Windows 10 Recovery after deleting the UEFI Windows partition

[DmitryOv]

Hello,

I have a notebook 17-y042ur, ProdID Y6H47EA#ACB, SN# 8CG6428WHL.

Recently I tried installing Manjaro Linux and made a serious mistake by deleting the first UEFI partition and by replacing it with a Linux EFI one. All other partitions remain intact.

As a result, I cannot proceed the standard steps of the recovery process by pressing F11.

As I see now, F11 is trying to call something like "run the Windows loader from the UEFI partition with a special recovery flag".

Is there a way to recover the Windows 10 Installation in my case?

Thank you,

Dmitry Ovchinnikov

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You can make your own plain W10 installation media by using the media creation tool at the link below.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

You will have the choice of making a bootable USB installation flash drive, or save an ISO file that you can burn to a DVD using the burn ISO file on your DVD burning program.

The software will work with the W10 product key in your notebook's BIOS, and will activate once you are connected to the internet.

[DmitryOv]

Thank you very much. I'll try this.

[DmitryOv]

After reinstalling (PC is always on-line), Windows is not activated. Error code is 0x803F7001. There was a message about "changes in hardware".

[DmitryOv]

Can a shrinked NTFS volume be a hardware change so that Windows couldn't find a way to activate itself?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I didn't think so.

I thought the only change in hardware that Microsoft cares about is if you change the motherboard.

I would contact Microsoft and ask them for help with activating your installation.

[DmitryOv]

I tried to use your utility to show the product number. It shows me that my Windows must be "Single Language". So, I pretty sure I could download that distro from the Microsoft site and try again. I'll try this after work today. Thank you again.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Yes, if you can download the correct W10 version from MS, the key should work.

[DmitryOv]

I've just activated Windows Home Single Language.

But with the key showed by your utility ShowKeyPlus (Windows didn't activate automatically).

Thank you very much !!!
I don't remember when I used to use Windows last time because I use Linux at work and at home.

But I'm also a stingy person who doesn't want to lose paid OEM licenses in laptops 😄

So, this case will make me more careful in the future.

I never thought that current proprietary OSes do not provide easy way to recover.

Thank you again!!!

Despite the fact that my old system was Windows RTM, not Home, that's enough for me because I only need to test my Java apps on it.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.