Need help with HP recovery partition on new hard drive

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ragebkd

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Nov 11, 2012
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I have an HP desktop that has a failing hard drive. I bought a new hard drive to put in the computer but since I have no discs I am not sure how to install windows on it. I have heard you can use the recovery partition to install the OS on the new drive but I am not sure how to do that. Can someone please tell me how to do this? Thanks in advance!
 
I would try using cloning software to copy the entire drive and all installed programs

Acronis Migrate easy
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/migrateeasy/

the demo version is the full version but only works for 30 days

Just install it on your computer , then connect the other hard drive to the motherboard and power . Clone the drive by following the instructions . Disconnect the old hard drive and set the new one as the first boot device in BIOS
 



I already have copied all of my files and I am not worried about the software as some of the programs are corrupted anyway because the drive is failing. Ideally I would just like to figure out how to use the recovery partition to install the OS on the new drive and copy the recovery partition onto the new drive as well. I tried using acronis true image home on my laptop to copy and move the partitions to the new drive but it wouldn't let me do it without copying the partitions to my laptop first and I don't have enough space on it to do that. (I have multiple SATA docks so I hooked up the failing drive and the new drive at the same time)




Don't...

Bump posts


http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/283384-33-read-first
 
To do this you need following tools:
1) Imagex (465 KB)
http://sdrv.ms/1hGhxHR or https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=868489BE53951B6E%21110

2) Windows 7 setup disk (bootable) or usb flash drive (bootable)
Need this only to boot to Windows PE

You have to capture HP Recovery partition and System Partition using Imagex tool.
You can apply the captured partition (from old HDD) to new Hard drive and can recover Windows by pressing F11.
To do this, first download Imagex (from above link), extract it, and placed it on pen drive or C: drive (Where your windows is installed). There are two imagex files i.e., imagex32.exe and imagex64.exe. Depending upon your system architecture, you use which one is appropriate. If imagex32.exe does not work then you can use imagex64.exe. For convenience you can copy both the version.
In my example, I’m going to boot Windows 7 from usb flash drive. I have also copied imagex32.exe and imagex64.exe into windows 7 flash drive.

Steps:
1. Boot Windows 7 from usb flash drive. When Windows setup ask for Language selection , Press Shift+F10. This will take you to command prompt. You can open any number of command prompt by pressing Shift + F10.
2. On the command prompt type: (please ommit # sign and > sign and also don't type enter)
#diskpart > enter (do not type hash sign and Greater than (>) sign)

to view disk type
# list disk> enter

See which one is your Hard drive, its usually Disk 0, where your Windows is installed.

type:
# select disk 0 >enter (do not type hash sign (#) and greater than (>)sign.

now see the partitions by typing
# list partition>enter

you can also see the volume by typing
# list volume> enter

Now open another command prompt by pressing Shift + F10 . Do not close the other prompt. It will help you to figure out partition and volumes.

Please note the driver letter, volume number and partition. And figure out which one is your System partition, Recovery partition and Windows partition.
It’s usually Partition 1 is your System partition (100 MB)
Partition 2 is Windows partition and
Partition 3 is Recovery partition ( 10-15 GB)
3. Now on the New Command Prompt, go to flash drive (where you have copied Imagex tool)
In my example, I have copied imagex on the flash drive where Windows 7 setup is.

Lets assume F: drive is your flash drive where you have copied imagex.

on the command prompt type:
# f: > enter (do not type # sign and > sign) (f colon 🙂))
# dir>enter
*dir command will show the content of F drive. Note down imagex file name. In my example, my imagex file name is imagex64.exe

CAPTURING RECOVERY AND SYSTEM PARTITIONS

4. Now capture the recovery Partition using imagex. In my example, drive E is my recovery partition.
type:
#imagex64.exe /capture e:\ d:\recovery.wim “recovery” >enter (don’t type # and > sign)
*this command will capture e drive which is HP recovery partition to D drive with file name as recovery.wim.
*I have saved the recovery image (recovery.wim) to D: drive, which is also Windows 7 installed partition. If you have External USB Harddrive then you can directly save the recovery.wim file to external drive. This will save your time and it is more convenient.

5. Now capture System partition i.e Partition 1. My system partition is Drive C
type:
#imagex64.exe /capture c:\ d:\system.wim “system” >enter (omit # , > sign and do not type enter)
* This command will capture sytem partition to d drive.
6. Now you can copy the captured wim files (recovery.wim and System.wim) to USB Hard drive or into you Desktop computer so that you can apply it to new Hard drive. When coping the wim files to usb hard drive please don't forget to copy imagex files. And copy all the files on the root of usb hard drive. Do not place those files unside a folder

Now insert the new hard drive (not the usb hard drive). We have to re-partition

PARTITIONING NEW HARD DRIVE

Steps:
1. Boot from bootable Windows 7 dvd or bootable flash drive. In my example, I’m booting it from usb flash drive.
2. When Windows 7 Setup ask for Language selection, press Shift + F10. This will open the command prompt
Now type the following commands (please don’t type # sign and > sign)

type:
#diskpart >enter
#select disk 0> enter
*This will select your hard drive
#clean > enter
*this will wipe your hard drive (everything will be deleted, including data, partitions)

Now create system partition:
type:
#create partition primary size=100 >enter
*this will create a primary partition with size 100 mb, we are creating this for System
partition)

#format quick fs=ntfs label=”System” >enter
*this will format your 100 mb system partition with ntfs file system and label it as System.

#assign letter=”S” >enter
*you have assigned system partition as letter S

Now create Windows partition:
type:
#create partition primary size=100000 >enter
*this will create primary partition wit size 100GB, this is where we are going to install windows.

#format quick fs=ntfs label=”Windows” >enter
#assign letter=”W” >enter

Now create Recovery partition:
type:
#create partition primary size=14000 >enter
*we have created recovery partition with size 14GB

#format quick fs=ntfs label=”Recovery” >enter
# active > enter
*You have to make your recovery partition as Active. HP usually set Recovery partition as Active
#assign letter=”R” >enter

NOW WE HAVE CREATED PARTITIONs. YOU CAN ALLOCATE THE REMAINING SPACE AFTER YOU INSTALL WINDOWS. Do not turn off your pc now. You have to attached usb hard drive (where you have copied you wim files.)

Now it’s time to apply the captured image to the new Hard Drive. In my example I copied my recovery.wim and system.wim to external usb hard drive.

APPLYING RECOVERY IMAGE AND SYSTEM IMAGE TO NEW HARD DRIVE
Steps:
1. Open the new command prompt by pressing Shift+F10
2. Go to usb hard drive
type:
# g: >enter
*in our example , g is the drive letter of usb hard drive.

Now apply recovery image file to recovery partition (drive R)
type:
# imagex64.exe /apply recovery.wim 1 r:\ >enter
*you have applied recovery.wim image file to drive R which is your recovery partition

Now apply System image file to System partition (drive S : )
Type:
#imagex64.exe /apply system.wim 1 s:\ >enter

NOTE: When you reboot the system, you drive letter for particular partition may change, you can see the drive letter of particular partition any time by typing: list volume on diskpart windows.

After you apply the above image files. Reboot the system. Tap F11 while rebooting the system. This will take you to recovery window. From the Recovery Window, you can reinstall Windows to Windows partition.















 
Well I have been trying this all day..after a week of unsuccessfully trying various other clone tools.

I can get all the way to the end..imageX has applied all the WIM files..

Only difference that I can see is that my HP4530s has a HP_Tools partition too, FAT32.
This is the only one that works after Imagex has restored them all to the new disk

I have applied them all..leaving the new Windows c:\" blank..just partitioned.

Can boot in to the HP tools partition on re boot and run disk checks/ mem tests etc.

but there is still no way to get the F11 to work to restore the Recovery partition image back.

I did try installing another complete fresh install of Win 7 on to the new "C:\" running some HP software patches F11 fix,,,sorry do not have the patch number to hand at this exact time.

Tried fixboot fix mbr etc..even the 'nuclear' option of using nt60 sys. as also found somewhere on here.

Tried booting via the install CD, and running repair from there, nothing allow the system to boot to teh Recovery partition via F11...at a loss


What ever I do, just can not get F11 boot to run the HP System recovery.

have run bootrec /scanos
and it finds zero installations to add to bcd


 


 
How did you try? Can you please describe in detail? step by step (from capturing recovery partition to creating partitions of new hard drive to applying image)
 
I had the exact same problem here's how I did it:
1. Download clonezilla (google it)
2. Burn clonezilla to DVD
3. Before you go ahead and run the software make sure you have formatted the disk and created a "System Reserved" partition and a "whatever you want here" named partition and then
4.Turn off computer and put disk in and booth the computer and boot from optical drive (boot from DVD NOT HARD DRIVE)
5.When in clonezilla choose "Other modes of clonezilla live"
6. Then choose "to ram. Boot media can be removed later"
7.Choose language
8.Choose keyboard lay out (this May be tricky tell me if you're stuck)
9.Choose "start clonezilla"
10. (If you are copying disk to disk like I was: choose "disk_to_local_disk"
11. Select source disk
12. Select target disk
13. Clone
14. Attempt boot (if failed like me run the repair tool (windows repair disk (if you don't have one google how to create one))and repair)
15. ENJOY!
(Tell me of any issues)
 
Hi Steve....

sorry for not getting back sooner...I have not had e-mail notification of replies from here

I used the exact method as you describe in the descriptive post. to the letter.

I tried multiple times, saving the images to external HDD's USB sticks and 2nd internal HDD's in the removable HDD caddy in place of the CD drive..booting then from a WinPE USB boot stick.

Tried booting into the cmd prompt from other ways too:
WinPE USB Stick, Macrium Reflect, other boot cd's and used ImageX to clone the images to an external USB drive, or when I booted from USB stick I exchanged the CD drive for the 2nd HDD Drive caddy,.

Each time after setting the HP_Recovery partition as active it failed to boot to recovery...sorry can't remember boot error code now..but thing it was a Device error or Unknown message.

I eventually solved it by installing a new copy of Win7 from a MS official download of the Win7 ISO.
From there I installed EasyBCD, edited the BCD Using the Add New Entry Button, Portable/External media section/ WinPE tab, pointing WIM Image (Ramdisk) to HP_Recovery\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim


At first I got this wrong and pointed to HP_Recovery\system.sav\util\HPFactory.wim but that resulted in an instal WITHOUT ANY SYSTEM DRIVERS.


I have started another thread here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/316321-cmd-line-bcdedit-point-winre-wim-disk-letter-assignment.html

Wonder if Setting the HP_Recovery partition as active did not work because its BCD file is incorrect?

Here is the BCD file from the HP_Recovery partition



Code: 
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  boot
path                    \bootmgr
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
default                 {default}
displayorder            {default}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {0eb4ed8e-6b6c-11e3-9ddc-ed4268a7d29e}

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {default}
device                  ramdisk=[D:]\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
path                    \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
description             HP Recovery Environment
osdevice                ramdisk=[D:]\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
systemroot              \windows
nx                      OptIn
detecthal               Yes
winpe                   Yes

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier              {memdiag}
device                  unknown
path                    \boot\memtest.exe
description             Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale                  en-US

Device options
--------------
identifier              {0eb4ed8f-6b6c-11e3-9ddc-ed4268a7d29e}
ramdisksdidevice        unknown
ramdisksdipath          \Recovery\WindowsRE\boot.sdi

Setup Ramdisk Options
---------------------
identifier              {ramdiskoptions}
description             Ramdisk Options
ramdisksdidevice        partition=D:
ramdisksdipath          \boot\boot.sdi
 




can you please help me out with same if I am using window 8 preinstalledc laptop of hp(model no. n012tx)




 
Err??? first you should learn how to ask a question ..

You have quoted the answer you need,...have you tried it ? What happened? What else have you tried?
Do you even understand where to start.

In order to get an answer TO ANY QUESTION ON ANY FORUM you need to be specific about exact problem and what you have tried.

So what have you done so far
 
I am sorry for the mistake.

Ok..here is the problem... I have a laptop(model no. HP- N012TX) . I thought about upgrading its hard disk and found the solution that I quoted. Basically this solution is about a laptop with window 7 recovery. While I have windows 8 pre-installed on my laptop.

WHAT I HAVE DONE:

started with copying my system recovery partition to external hard drive. Now copied this to new hard disk. System failed to boot up( no recovery mode as well).

Found the solution I quoted and thought to start that way. But since windows 8 (recovery and partitions) are lot more different than windows 7. Cannot find any solution. Tried acronis true image andacronis Migrate easy but found no solution yet.

 
OK, that is better.
I can not say that I can help you ..I have used Apple Mac since 2004 and last month was the first time I have ever used Windows 7..not even tried Windows 8...but

Sounds like either a BCD error or partition not active or ?? Dynamic disk?? HP recovery only seems to work with Primary active partitions, not Dynamic partitions.

Try this other thread that I started about the same issue when my cloned Recovery partition would not boot.
Here is what you could try if your cloned HP_Recovery partition won't boot

http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/316085-cloned-hp_recovery-partition-wont-boot.html

Assuming you have cloned your HP_Recovery partition the same as detailed above.
Get yourself a Win 7 or 8 Installation disk (can be downloaded from MS) and use it to create a temporary Windows installation on to your new blank HDD c:\ partition.
Download and install EasyBCD.
Run it and add the HP_Recovery entry to the BCD.
You may need to change permissions (remove the padlock) on files within the HP Recovery partition to allow you to use Explorer to find the file you need to add to the BCD using EasyBCD.
In the case of Win7 the file to point to is winre.wim its path in my case was HP_Recovery:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim.

There is also a HPFactory.wim file...this si not the one you want.
But try the link I posted above and see how you got on...it took me a month of tinkering to get my system working..till i installed a temporary Win 7 and used EasyBCD to add the Win recovery entry back

Good luck
 
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