Problem with recovery partition

Hi All,
I just bought an open box asus N550JV but it seems to have some problem with recovery partition. I'm trying to figure it out before sending it back since I got a good deal on it.
I can't get into the recovery by pressing F9. I can get to bios by pressing F2.
I try to use the recovery option in windows 8 under pc setting/general/remove everything and install windows but get the error that some of the files are missing and insert media.
The recovery partitions are there. not sure why F9 doesn't work.
Here are some snapshots of the partitions and settings.
Anybody has a clue what might be wrong. It is a UEFI system and I confirmed there are files and folders in the recovery partitions. I'm also not sure why there are 2 recovery partition.

Everything seems to look the way it should. Maybe you just need to re-register the Recovery image. Try running the following command in an administrative command prompt and attach the results.

reagentc /info

The two recovery partitions are for the Recovery Tools (small one) and the larger one holds the recovery/reset factory image.

Here is the result

I thought I post this 2 screen shot of the contents of the 2 recovery partition aswell.
I'm not sure if the problem is because the recovery image location is missing the address to the file or not.
Anyway here are they.

There should be an install.wim file in the large Recovery partition which would be the reset image. You do show a asus.swm file, which I am used to seeing as one of several sections of a divided .wim file. So I am not certain that file is meant to be used as a Reset, or just the add-on stuff that comes with a OEM system.

If you want to try to register it, we can to see what happens, but maybe someone else will know for sure if that is the file you need. It is about the correct size.

There may be a tutorial for this on the site, but I don't know which one it would be, but you need to put a drive letter on the large recovery partition and set it as the OS image using reagentc.exe

So open an Administrative command prompt. Since you seem to be familiar with Diskpart, I will just give you some specific commands.

After using diskpart to select the drive and the partition (20 G) you need to use this command to assign it a letter

assign letter="R"

Then exit diskpart and run the reagentc command. Make sure and add spaces between sections.

reagentc /setosimage /path r:\ /index 1

I seem to remember the image needs to be in a folder, but I might be thinking of something else. But if it doesn't work, that might be why. You can follow the process on the bottom of this post, but my path to the install.wim file or asus.swm in your case, is different. When you reboot, the drive letter should be removed from the Recovery partition, or you can use the remove letter="R" command in diskpart.

Do you have external media with the recovery options for that system? If you do not, you might contact the place where you bought it or ASUS and see what they can offer.

C:\Windows\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600

Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: W8_1

DISKPART> lis dis

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 223 GB 1024 KB *
Disk 1 Online 238 GB 1024 KB *
Disk 2 Online 1863 GB 1024 KB *

DISKPART> sel dis 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> lis par

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Recovery 300 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 100 MB 301 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 401 MB
Partition 4 Primary 154 GB 529 MB
Partition 5 Primary 67 GB 155 GB
Partition 6 Recovery 15 GB 223 GB

DISKPART> sel par 6

Partition 6 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> assign letter="R"

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

C:\Windows\system32>reagentc /setosimage /path r:\RecoveryImage /index 1
Directory set to: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk1\partition6\RecoveryImage

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.


C:\Windows\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk1\partition1\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 93c4a0a4-40ee-11e3-845a-e199de5c7dd6
Recovery image location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk1\partition6\RecoveryImage
Recovery image index: 1
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

Click to expand...

reagentc is telling me the image file can not be in the root directory.
what would be the set id to unhide the partition in diskpart so I can move the swm file to a directory and see if it works?

I hope I'm not missing an image file

We need to be careful here. If Asus set the image up to restore to factory specs, it might be the ASUS tools which will do that. You should have a key combination to start that process.

If you were to change the location of the file, that process may no longer work. I will see if I can find anything on that system, but some more research and checking with ASUS or a user forum for them, might be advisable.

Well all they have on their manuals are f9 which doesn't work. They have a recovery disk creator software which doesn't work on win 8. I'll try to see if I can ask their support.
I don't think moving a file can cause harm. if it doesn't work it can be put back to where it was. i may be wrong though. these booting process get more complicated everyday specially with this uefi thing.

I just looked at the owner's manual for that system, and it uses the F9 key during boot. Be aware it may be hard to use since the system may boot very quickly.

But it refers to using the Advanced Options and System Image Recovery. To me, this would mean an Image I had created using the utility in Windows 8. But I suppose there is a chance the image you currently have might be useable. You could check that by starting the recovery process and see if it gives you that option, but do not complete it, just see if it finds an image.

You could also try copying the .swm file into a folder such as I show and trying reagentc again. But the warning might be if this is not the correct file, if may end up causing you problems.

the system image recovery is for the image user create i guess and the other options like reset pc doesn't work because it said the image can not be found which makes sense if reagentc doesn't have a osimage specified.
I'll try to use the id of my data drive and use that to make the recovery visible and then copy the file to a directory and put the id back and see what would happen.

I copied the asus.swm file to a folder called Recovery and set is as osimage file with reagentc. it accept the path but still no luck with f9 nor with the windows recovery. still get the message of missing file.

Here are the updates.
I also converted the swm file to wim and set it as os image in reagentc and it didn't work.
Since I couldn't get the recovery to work I decided to deploy the image file manually to the OS partition.
Created the WinPE flash drive and boot into it. from there i used the dism to deploy the swm file that was on my recovery partition to c drive. It did work and I can boot into windows 8. there was couple of difference from when i first start the computer the first time.
I had to choose an option to run the out of the box experiance (OOBE) the first time i boot the sytem and then system restarted and the OOBE started. Also I see a Windows 8 build 9200 on the botton right of the screen which was not there when I boot the computer the first time.
system didn't install all the drivers automatically and I have 6 missing driver. I'd assume they should be in the image file. not sure why they are not.

Also I see a Windows 8 build 9200 on the botton right of the screen which was not there when I boot the computer the first time.

Click to expand...

Which means OS is not activated.
Try
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/29885-activate-windows-8-online.html

I've got the same problem...
View attachment 60203

Honestly, instead of going through all this, why not download a fresh copy of 8.1 right from MS using the media creation tool Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help , it will put it on a USB for you and make it bootable, then just install vanilla 8.1, it should activate automatically from the key in the BIOS, then install all your drivers from Intel, nvidia etc. Sounds like you've got a half baked image on your computer that could possibly be missing key stuff. The boot to audit mode on first boot seems to me like it could be missing the answer file. Whenever I get a new computer I don't even bother with the factory OS. I just wipe and install a fresh Win7/8.1.

Anyway hope you get this solved.