At this point, I just want to get the computer in a working state I don't need to recover and data. Of course I would prefer to be able to extract the original key from the bios, but I can't figure how to run RW everything from a usb or external media.
I am great at getting rid of infections, but obviously know nothing about hard drives and partitions!!
Step by step that Got me to where I am currently:
When I got the laptop it wouldn't boot into windows, I tried refresh and reset and it ended up in a loop. I got my hands on a repair /dvd but wasn't sure if I should boot in uefi or just select the dvd to boot from. (Legacy was set to on)
Then I did this fix (incorrectly) I think, by following these instructions:
"Fix by Vonnie"
1. Assign the Drive Letter
Let’s say your EFI partition is on Volume 3, the next thing you would type is:
sel vol 3
Then assign an arbitrary drive letter to the parition. Let’s use v.
assign letter=v:
You should see a message saying: DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
Exit the diskpart tool by typing:
exit
You should still be in the command prompt but outside of the DISKPART> prompt.
2. Repair the Boot Record
We need to repair the boot record. We can pull that off like so:
cd /d v:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\
bootrec /fixboot
The CD command tells the command line interpreter to change the directory to the volume label that has the EFI boot record.
Then the bootrec /fixboot command attempts to repair the selected volume.
Alright, still with me?
3. Rebuild the BCD store
Now we need to recreate the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store, so let’s backup the existing store first
Type:
ren BCD BCD.old
Now that we backed it up, let’s recreate the BCD store:
bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-us /s v: /f ALL
***NOTE!! I selected volume 3 and used the letter V***** <<<< I didn't really know what I was doing!!>>
Then when I rebooted I got this error which I didn't have before I followed the above instructions:
The Boot Configureation for your PC is missing or contains errors.
File: \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BCD
Error code: 0xc000000f
This is list of partitions after above fix:
UGH, I need help, I just keep making a bigger mess!
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Finally, I got a copy of Windows 8 x 64 from my friend's local computer shop (HRM_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV5) that I figured I could install with a generic key, then afterwards, run rw everything or one of the other programs to get my key from the bios.
Again, Not knowing what I was doing, just assumed I could put it in and run it, but at this point the computer can't find the original OEM windows installation. NOW, I have an unknown "RAW" partition". I know that my stupidity messed up the partitions!
Here is what they look like now via Gparted:
Easy Recovery Essentials shows unknown windows:
Diskpart showing raw:
I also have a copy of: en_windows_8_x64_dvd_915440.iso , that was sent to me by reliable source and I also downloaded the enterprise edition trial HRM_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV5.ISO
I know this is UEFI with EFI and GPT, but all that is over my head. Please help! I promise to give back to the community! I have several recovery disks at my disposal that I can help others' with. I am not a taker, but a giver!
I don't understand partition's and how to edit them. Mr. Saltgrass??
I did not go through all the link topguncp gave you, but I have recovered drives where the Diskpart Clean command had been used. If the clean all command was used, the partitions are probably not recoverable.
I used Partition Wizard to recover the partitions. The trick is, the software has to know before you attempt to recover the partitions, that the drive is configured as GPT. So I booted into the Recovery environment and used Diskpart to set the drive as GPT. I do this from the Recovery Environment so that the MSR partition is not automatically added. Then booted into the Partition Wizard CD to recover the partitions.
To boot to a non-uefi media such as the Partition Wizard CD, you have to set your bios for Legacy devices bootable.
Doing any type of recovery like this is dangerous. But if the recovery does not work, you have lost your data anyway.