This process was written to help those who might be unable to Reset they systems after doing the 8 to 8.1 upgrade. The situation in this thread shows the Recovery Tools partition is still set to the Original Recovery Tools partition and a Reset is not possible. Most of these seemed to be ASUS folks, but I have now seen a Dell system with the same indications. The process is not hard to complete but you will need some experience with a Command Prompt Window. Make sure you try a Reset from within Windows first to make sure it will not work that way either.
This is being done on a UEFI install. Partitons will be different for a Legacy install, if you even have an Image to use to reset.
It is important you gather information prior to starting the process so it will be readily available. You will need:
The path to your Factory Reset image in the large Recovery partition.
The Index of the Factory Image you need to use.
Make sure you put spaces in the commands where needed, usually in front of /. It is not always easy to tell when reading a description such as this.
Both of these are available in the listing from a
reagentc /info command when run in an administrative command window.
C:\WINDOWS\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:
Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location:
\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition1\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 20aa6f62-d226-11e3-9510-a21b36ea8e97
Recovery image location:
\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition7\RecoveryImage <-- path
Recovery image index: 1 <--index
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0
REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.
The overall process involves getting into the Windows 8.1 Recovery Command prompt, the one you have to sign in to. From there, you use Diskpart to list the Drive letters while in the Recovery environment, set a drive letter on the Recovery Image partition, and format and assign the letter C: to the OS partition.
After that, you use DISM to apply the Factory image to the OS partition.
After the image has been applied, you use a bcdboot c:\Windows command to refresh the BCD Store so you can reboot into Windows 8.
If you want to try, we can get started. The disclaimer is something can always go wrong and you might loose your install. But protect your Factory image however you can. External Recovery Media and a System Image Backup are always good to have.
Charms Bar - Settings - Change PC Settings - Update & Recovery - Recovery - Advanced Startup - Restart
Troubleshoot - Advanced - Command Prompt
and another reboot.
Troubleshoot - Advanced - Command Prompt and sign in.
Open Diskpart. The Drive numbers and partition numbers you need to use may be different from mine. Check the listing to make sure you are working on the correct partition.
Diskpart
list volume <-- use as a reference
list disk
select disk 0 <-- Use correct number from listing, probably 0
list partition
select partition 7 <-- Large (~20 GB) recovery partition
assign letter="R"
Format the Windows partition:
Select partition 4 <-- Number of OS partition
format quick fs=ntfs <-- formatting is not required, but allows a cleaner reset. Once done, your install is gone, for now.
assign letter="C"
exit
Now use DISM with the paths and index you should already have. For help, use DISM /Apply-Image /?
Dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:R:\RecoveryImage\install.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:C:\
When it finishes, run this command.
bcdboot C:\Windows
then reboot your system. You may need to check the Bios to make sure the correct boot device is set as first priority. But you should now be able to boot into Windows 8.
Cleanup:
You also need to check the reagentc /info listing to see if the Factory Image is still registered. If it is not, use the command below to set it.
Assuming the Recovery Image partition still shows as R: but if not, use Diskpart to reassign the letter.
reagentc /setosimage /path R:\RecoveryImage /index 1
Check to make sure it worked, then remove the drive letter from that partition. Use Diskpart to find the partition again, and instead of using assign letter="R", just use Remove.