Recovery Image not working

FlyFishter

I will also say, again perhaps different words than before, that I did not "make an image" of the HD. I backed everything up that I needed. I want the factory image - as it was out of the box. That is what I thought I wrote to the original SD card in the tool I used to create the recovery disk.

The SD card loads and lets me boot the computer from it. What it does not appear to let me do is load a recovery image. The utility is there and works and I said that in my first post.

Is there a way to see if there is a factory recovery image on the SD card at all? Or is it hidden? The Microsoft folder (under the EFI folder) is "empty", however I am not convinced there arent hidden files in there.

If I have no image (factory image) on what I created on the SD card then this exercise is a waste of time and I need an image to use from some other source. The computer seems to have been wiped clean - it shows "no bootable device" when I power it up without the SD card so I doubt even pulling the HD would be of any merit (to try to create an image from the files that were on the HD - it appears theres nothing on it now). 

Thanks to all the help thus far.

FlyFishter

Here are screen shots from the start of the recovery process. On the second picture it does state this process will reinstall windows from the recovery drive - which is what it is running off of. 

Maybe the recovery drive doesnt contain the details to reinstall windows after all? 

Pictures did not load in order. The screen shot with the most text and no option boxes to select is the 3ord screen in the process that has the note on installing windows from the recovery drive. 

The options that I selected are those highlighted on the other screens. 

FlyFishter

This is the result of the recovery process:

Commodore_1995#

What happens when you change sata mode to ahci in bios?

FlyFishter

Can anyone answer all the questions Ive asked -  namely at this point on how to verify if I even have an image at all? If I find I dont have one everything you are suggesting is a waste of time.

If I do have one then then the suggestions have merit. 

If I dont have an image the fix is to get an image. How can I accomplish that??? 

Commodore_1995#

The only way to know if you still have acer erecovery, is to activate d2drecovery in the bios and press alt + f10 before the Acer logo. If it works, you can reinstall windows. If it doesn't work, it means that you have formatted the hdd.

FlyFishter

alt + f10 does nothing as stated yesterday.

How do I check the files that were placed on the SD card in the creation of the Recovery Disk that I have to see if an "image" is there at all? 

FlyFishter

There is nothing on the HD, period. The only place an image would be is the SD card at this point. Any other copies of that I have made were from that SD card, not the computer. I only wrote the Recovery Disk to the one SD card, no where else, and nomlm other specific HD image. I didnt want to image the HD as I intend to rebuild it. I want the original OS back on the computer like it was from the factory - which is what I thought the Recovery process was exactly for. 

Am I missing something? 

Commodore_1995#

On the memory card, are there two .wim files?

FlyFishter

There are 3x WIM files. 

Commodore_1995#

OK! I think that some models are not able to boot from the memory card. Transfer the image to a usb stick like this:

a) first convert the usb stick by cmd as an administrator like this:

diskpart

list disk

sel disk x

clean

convert gpt

create partition primary

format fs = fat32 quick

assign.

b) then copy the EFI, sources and reagent files to the usb stick and also extract the file that I will send to the usb stick, as it contains the files needed for the usb stick initialization:

billsey

I believe at this point it'd actually be easier to boot from a Windows 10 install image (on a flash drive, not an SD card), wipe the drive and reinstall, then do a recovery from the SD card to get your files back. The system should not let you boot from the SD card, I believe it's booting the recovery environment from the HDD instead. When it tries to recover the failure is because it can't get the boot info correct on the drive, not because the C: data is bad. You have more partitions than you should, usually a sign that one of the big upgrades created a new UEFI boot partition without removing the old one.

FlyFishter

Thanks for the replies thus far. I spent all afternoon getting a backup laptop from a family member in another part of the state. 

The work I have been doing with the files thus far has been on a desktop Win10 machine, NOT the laptop I am trying to recover (the laptop I am trying to recover is wiped clean already). 

I will work through some of the suggestions here and see if I can get the files on to the flash drive. This computer I am on now is an old WinXP machine. I will work on it and see where I get with the files. If I need to get to the Win10 desktop I can. Though, if I don't have any luck I will be constrained to this XP machine until I can source an install image that will work in the laptop I am trying to recover. 

I have no HD image from the laptop I am trying to recover. I do not need one for any of my info. All of my files are backed up externally so there was nothing on the HD of the computer to loose when I started. All I need is a blank factory reload. Then I can rebuild it from there. Programs etc can all be reinstalled once I get the base computer back, easy to do just time consuming. 

FlyFishter

No luck yet with the GPT formatted USB drive, copied files, and boot file. This is what I get: 

Commodore_1995#

OK! But did you put the usb stick in the first position, in the boot tab of the bios?

FlyFishter

Both ports on the left side of the laptop do the same thing showing the same error message, as does the usb port on the right of the computer. No difference in any of the 3 ports.

Commodore_1995#

Weird! The recovery disc should work, as this is exactly what I did on my computer. Have you ever tried to use a microsoft iso, as colleague billsey asked?

FlyFishter

Several.years ago there was a process I had to do for work that involved mounting an iso file tona drive. I dont recall much of it. However, I have thought there might be something similar that would have to happen here. How would I go about trying to do that with what I have to work with? I dont have any way to create a new backup of anything other than what is off of the original SD card as the computer is wiped. Can those files off the SD card be used? If not - where do I get ones thar will work? 

Thanks

Commodore_1995#

check here: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209

FlyFishter

That tool is writing an install file, I believe, for Windows 10 on to my USB drive. 

How do I ensure the factory license/set up for Windows works with the computer? Isn't that part of what is contained in the backup install file for the computer that I am still thinking could be on the SD card if we can get the files to work? 

Another thought I had is I can pull the HD from the computer and load the files to it then put it back in. However, what I don't know, is if the files can reside on the same primary HD in the computer from which is running the install.