Recover the Recovery function and BCDs

[iBenny]

Hi

This is for Recovery and BCD experts ONLY.

I am trying to restore an unaccessible laptop of a relative of mine that even don't allow access to any F8 Modes with the message:

interactive logon process initialization has failed. please consult the event log for more details.

It *might* have happened while interrupting a windows update.

I tried to repair it with a Winows 7 AIO installation CD to no avail.

I did tens of manipulations with HBCD (live CD) to no avail.

Couple of times I succeded to acces the Recovery utility with the F11 key on boot up. Last time  I did a backup prior to restoration and it lasted the whole night (125G).

At one point, in a repair procedure that I don't remember how I did it, I was asked the password for the main "USER" ! WOW ! I was finally getting somewhere. Since it was too late to phone my relative to ask for it, I shut down the laptop and thought I would ask the next day but... the next day I forgot which procedure I used to get to that point ARRRGGGHHH !!!

AND NOW...the Recovey feature is NO MORE accessible with F11 !!!

Bootin into F8, I sometimes now get the first choice of "Repair the computer" that usually leads to the system Recovery procedure (same as F11) but now I get the message :

Status: 0x0000225

Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

Now I am playing with the BCD for I assume that it is a BCD missconfiguration that is preventing me to access the HP Recovery partition. F11 do NOT work ANYMORE !!!

BTW: what is happening when we press F11 at bootup ? Does the system chose to boot with the RECOVERY \boot\BCD bootfile instead of the SYSTEM BCD file ? If so, will the tweaking of that BCD file restore access to the HP Recovery feature ? 

Since the HP Recovery feature kicked in once, that means that the Recovery partition E:\ in in good order and should be accessible one way or the other.

Playing with the BCDs is not so obvious. There are three of them :

1. SYSTEM partition \ boot\BCD
2. MAIN partition \boot\BCD
3. RECOVERY partition \boo\BCD

I presume the main laptop BCD booting file is #1, the SYSTEM \boot\BCD

Trying to edit the BCD with HBCD command prompt give an error message :

The BCD store couldn't be openned. The requested system device cannot be found.

Opening the BCD with HBCD Bella Vista program also gives an error message :

No BCD configuration is available in the system registry. Do you want to choose the BCD hive manually ?

So, I have to manually choose the BCD to edit it with Bella Vista, but I prefer the presentation of BootICE to tweak the BCD, which also can't find the default system BCD that I also need to load manually.

Does this mean that a missing/corrupted registry entry is involved here and that I should address this issue too ?

The Windows 7 AIO installation CD, on the "Repair" path, sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. When it does, I get this new BCD, then it fails to save it and my c:\boot\BCD vanishes !!!

The W7 AIO installation CD Repair cmd console gives (when it wants):

c:\>bcdedit

Windows boot manager
---------------------------------
identificateur               {bootmgr}
device                            partition=C:
path                                \bootmgr
description                   Windows Boot Manager
locale                             fr-FR
inherit                            {globalsettings}
extendedinput             Yes
default                           {default}
resumeobject              {949530c9-260b-11e0-89c4-d1578960a38e}
displayorder                 {default}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                         30
customactions            0x1000085000001
                                        0x5400000f
custom:5400000f     {949530cd-260b-11e0-89c4-d1578960a38e}

Windows boot loader
-----------------------------
identificateur              {default}
device                           partition=D:
path                               \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description                   Windows 7
locale                             fr-FR
inherit                            {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence      {949530cd-260b-11e0-89c4-d1578960a38e}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                        partition=D:
systemroot                   \Windows
resumeobject               {949530c9-260b-11e0-89c4-d1578960a38e}
nx                                     OptIn
detecthal                       Yes

HBCD BootICE gives this for:

SYSTEM \boot\ BCD,

MAIN \boot\ BCD

RECOVERY \boot\ BCD

Why the MAIN and the RECOVERY BCDs since the laptop boots only with the SYSTEM BCD ?

This is ALL (finally) folks ! ALL I want is to revive the HP Recovery function. 

Any Ideas anyone ?

Best regards

iBenny

[CherylG]

Two thoughts.

1-Boot with a utility cd and mark the Recovery partition as Active. On reboot it should boot into recovery to do a fresh install.

2- If you can read the 25 character license key on lable attached to bottom of laptop do a clean install using the Windows 7 disk you have.

I assume the owner never made his/her Recovery DVD set?

[iBenny]

Hi Cheryl

I assume the owner never made his/her Recovery DVD set?

I suppose...

First, you forget to tell that the SYSTEM drive have to be UNactivated... or do I keep both Activated ?

Second, I did Activate RECOVERY and UNactivate SYSTEM to no avail ! I got a Windows Boot Manager (WBM) black window message with the three steps to fix the problem on top and the message further down:

File: \windows\system32\winload.exe

Status: 0xc000000f

info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupted.

First the File indicated was in E:\windows\system32\boot\winload.exe and I erased the \boot folder from the entry to no avail. Same WBM black page message with the corrected File path.

One sure thing I found is that making the RECOVERY partition "Active" will instruct the boot manager to work with the RECOVERY C:\boot\ BCD file. HERE are the BCD modifications I did.

The bizzare thing I wonder though is that though the name of the partition is correct, it's number and drive letter are inconsistant since as shown in the drivemap HERE, the RECOVERY partition is indeed in third position (i.e. no 2), but it's drive letter is C: !? The drive letters aren't following the drive partition order. This could only be after a shuffeling of the partitions (that I doubt have been done), or a virus tinkering with the letters and rendering the system unbootable.

Can somebody having a 4 partition HP laptop veryfy this situation please ?

And for now folks... no Recovery in sight !

Some other ideas ?

Regards

iBenny

[iBenny]

Hi Cheryl,

I may have given confusing report in last post since this morning, the pc (laptop) seams to boot differently. Since the RECOVERY partition is set "active", it does boot using the RECOVERY \boot\BCD file. This one :

but the WBM gives this error:

File: \windows\system32\winload.exe

Status: 0xc000000f

info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupted.

Ok, so I added a new BCD entry like this :

and got this WBM error :

File: \Recovery\windowsRE\winre.wim

Status: 0xc000000d

info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupted.

Was my entry configurations wrong and caused the failure ? Like making  Sys root = C:\ ? or does the two "Detect Hal" and "WinPE Mode" settings relevant to the failure ?

Next step after trying to correct this entry will be to add another one in order to boot winre.wim from a Ramdrive. But you will have to help me on this one...

Best regards

iBenny

[iBenny]

No thanks for the limitted support...

Problem resolved HERE.

iBenny