SYSTEM RECOVERY (F11) is inaccessible after dual-booting Windows 7 and Windows 8.

[lkapoor]

I dual booted Windows 8 with Windows 7 and now the RECOVERY partition (F is not loading upon pressing F11. It gives me the boot configuration data error. I have it marked as Healthy (Primary Partition) and I am able to access the files via. My Computer in both OS, but not through F11 System Recovery. 

When I try to create a recovey media, the orange circle filter keeps of going even after I have inserted the an external USB hard drive for it to detect. Does it usually take this long? I am guessing once the recovery media is made I could do system repair from there and get RECOVERY to work?

[dm_65]

A recovery loader is of type Vista/7 loader. I assume you have resized partitions before installing Windows 8.

BCD device entries are based on disk signature/partition address and if partition is moved/resized BCD entry is no longer actual.

To view exactly what you have in Windows BCD you could use Visual BCD Editor.

When you start the tool all existing boot loaders are listed in left pane. Clicking on one of the loaders its elements are displayed. There should be two recovery loaders in your BCD now - one for Win 7 and one for Win 8.

Click on every loader and examine what is displayed for ApplicationDevice and OSDevice.

Some knowledge is needed to repair the entry which is not functioning now as device elements for recovery loaders are of type ramdisk !

In short the device element must point to a .wim file (usually winre.wim) which is placed somewhere on disk (either same partition of OS\Recovery folder or on special dedicated partition).

In your case the device elements have to be reajusted/edited so the full path is correct.

If you need help - output of the command "bcdedit /enum all /v" from elevated command prompt would be useful as attachment.

[lkapoor]

Ah yes, I should have included the bcdedit log here earlier.

http://pastebin.com/b0Y5Hd1F

My partition letters:

C: Windows 7

D: Windows 8

F: RECOVERY

H: SYSTEM

In Visual BCD, One WRE is set to D: and the other is set to F:. Should i set both to F, which is the actual RECOVERY partition?

Also, the UEFI boot setup is unable to create HP_TOOLS parition because 4 partitions already exist. I don't remember having the SYSTEM partition earlier so maybe that repalced HP_TOOLS?

[lkapoor]

Anyone?

[dm_65]

Sorry answering late - better late then never.

This is a general answer:

Every keyboard shortcut key for activating a loader is recorded either:

a) in a file named ReAgent.xml usually placed in \Windows\System32\Recovery folder (default value is key F8 for Windows 7 recovery loader)

or

b) in BCD itself as a custom bootstrap action (2 bindings: custom action id with loader id and and custom action id with key code, both bindings are elements of {bootmgr} object)

For manipulating a)

the Windows utility ReAgentC.exe can be used - see utility help.

For manipulating b)

you can use bcdedit or Visual BCD Editor  which has a GUI interface for creating and editing of custom actions. The user should do some reading before changing BCD as this is a really advanced topic.

Here you can get some explanation on custom bootstrap actions with link to original Microsoft document.

Always do a backup of BCD before doing any changes !

[dm_65]

@lkapoor

I am not 100% sure but:

In BCD output there is a Win PE 2.0 loader (maybe was accessible on F11 earlier ?) pointing to [boot] device -

this is not correct anymore after the dual booting changes in partitions.


The active partition can also be addressed as [boot] - maybe RECOVERY was your active partition earliear?


You have to change [boot] to F: in Win PE 2.0 loader (for ApplicationDevice and for OSDevice)

You have to change [boot] to F: in the corresponding device element (line 186 in output)


To add F11 as keyboard shortcut to this Win PE 2.0 loader create a custom bootstrap action.


Make a backup of BCD and read documentation on custom bootstrap actions before doing any changes.

[lkapoor]

Hello, thanks for responding nonetheless. I am waiting on buying a 32GB Flash drive to backup my RECOVERY drive from the Support Assistant and hoping the machine works fine until then.

I wasn't aware of what BCD was until I faced this issue.

I have a recent backup with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 working, I am not an expert with editing the BCD, so some help will be greatly appreciated.

I believe editing the BCD alone with fix the issue. The only problem is I don't have an earlier backup to compare what's new and what's missing, When I installed Windows 8 for the first time I ran the exe in the main dir and that overwrote some settings. I later learned that I should have ran the .exe in /sources dir for installation in a different partition.

Anyway, I need assistance with option b) Manipulating the BCD. Here's the current BCD: http://pastebin.com/b0Y5Hd1F

My partition letters:

C: Windows 7

D: Windows 8

F: RECOVERY

H: SYSTEM

I have VisualBCD installed so how do I procede from here?

[CherylG]

1.Right-click on "Computer" icon and select manage.
2.This will launch the Microsoft Management Console.
3.On the left side of the MMC, click on "Disk Management" and it will show you all of the partitions.
4.Right-click on the "HP Recovery" partition and select "Mark as Active Partition."
5.When the warning prompt appears, select "Yes" - Reboot and it will automatically boot into the Recovery Manager (without pressing F11).

[lkapoor]

I did that and the laptop failed to boot. Something is either missing in the BCD or is corrupt.