Solved Identifying partitions on HP Pavilion 15 HDD for SSD image

[Slartybart]

You can move the special user folders, but it's better to leave them on a drive in the system. If you put them on an external drive, you'll need to carry that drive with you ALL the time.

The double Recovery partition is disconcerting - maybe KYHI has an answer.
Please launch an elevated Command prompt (right click command, select Run as administrator...)
enter the following commands

Diskpart
lis dis
sel dis 1
lis par
sel par 2
det par
lis vol
det vol
exit

*** before you exit Command Prompt grab a screenshot and post it - thanks

exit​

 

[Damaha]

Great, thanks for this - just away from the machine but will send details asap

 

[Damaha]

Here's what I got from Diskpart - any thoughts v welcome.
Maybe fiddling with the Users folders is a bit risky? Everything is working fine it seems, so maybe just a superficial thing...
Thanks again!

 

[Slartybart]

Thanks, I didn't know that there wasn't a volume associated with par 2 ....

Please run one more time - and I'll give you the volume # to get the details

Launch an elevated Command prompt (right click command, select Run as administrator...)
enter the following commands

Diskpart
lis dis
sel dis 1
lis par
sel par 2
det par
lis vol
sel vol 5
det vol
att vol
exit

*** before you exit Command Prompt grab a screenshot and post it - thanks

exit​

thanks

Bill
.

 

[Damaha]

Thanks very much for this - just away from the machine for a couple of days now but will get back to you asap - advice much appreciated.

 

[Slartybart]

Thanks very much for this - just away from the machine for a couple of days now but will get back to you asap - advice much appreciated.

No worries, when you get the chance. This is investigative work - your install is running well.

Bill
.

 

[Damaha]

Finally managed to complete this exploration on Diskpart - here are the results (just the last screen)

 

[Slartybart]

Thanks, I don't see anything that explains the 'duplicate' HP RECOVERY shown in Disk Management.

The Hidden 300 MB Recovery part is Win8 - it has nothing to do with the HP RECOVERY part - don't let the names throw you off.
-> I picked the wrong volume the first time I asked you to post a Diskpart screen shot. After seeing the volume list, it was easy to figure out the correct volume - thanks.

Vol 0 is your Optical drive
Vols 1, 2, and 3 are on your SSD - you don't want to fool around with those.
Vols 4 and 5 are on your HDD.

Try this:
Change the drive letter for your Optical drive to U in Disk Management
I use U for the optical drive on my system because discs are in the Universal Disk Format (UDF) - it's just a letter.
Answer yes when Disk Management warns you that some applications might use the letter .....

Safely remove the external drive
This is an important step - otherwise SCRUB will have little effect on the drive letters for that drive

Launch Diskpart in and elevated Command Prompt
Enter the following commands

auto scrub
exit
exit​

AUTOMOUNT SCRUB:
Removes mounted folder pathnames, drive letters, mounted folder directories, and registry settings, for volumes that are no longer in the system.
This prevents volumes that were previously in the system from being automatically assigned their former drive letters and mounted folder pathnames when they are reintroduced to the system.

Restart the machine
Connect the external drive ( I expect Storage to be assigned the letter D and RECOVERY to be assigned the letter E)
Regardless of the letters assigned, the objective is to make the HP RECOVERY partition have drive letter D
In Disk Management - change the drive letters accordingly -
if Storage is D, change it to Z
Change (or add) D to the HP RECOVERY part
Change Storage to E (or what ever letter you choose)

It is very important to be certain that you're changing the HP RECOVERY part drive letters
:ar: don't mess around with the Win8 Recovery part!

-> Note the capitalization difference.
-> Note the size differences

Win8 Recovery = 300 MB
HP RECOVERY = 21 GB​

 

[Damaha]

Hey great! but here is the Disk Management with RECOVERY as D - everything worked just as you said. Still duplicated -- odd.
Sorry for slow replies, I am commuting out of town regularly at the moment and access to machine can be patchy. Away tomorrow again for a couple of days,
I wonder if I can actually image this partition, put it on a USB and use it as an alternative Recovery USB? I took the old one back to the shop and told them about the Error message - they gave me a refund and recommended using Windows Recovery to make another - is that the System Image that KYHI was talking about?
If I use Macrium Reflect or something like that to get an image of the Recovery Partition and transfer it off the machine, would it still be useable? It would get rid of this mysterious duplication too.
Any suggestions very welcome meanwhile - thanks for the instructions on getting D back on the partition.

 

[KYHI]

You have several options..

1) Register the recovery image - then create recovery media through control panel - remove partition

Reagentc /Setosimage /Path d:\preload /Target c:\Windows /Index 1

=================================================

2) Copy every thing from D to a USB (except recycle and system volume info) the USB will be bootable - test boot - remove D partition

=============================================

3) Edit your BCD and add the boot entry for drive D - keep partition

==========================================

4) set the GPT id and attributes - to hide the partition

diskpart
select volume # = D
set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001

No matter what option you choose - (to restore the factory image to the smaller SSD ) - you will have to edit files..

This is what happens when you want to keep the factory recovery option - but blast ahead with a clean install and deleting hdd partitions.. And assuming you all the facts and (inventory) needed....
Yeah the clean install works - but you still have the same problem as in post one, 50 posts later..

 

[Damaha]

Thanks very much for the suggestions - just mulling this over and very grateful for the advice. I'd probably go for the simplest option or I'll be reaching the limits of my skills. I don't think things are looking too bad - the computer is great, boots quickly, everything running smoothly. I realise I jumped ahead a bit, being a novice with these things, but I can't complain about the results. My data is all on the cloud, also connected to another laptop, so seems quite secure. The Windows 8.1 system is working fine on the SSD. So far as I can see, the worst that can happen is a problem with the System, and I always have the option of re-installing Windows 8.1 as I did before. So data and system are in good shape, and I won't do anything further to risk the latter, particularly.
Recovery media/partitions seem an extra precaution here -- I'm not too anxious if I can just re-install Windows 8.1 as I did before, and my data is unaffected. But for the sake of thoroughness I'd be happy to keep the HP recovery partition. It sounds like this is useable with some adjustment, although when I tried the HP Recovery Media (which was the official and only HP Recovery USB available to me, as I have shown in earlier messages) I got an error message so that was no good.
I don't know if the Recovery Partition would also bring up that error message or if I would necessarily need it, as I have the Windows 8.1 re-install option. But to keep it on the HDD and/or to copy it on to a USB is fine - plenty of space on the HDD. The duplicate entry on Disk Management is the only bugbear, but a harmless one it seems. I wonder if there's any significance that one entry is marked NTFS, and the other is not. I guess I could copy the contents of the partition onto E (or onto a USB), delete D, recreate it, then copy the contents back onto it again.
Anyway, I don't think the machine is any immediate danger and unless I'm missing something its working almost exactly as I'd hoped, but I will choose one of your options no doubt for that last detail of the partition. Thank you both very much for your help and forgive me again for any lack of caution in this process - this will mark the limits of my experimentation!

 

[Slartybart]

You're welcome Damaha ... don't let one misstep bother you too much. As you say, the OS and data are in fine working order and you have the 8.1 install media.

KYHI gave you a good option list - the best option. imo, is Option 1 - create the Recovery drive and remove the partition (or leave it - only 20+ GB)

I was searching HP for some information, and saw another person with the identical issue (nah - I know it was you ) An interesting point - I read many reports of HP recovery drives failing to recover he machine to factory settings - just like yours did.. Some folks just closed the tool [X} and that solved the error message!

If I recall, there was some work you were doing with imaging, prior to that mention, there was nothing about duplicate drive letters, after that mention, there was. Can you shed some light on what you actually did in the first week of Feb (around the 4th).

Unfortunately I don't recall what imaging / cloning software you were trying to use .. a little help from your side of the monitor might make it easier for members on this side to determine what might have gone wrong. It is on the drive though - the OS on the HDD and the OS on the SSD exhibit the same double D.

I think you were also playing around with Partition Wizard (I could be wrong - lots of threads). There's no shame in trouble shooting - only data and steps. If you made a mistake that's ok, people make mistakes But .... if you know that you did something that caused the double D or know what you were doing when it first became apparent then you should let members know. I don't judge people for their lack of computer skills - or anything else really. The more members know about the issue, the better.

So, I was thinking .....

Launch an elevated Command Prompt and run Check Disk on both partitions, D: | E: , on the HDD
Run it twice: read only first and then with the fix errors option if needed

chkdsk d:
chkdsk e:
exit
restart


If the double D volume is no longer an issue, you can skip running the fix errors option - won't hurt though.

chkdsk d: /f
chkdsk e: /f

Just don't run the recover bad sectors option - I've seen disks get trashed if there is still an unresolved underlying issue. Chkdsk thinks all sectors are bad a tries to repair them - it' s a mess!

Bill
.

 

[Slartybart]

This is what happens when you want to keep the factory recovery option - but blast ahead with a clean install and deleting hdd partitions.. And assuming you all the facts and (inventory) needed....
Yeah the clean install works - but you still have the same problem as in post one, 50 posts later..

Thanks for posting the option list KYHI. I'm a bit perturbed at the 2nd or 3rd 'assuming' comment though, I can say that I am not. The HP Drive had all of the pieces, you counted 20 some odd files, did the math and you assumed that was all there was. I know HP and I saw the full list on Damaha's post on the HP forum.

There was ample safety net and you've just proven that again by providing the option list. If you decided not to post that, I would have provided a smaller option list to Damaha. There was nothing catastrophic about removing the previous Windows partition. No data was lost, the HP Recovery part is still there and the drive works fine.

Yeah, the clean install works great, doesn't it!
Do you have any suggestion on the double D issue? If you made any, I missed them.
I don't count days or posts. I count solutions.

I think you're a fairly intelligent person, but you're a bit weak on people skills. I'm here to help other members solve issues on Windows, not belittle other members.

 

[KYHI]

the d drive is bootable and has a set ID

I find it funny that I have been dismissed from this topic several times by you and him - but I keep getting my name pulled into it.. But still any advice I give, gets dismissed..

So, how can you sovle a problem - if people do not take advise?

You don't..

And Honestly - he does not need that recovery partition - as it is useless to him now..

 

[Damaha]

Hey both, not to worry, everything is running smoothly. Thanks Slartybart, I'll give you a run-down of everything I've done on the machine at some point for future reference. Well-spotted, some of this was posted in the HP forum too!, but I have to say the responses on here were by far the most helpful - thanks again.

I considered using cloning/imaging methods around the time you mentioned, Slartybart, but in the end went with your method: simply inserting the new SSD, removing the HDD, installing Windows 8.1 on the SSD, then re-inserting the HDD, and formatting the main partition, leaving only the Recovery Partition. So in fact the double D recovery partition is exactly the same one on the same HDD that I started out with - as shown in my very first post here. Perhaps some quirk in the drive that was there before I did anything?

If I seemed to ignore any advice along the way, it was only because I was always going for the simplest options, the methods that I was capable of -- and the results have been great, with no serious worries and plenty of safety nets at this point, so to be honest I have no regrets and am pretty delighted with the 8.1 reinstall recommended by S. Things are looking good. There was some confusion because KYHI recommended creating a Recovery Drive but I knew I couldn't create a new HP recovery drive aside from the one I bought. You're only allowed to create one and can't make another (and the one I purchased apparently didn't work). But what I think I didn't grasp was that I could also use the Windows File History program and choose System Image Recovery? I think you both now recommend that so am working on it.

"1) Register the recovery image - then create recovery media through control panel - remove partition

Reagentc /Setosimage /Path d:\preload /Target c:\Windows /Index 1"

OK, now I get you -- this is using Windows File History to create the System Image Recovery back-up on another Hard Drive, and then use the same tool to create a USB recovery drive. I have now cottoned on that this is different from creating the HP recovery drive. So I am going to do that. But what is that last line in the quote above - is it to be entered as a Command Prompt?

I post below the chkdsk results from the elevated command prompt - I ran it twice as suggested on D, but was warned off from running the second scan on E as it was in use. Checking Disk Management again afterwards, that double D remains! How about I copy the Recovery files onto a USB or onto E, then delete and recreate D, and put them all back on! This is just being pernickity now, but it's a bit of a mission. I understand that D is bootable, but also perhaps superfluous you say KYHI? - perhaps it's best kept on a USB for sake of tidiness, but perhaps not much in it...
Close I think to wrapping this up but I'll be sure to give you a list of what I've done at the end for future ref.
All best meanwhile and much appreciate the time & trouble in responding.

 

[KYHI]

from command prompt(admin)

type> Reagentc /Setosimage /Path d:\preload /Target c:\Windows /Index 1

then type> reagentc /info

post a pic

 

[Damaha]

Ok, following the recommendation of both, attempted option 1 -- but perhaps an issue with the command prompt...

 

[KYHI]

EDIT: I see what you did - you have a space after d:

 

[Damaha]

ok, I fixed that and ran it again...

 

[KYHI]

Now go to control panel - recovery - create a recovery drive..

this will create windows recovery media on usb using the factory install images

Once the process finishes - there will be a check box to remove the recovery partition.. Done..

Now you can create a "FactoryRecovery" folder on your data drive - and copy all the files on the usb into that folder... For safe keeping..