How to recover windows 8.1 from ESD image

plavikisobran

New Member
Messages
2
How to recover windows 8.1 from ESD image?

Hi,
I have problem with accessing my recovery image partition. I tried to change partition ID and to change WinRE location using reagentc command but no success or I skipped something.
Here is my situation.
I have Prestigio Visconte 1st generation tablet with windows 8.1 and office 2013 Home & Student.
Tablet has been upgraded itself to windows 10 which is not verified to be compatible with this tablet so I want to return to original Windows 8.1. I tried it using recover from system image from recovery enviroment but without success or I don't know how to do it properly. I can see in MiniTool Partition Wizard that I have RecoveryImage partition with install.esd file and two recovery partitions sized 300 and 450 MB. I think that 450 MB partition belongs to Windows 10 and that 300 MB partition belongs to original windows 8.1.

Here is what reagentc /info shows:

Reagentc.PNG

and what diskpart says:

diskpart.PNG
and this is what MiniTool says before I tried to change WinRE location:

MiniTool Partition.PNG

Now it shows that 300 MB partition is almost empty. I made .img file of this partition from gparted in linux before I started to mess with reagentc.

And at last this is what Disk management says:

Disk management.PNG

Maybe I can re-create Reagentc settings from begining but I don't know how to do it without loosing recovery image.
I am open to any suggestion.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 98 -> Windows 10
type the following to set winre to windows 8.1 re

Code:
Reagentc /setreimage /path \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition1\Recovery\WindowsRE\ /Target C:\Windows
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
First, one more question. How can I start recovery process from partition with recovery image if manufacturer does not provide key combination or something like that?

Can I use fresh Windows 8.1 installation on USB and change original install.esd file with one from recovery partition?

...Or is it OK to do fresh installation of Windows 8.1 deleting all partitions but recovery image partition and than trying to recover everything from .esd file?

I tried this what you suggested but it happened that it erased everything on that partiton after I executed reagentc /disable or moved it somewhere else. Good thing is that I have copy of that partition.

So far I also tried to format both recovery partitions and copy winre.wim file (241 MB version from backup not from windows 8.1 ISO) on first than on another partition (separate use-cases) and to delete reagent.xml file from system32/recovery folder and re-register locations with reagentc.
I read it here:
Customizing the recovery partition after upgrading the OS from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 | Ask the Core Team

Than I restarted computer but I do not have option like OEM recovery or something like that. I have system image recovery option but now it says I do not have admin account.

Also I found another winre.wim file in .esd file from recovery partition at /system32/Recovery and it is sized ~356 MB. I tried procedure from the above with this file.

Maybe I am doing something wrong or I am missing some steps or I am using wrong files oooor Windows is always putting its files instead my files :/
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 98 -> Windows 10
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