Jump to content

Make a recovery disc from a Toshiba Recovery Partition


Recommended Posts

What if some of us still have the HDDRECOVERY in HDD? and only lost the factory's master boot record.

Could be created a CD that contains a win 7 (32/64 bits) repair ISO with a batch file in root that refers to copy, unzip and run the SWM files that are within HDDRECOVERY partition to a temp file?

Of course, the HDDRECOVERY have to exist on HDD, be unhidden and with an assigned letter.

THX

Link to comment
Share on other sites


What if some of us still have the HDDRECOVERY in HDD? and only lost the factory's master boot record.

Could be created a CD that contains a win 7 (32/64 bits) repair ISO with a batch file in root that refers to copy, unzip and run the SWM files that are within HDDRECOVERY partition to a temp file?

Of course, the HDDRECOVERY have to exist on HDD, be unhidden and with an assigned letter.

THX

Sure it can be done, see the first post on this thread, as long as the recovery .iso can access the internal hard disk, the same command would work alright.

But I am missing the need/usefulness of a temp file. :unsure:

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I asked in Toshiba Community about RECOVERY DVD'S , and say that the HDD will be restored completly, citing "includes all the hidden partitions and the master boot record. - all the bytes on the disk are restored", then if this is true, all the HDD must be erased to create 2 partitions (1 hidden and C:), this meaning that original HDDRECOVERY files have to stay in any place before this happen.

Thx

Edited by bttnzz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I asked in Toshiba Community about RECOVERY DVD'S , and say that the HDD will be restored completly, citing "includes all the hidden partitions and the master boot record. - all the bytes on the disk are restored", then if this is true, all the HDD must be erased to create 2 partitions (1 hidden and C:), this meaning that original HDDRECOVERY files have to stay in any place before this happen.

Thx

Yes, but you were talking about the recovery partition, NOT about the DVD's.

Follow me. :)

If you have a "botched" System, you press a hot key and you access (through the special MBR or *whatever*) the HDrecovery option.

To do so, *something* in the hidden HDrecovery partition is booted and this something will restore *anything* BUT itself.

If you use the DVD, it means that either:

  1. you have a "botched" MBR and you cannot access anymore the HDrecovery partition
  2. that the recovery partition is "botched"

or both the above.

(otherwise you would use the HD recovery partition through the MBR to restore)

So, the set of DVD's must necessarily restore *everything* including the HDrecovery partition.

As a matter of fact, though I cannot say how exactly the Toshiba works, the "normal" way is that the DVD(s) ONLY contain (and restore) the MBR and the recovery partition, then in a second phase, the "main" system partition is recreated from the (just deployed from DVD) HDrecovery one.

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Is any of you to guideme to restore my Toshiba p845-s4200., step by step., i am not so wise in this mather, but i will do exactly your comands!

First: I have my 5 disc restore, but the machine do not read the files preinst*.wsm, even when there are at the disk, also said to me that ther is no BOOTMGR.

i could go to my c prompt and then look for the partition "X"recovery and in the windos file there is the exe, but could not make it run and it did not reach and said is not posibble. said restat

I can give all the details for wat i have had done, but i will like to know if it is posible to assitme on this crash and failure with my recovery, the first post is a long time ago so, it may be no body abaible.

sincerly

Alex

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let's see.

 

Before anything else, WHAT is the actual problem?

 

I mean, restoring/resetting to factory is probably what you think is the proper way to solve a problem like "Cannot boot from disk" or "Cannot find BOOTMGR" or some other issues that - hopefully - can be repaired (as opposed to go through a factory reset).

 

If, on the other hand, you really *need* or *want* to do a factory reset, try doing according to Toshiba instructions.

 

What happens if you follow (before anything else) the recovery procedure in the manual?

http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/support/manuals/userguides/su3396343/GMAD00306010_Sat-SatProP800_12May16.pdf

 

You want to check pages 54 to 69.

 

First try the recovery through F12 from the recovery partition.

What happens? Describe EXACTLY the steps you took and what you got back as result. 

 

 

If it doesn't work, try with the discs, but before answer please the following questions

  • are they "factory" discs or did you "burn" them? 
  • are they CD's or DVD's?
  • have you them numbered in such a way to know which one is first, second, etc.?
  • did you test each of them on another PC and made sure that the files on them are read without errors?

 

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Hi, this is my 1st post in this forum and wanted to say thanks for all the information i have found here. :thumbup

I have a similar problem. A friend of mine decided to be a "pro" :crazy: on computers and had the amazing idea of formatting his Toshiba with a normal Windows CD instead of asking and using the recovery partition (btw he didn't create the recovery disks). Thankfuly he didn't delete / format the recovery partition. Seing that what he did was stupid he brought me his laptop to help him recover it.

So.. I followed your instructions in this way:

1. The .swm files (15 files) were too big for a dvd so i created a bootable windows usb in which i copied all of the .swm files in a folder Factoryreset in the root directory alongside with the imagex file

2. Booted the Windows installation as you said, from the USB, then “ repair your computer “, then “ Command Prompt “, went into the factoryreset folder and run "imagex /ref PREINST*.SWM /apply PREINST.SWM 1 C:\"

3. After that i got the message "The subsystem needed to support the image type is not present", that i solved after downloading another x64 imagex from microsoft and rerun the procedure

4. That worked. The procedure completed succesfully  100%

5. Restarted the laptop but nothing happened. Booted again into my friend's "clean" windows installation. I noticed though that a new folder in C:\ was created:  "Recovery\Windows RE" with a file "WinRE.wim" inside (195MB). To be sure, i deleted the folder, restarted the computer, the folder wasn't there, i rerun the procedure and the folder was created again..
6. So.. the big question is  ..now what? :crazy:

 

Thanks in advance for your responses!!!

 

 

PS: before that i installed toshiba recovery disc creator application, hoping it would work. No lluck. Gave error message "No HDD recovery Area!" even though the recovery partition is there, untouched (size and files unharmed)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is something not clear (to me at least) in your report.

Usually (but you need to confirm this on the specific notebook) there are three (primary) partitions:

1) a (small, ususally 100 or 200 Mb) partition that conatians the BOOTMGR and the \boot\BCD <- this is normally not mounted and has thus NO drive letter assigned in Explorer

2) a (large) partition that contains the actual OS, that is mounted automatically and gets drive letter C:\ normally in Explorer

3) a (medum sized, possibly 10 Gb or so) that contains the "recovery" files <- this is normally not mounted and has thus NO drive letter assigned in Explorer

 

Now was the hard disk repartitioned? (adding partitions?)

 

I mean, when in your reported step #2 you apply the image to drive C:, the step #5 seems a logical impossibility as there is not anymore on C: the "my friend's "clean" windows installation" as it would have been overwritten by the contents of the applied image.

 

It is also not clear in step #5 how exactly you "switched" from "nothing happened" to  "Booted again into my friend's "clean" windows installation." :unsure:

 

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is something not clear (to me at least) in your report.

Usually (but you need to confirm this on the specific notebook) there are three (primary) partitions:

1) a (small, ususally 100 or 200 Mb) partition that conatians the BOOTMGR and the \boot\BCD <- this is normally not mounted and has thus NO drive letter assigned in Explorer

2) a (large) partition that contains the actual OS, that is mounted automatically and gets drive letter C:\ normally in Explorer

3) a (medum sized, possibly 10 Gb or so) that contains the "recovery" files <- this is normally not mounted and has thus NO drive letter assigned in Explorer

 

Now was the hard disk repartitioned? (adding partitions?)

 

I mean, when in your reported step #2 you apply the image to drive C:, the step #5 seems a logical impossibility as there is not anymore on C: the "my friend's "clean" windows installation" as it would have been overwritten by the contents of the applied image.

 

It is also not clear in step #5 how exactly you "switched" from "nothing happened" to  "Booted again into my friend's "clean" windows installation." :unsure:

 

jaclaz

 

Hi friend! Thanks for the response! :)

As you correctly mentioned, the 3 partitions still exist.. The small partition, the partition containing the OS and the partition containing the toshiba recovery. It is possible (and that is what happened actually) to install Windows onto the OS partition. And the computer will work and boot into windows without the other 2 partitions be affected.. So when i say it booted again into windows i mean the OS installed by my friend.

1. To summarize, it was NOT repartitioned.. Just the windows was installed on the 2nd partition that contained the "original" OS by toshiba

2. As i mentioned, i followed the steps provided above and used imagex. The procedure completed 100%, then i restarted the notebook and the windows booted again as before i did anything. That is what i mean.. as what you said.. The windows my friend installed have not been overwritten by the contents of the applied image.. Just that new folder was created in C:\ as "Recovery\Windows RE" with a file "WinRE.wim" inside (195MB).

 

I apologize if that isn't clear enough.. I don't know how else to explain it.. Thanks though for your effort and response!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Ntantor, at your point #2, can you check what is actually oj your C: drive before and after the procedure ?

Did you not have any other (USB?) drive attached that could have taken the "C" letter instead when booting from your stick ? That image must have been applied "somewhere".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is something that does not sound "right" or it is however escaping me. :w00t:

 

The .SWM files are a form of a "divided into several files" .WIM file.

A .WIM file is a "Windows IMage" file, that contains an image of a partition. (actually an image of the files inside a partition)

Normally when you apply an image of a partition to a partition, the WHOLE contents of the partition are overwritten by the contents of the image.

 

How big in size is the USB stick yoiu have handy?

How big are the .SWM files?

Can you try making a single .wim out of the various .SWM and apply the .WIM instead?

Howto here:

http://www.hobwebs.com/windows-issues/recovery-of-toshiba-laptop-using-swm-files/

 

And yes, do double check (with diskpart or disk manager) which partition gets which drive letter BEFORE attempting applying the .WIM file.

 

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Ntantor, at your point #2, can you check what is actually oj your C: drive before and after the procedure ?

Did you not have any other (USB?) drive attached that could have taken the "C" letter instead when booting from your stick ? That image must have been applied "somewhere".

 

Hi, and thanks for the response! Ok, before i even do anything i had created an image of the whole notebook disk, using Acronis, on my external disk in case of anything going wrong.. I just recovered the image as the computer was when i got it.. I have noted everything in the disks and made sure than no other usb or sort is attached to the computer.

 

Here goes:

 

Partition 1: 400MB "invisible" partition with 100% free space - Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition) as stated in Computer Management - Disk Management

Partition 2 (C:\): 349.61GB visible partition Containing the OS - Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition) as stated in Computer Management - Disk Management

Partition 3 (D:\): 348.63GB visible partition containing just a HDDRecovery folder with subfolders containing the imagex and .swm files  - Healthy (Active, Primary Partition) as stated in Computer Management - Disk Management

 

The C:\ partition contains the folders: Perflogs, Program Files, Program Files (x86), Users, Windows

 

After repeating the imagex procedure now, the only difference i see in any of the partitions is that a new folder is created Again in C:\

"Recovery\Windows RE" with a file "WinRE.wim" inside (195MB)

 

PS: I even double checked the USB that i used for the Windows Installation in case anything changed there.. nothing was changed!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is something that does not sound "right" or it is however escaping me. :w00t:

 

The .SWM files are a form of a "divided into several files" .WIM file.

A .WIM file is a "Windows IMage" file, that contains an image of a partition. (actually an image of the files inside a partition)

Normally when you apply an image of a partition to a partition, the WHOLE contents of the partition are overwritten by the contents of the image.

 

How big in size is the USB stick yoiu have handy?

How big are the .SWM files?

Can you try making a single .wim out of the various .SWM and apply the .WIM instead?

Howto here:

http://www.hobwebs.com/windows-issues/recovery-of-toshiba-laptop-using-swm-files/

 

And yes, do double check (with diskpart or disk manager) which partition gets which drive letter BEFORE attempting applying the .WIM file.

 

jaclaz

 

 

Hi, thanks for the response!

The 15 .swm files are 13.6GB in total. I am using a 64GB usb disk

I wil follow now the instructions of the link you posted. As for the partitions, i just stated every little detail in a post above :thumbup

Will let you know of the rest as soon as possible

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good.

 

What are the names of the .swm files?

What is the EXACT Toshiba model?

(maybe with this data we can find some related "previous art")

 

Once you have a .wim file, you should be able to open it with 7-zip to inspect it's contents before attempting to apply the image:

http://www.7-zip.org/

 

Possibly 7-zip will also allow to open the .SWM files, but never tried it:

http://forums.computers.toshiba-europe.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=53952

 

 

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. <snip>i created a bootable windows usb<snip>
2. Booted the Windows installation as you said, from the USB<snip>
3. <snip>i solved after downloading another x64 imagex from microsoft<snip>
5. Restarted the laptop but nothing happened. Booted again into my friend's "clean" windows installation.<snip>
===========
Partition 1: 400MB "invisible" partition with 100% free space - Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition) as stated in Computer Management - Disk Management
Partition 2 (C:\): 349.61GB visible partition Containing the OS - Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition) as stated in Computer Management - Disk Management
Partition 3 (D:\): 348.63GB visible partition containing just a HDDRecovery folder with subfolders containing the imagex and .swm files  - Healthy (Active, Primary Partition) as stated in Computer Management - Disk Management
===========
I'm not getting a couple of things.
1. By what method and using what "source"?
2. I'm guessing you mean your "source" is an Install ISO source and not a Repair CD/DVD?
3. Um, how did you do that? You got the AIK ISO?
5a. "nothing happened"?
5b. Your "friends" is from an Original Windows 7 Install DVD?

Partition 1 - a UEFI/GPT HDD, right? (apparently...)
Partitions 2/3 - how ODD the partition sizes. ~700GB HDD?
You got that info from the "clean install"?
Where's the "System" flag/indicator?
*Side notes -

I don't have a "Recovery Partition" flag/indicator but did apply "Reagentc /enable", FWIW.

Also booted to a Console with the created x86 Repair CD and specifically used "DISKPART" for listing as well, that you haven't done.

Indications are that you have a 64-bit OS, since you needed an x64 "imagex".

That "magically appearing" folder/file is the Recovery Environment that
- "C:\Windows\System32\Recover\ReAgent.xml"
should have an entry for. The WIM is undoubtedly "adapted" for the OEM Restore.

I'm not understanding why the BCD Store in the 400mb "hidden" partition is failing to "see" the ("System") OS. Something seems amiss (a/l to me). :unsure: Please bear in mind I have a Win7 Pro OEM (should make no difference?) "clean" (meaning from a totally empty HDD) install. It therefore shows (in a Winbuilder LiveXP) a "C:\Recovery\{guid}\WinRE.wim" instead. It appears that the F8 then "Repair" yields pretty much the same as the Bootable Repair CD except it required me to logon to an account.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...