] and didn't fix [11] I'll be satisfied.

-If fixing MBR didn't fix anything -----> I GIVE UP.

-If fixing MBR made things worse.....I'll format the whole harddisk and install windows XP. :angry:

Tools that I have:

13- MBRInst.exe & DiskPart.exe & Patch.cmd &other .cmd &.exe files that exist in the boot partition.

14- can read any log file

15- can access any partition through cmd prompt in system recovery options [ from F8 & repair my computer]

I hope that this gives you all a pretty good picture on my current situation.

Edited by ahmad2080
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Now, if HP followed the Best Practices, the recovery partition would be the first partition, and the OS partition would be the second one. OK so I'm going to say if you want to do this step, you're going to need to do some diskpart action. For example:

List Disk

List Vol

List Part

these should give enough information.

Yes I need this step, I want to make the Recovery partition the first partition using Diskpart [Maybe this is what confused partition magic; it saw the OS partition as partition number 2 and it decided that it was an error in the partition table that it had to fix, which made the recovery partition dissapear. Is that a good thoery?]

I've attached a screenshot showing the List Disk ,List Vol & List Part commands on my notebook.

post-237972-1238793852_thumb.jpg

In the (List part) there is an offset field (what is offset?)showing 288GB for partition2 (recovery partition) Is that fine?

What's the next step?

Edited by ahmad2080
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