Still have the big recovery partition, just not the small (first) one. How to use?

aharu

Honorable
Jan 10, 2014
2
0
10,510
I have a Packard Bell Easynote ENTF71BM here which I was supposed to fix. I figured a fresh reinstall of Windows 8.1 without crapware could be sweet, and I was nice enough (not my laptop) to keep the recovery partition, just in case. But I deleted the first few partitions on disk, the small recovery (it was 600mb), some EFI partition and the C: Did not realize that they were of importance, I figured I just keep the big last recovery partition. And now, after deletion, and installation, I have for the first time heard about Windows 8.1 with Bing. I just can't activate this installation with the embedded key, since it's a "Win 8 with Bing"-one.

Now, since I've learned that Windows 8.1 with Bing ISO (in my language) is not to be found online, I need help, can I use the recovery partition in some way? The "standard" routine does not work, it asks for installation media.

I've tried mounting the last partition on disk (16 GB recovery) with diskpart and assigning a drive letter, so I can see whats on it. But I don't know what to do with it. There are lots of files, including a big install.wim. I can't list all files, but in the root there are some dat-files, "ImageInfo.dat", "Restore.dat", "SystemCD.dat", etc. All tiny files. And then some directories, "FACTORY", "RecoveryImage" (which holds the big install.wim), "RyTools". I've found nothing directly usable (like a setup.exe, or an .iso I could copy to usb, or so).

There are loooooooads of threads where people seek recovery discs and such. But this is different I think, I still do have the recoverypartition hehe... does anyone know how I can recover/reinstall and just be done with it? (regarding wim-files, I have no experience at all with DISM.exe)

By the way, there's a "ReCreatePartition.txt" file. It's probably not for endusers, but it looked a little useful, I can see there's diskpart-instructions and some command does create a 600mb partition, just the one I deleted. But I don't know how to go from here, doing this from within an installed (yet not activated) Windows 8.1-environment.

convert gpt
create partition primary size=600
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
format fs=ntfs label="RECOVERY" quick override
assign letter=T
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
create partition EFI size=300
assign letter=S
format fs=fat32 label="ESP" quick override
create partition MSR size=128
create partition primary
shrink minimum=16477
assign letter=W
format fs=ntfs label="Packard Bell" quick override
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs label="Push Button Reset" quick override
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
assign letter=R
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
exit

Maybe I could resize and change the id of current recovery partition (first, small one). The "Push Button Reset" partition is the 16GB recovery I kept. I see that they are the same id's.

Any advise would be appreciated, this is probably over my head.
 

USAFRet

Illustrious
Moderator
I have a Packard Bell Easynote ENTF71BM here which I was supposed to fix. I figured a fresh reinstall of Windows 8.1 without crapware could be sweet, and I was nice enough (not my laptop) to keep the recovery partition, just in case. But I deleted the first few partitions on disk, the small recovery (it was 600mb), some EFI partition and the C: Did not realize that they were of importance, I figured I just keep the big last recovery partition. And now, after deletion, and installation, I have for the first time heard about Windows 8.1 with Bing. I just can't activate this installation with the embedded key, since it's a "Win 8 with Bing"-one.

It sounds like you messed up a customers PC.

 

aharu

Honorable
Jan 10, 2014
2
0
10,510



Thanks for stating the obvious, now I'm seeing if I can fix my mess. Come on, the recovery partition is still there. Do you know any details about the first, small recovery partition (that all windows installations create)? Maybe there's just something in there to point at the main recovery partition?