Solved Windows 8.1 Pro Automatic Repair Error

[mag1c]

Thanks for your reply. I understand how to do part 1(how do I know which drivers to use?

NO need to load any drivers, you just using LOAD DRIVERS to see the drives.

Is part 2 assuming after part 1 I have a functional computer and can get to the desktop? Thank you.

Needs to be made on a working PC.

I was able to pull it up so I can view drives.

Now in part 2 I am stuck at this


I do not see winre.wim in that folder?

I only see BIN folder and winre64-runmeasadmin

 

[SIW2]

Not clear to me what you are trying to do.

If you want to make the winpe media, placing your own customised winre.wim there is optional. ( In that particular case, the poster wanted to make 8.0 winpe, tho he was running a different os. That is why he put an 8.0 winre.wim there. )

The normal way is just to run the .cmd as administrator, that will try and find the standard winre.wim already supplied as part of win7/8.

 

[SIW2]

What os are you using to make your winpe on?

 

[mag1c]

What os are you using to make your winpe on?

I have a pc with win 7 and a windows 8.1 installation dvd inserted.

I saw this by googling...link

I'm not sure how to get the winre.wim file... and was hoping the link I found would allow me to do that from the win8 installation media

 

[SIW2]

Quite easy to extract it from install.wim.

If you are trying to go back to 8.0 using 8.0 recovery partition, then you would need 8.0 winre.wim.

What exactly are you trying to do ?

[ no point in mucking about with dism mounting, just use 7-zip, it can copy stuff out of lots of compressed files, including .wims ]

 

[mag1c]

Quite easy to extract it from install.wim.

If you are trying to go back to 8.0 using 8.0 recovery partition, then you would need 8.0 winre.wim.

What exactly are you trying to do ?

[ no point in mucking about with dism mounting, just use 7-zip, it can copy stuff out of lots of compressed files, including .wims ]

My main problem is basically this: stuck in automatic repair loop, none of the options or previous methods have worked and I cannot format bc I need info off the HDDs.

Now I can either do that by your method apparently, or I would be fine with somehow connecting my two HDDs in RAID0 to another computer and getting the data off that way...(although I am not quite sure how to connect HDDs in RAID0 to another computer to extract data...)

Honestly, someone suggested an idea and at this point i'm all for trying whatever your method accomplishes...

 

[SIW2]

Like this:










DOWNLOAD-7z932-x86.msi

DOWNLOAD-7z932-x64.msi

 

[SIW2]

The winpe has an explorer so you can copy anything off easily.

You could use one made on windows 7. The only thing is you need to turn off secure boot to boot 7winpe on a machine that came with 8 pre installed.

If you know how to turn off secure boot, then just go ahead run the .cmd as administrator and it will find your win7 winre.wim make a win7 winpe for you. ( That assumes you are using 64 bit win7 ).

 

[mag1c]

The winpe has an explorer so you can copy anything off easily.

You could use one made on windows 7. The only thing is you need to turn off secure boot to boot 7winpe on a machine that came with 8 pre installed.

If you know how to turn off secure boot, then just go ahead run the .cmd as administrator and it will find your win7 winre.wim make a win7 winpe for you. ( That assumes you are using 64 bit win7 ).

My desktop was upgraded to win8.1 from windows 8 but was previously windows 7.

So I used 7-zip to get to the install.wim from the windows 8.1 dvd and I copied the winre.wim to the folder c:\winre64 and it disappears immediately after it's copied....

I am using a laptop with Win 7 to do this by the way.

 

[SIW2]

Perhaps you need to have hidden files showing?

You would probably be better just running the .cmd file. If the hidden 8.1 winre is there , it will be used, but you don't have one component that would be good to include. That is explorerframe.dll from 8.1. Use 7-zip to get it from install.wim system32, copy it into RE64\BIN\x64\windows\system32.

( You can show hidden and system files in folder options )

 

[mag1c]

Perhaps you need to have hidden files showing?

You would probably be better just running the .cmd file. If the hidden 8.1 winre is there , it will be used, but you don't have one component that would be good to include. That is explorerframe.dll from 8.1. Use 7-zip to get it from install.wim system32, copy it into RE64\BIN\x64\windows\system32.

( You can show hidden and system files in folder options )

I copied the explorerframe.dll and it was already there. I have hidden files and folders showing and the file does not show, but if I try to copy it again from install.wim it says it's already there....

Now I continue your steps on the other thread and after I do that, what exactly do I need to do with this usb drive with these files?

 

[SIW2]

1) Winre.wim is a hidden os file. Best to open an admin cmd prompt and type:

attrib -s -h c:\winre64\winre.wim

then press enter. Now you should be able to see it.


2) If explorerframe is already there, overwrite it so you know for sure it is the correct one.

3) Then rt click and run as admin on the WINRE64.cmd file.

4) It will ask if you want to make an iso. Probably easiest to say yes, then use Rufus to put the iso onto usb.


downloadRufus v1.4.3




LOL. Just remembered that one is called winre64, not RE64 which is a different one I made.

 

[mag1c]

1) Winre.wim is a hidden os file. Best to open an admin cmd prompt and type:

attrib -s -h c:\winre64\winre.wim

then press enter. Now you should be able to see it.


2) If explorerframe is already there, overwrite it so you know for sure it is the correct one.

3) Then rt click and run as admin on the WINRE64.cmd file.

4) It will ask if you want to make an iso. Probably easiest to say yes, then use Rufus to put the iso onto usb.


downloadRufus v1.4.3


View attachment 37153

LOL. Just remembered that one is called winre64, not RE64 which is a different one I made.

That's okay I figured out what you Meant, I used rufus to make the bootable usb from the iso in winre64... Now do I just stick the USB in my desktop and edit the bios to boot from the USB? I'm not sure if my bios can even boot from USB to be honest... :/


edit: just kidding I figured out how to boot from the USB and did so. Now I click swminstall and I'm confused from there it says to go to sources on the USB Drive and click the install.swm and the only options I have are bootx64.wim and install.wim and if I try install.wim it says "No. Image name"

 

[SIW2]

If you want to install, then I assume you have copied off everything you need?


SWMinstaller is for .Swm files. (split wim files). Install.wim is .Wim file. Use the other one called WIMinstall.

 

[mag1c]

If you want to install, then I assume you have copied off everything you need?


SWMinstaller is for .Swm files. (split wim files). Install.wim is .Wim file. Use the other one called WIMinstall.

I can load up to the usb drive fine and get to the menu, when I browse my drives I don't see any of my data under my localdisk-users-pictures/videos/documents etc... the explorer in the menu only shows 1.66tb free (91%) on my local disk E:..so are my files gone I would say at this point? I had at least 500+gigs of data from 2tb.

I am sorry I am completely stupid with this, I wasn't sure what to do when I eventually got to this point. I was figuring it would fix my boot files and allow my computer to start up normally....

I don't know if this matters but I was able to browse to my local drive and I see a winre.wim file if that helps me at all.

 

[theog]

Can you see your HDD's & Partition on your PC?
If NO

You may need to install the Raid drives in LOAD DRIVERS.

In SIW2 Recovery USB drive, it is called DRVRLOAD

 

[mag1c]

Yes I can see my drives. It lists a recovery drive, my local drive and the USB with SIW2 program on it. (I'm at work that's all I can remember it lists for drives)

So what exactly do I need to do at this point to maybe recover the data from my drives?

 

[theog]

If you have a External HD, you could copy & paste your data,
than copy & paste your data to your clean install.

 

[mag1c]

Yeah that's where I'm stuck. When I went to my local drive, users and default I see no data in any main folders. (Music,pictures,documents,videos)

 

[theog]

Did you add Recuva to SIW2 Recovery USB drive?
If YES, try running RECUVA to try & find the files.