Recovery Media/Partition is not showing/working

[zBarryz]

Hi Folks,

Coming from a pc that i built my own with windows 7 to a windows 8 Sony vaio pro 13 laptop was not easy for me recently .

long story short, i was trying to install Ubuntu alongside windows 8.1 pro. However, that was very unsuccessful, due to a what i think UEif, secure boot and some other reasons that im still unsure of. Now regardless of all that, i think during the process of trying to solve that problem and get linux running as a secondary os on my laptop, i did something wrong. i did play with partitions however l i do not remember touching any of the recovery partitions. i also downloaded two softwares to try and boot linux which are :

-EasyBCD - boot management
-Ease Partition Master - partition management

after so many failed attempted i thought to my self that maybe i should re-install windows and everything. Sony Vaio laptops have a button called Assist, when pressed it will boot to Sony diagnostics and recovery tools. Thar recovery tool usually allows you to format your laptop and re-installs everything along with all the softwares that sony provided with the laptop. That did not work for me for the first time since i got the laptop i tried different methods including advanced startup all option can;t seem to find the recovery partition. I tried to go to PC Setting > recovery > refresh & reset. None works and it asks me to insert a recovery media. So i went to disk management, and here is whats there :



the partition is there, i even went to (Diskpart) and i can see the recovery partition, but for some reason sony recovery tool and windows can't see it any more; which drives my crazy. not even restore points are there

Any help would be appreciated to help me solve and understand this.


Thank you all

 

[KYHI]

from command prompt (admin) type one line at a time

diskpart
list disk
list volume
select disk 0
list partition
exit
reagentc /info

post a pic of cmd windows

 

[genet]

https://community.sony.com/t5/VAIO-...partitions-what-are-they-good-for/td-p/305424

I bought a Vaio Pro 13 yesterday and am a bit surprised that out of the 125GB SSd I had only 65 GB available for my own data. After looking into the Computer Disk Management it shows me four hidden partitions.

980 MB OEM Partition X)
840 MB Recovery Partition
260 MB EFI System Partition
15.89 GB Recovery Partition

X) Some computer manufacturers (Lenovo/Sony) have their own GUIDs for partitions that hold boot loaders to launch manufacturer-specific recovery tools.



You need to manually select the Windows RE tools partition and Recovery image partition and then you have to change the partitions ID.

Take a look at this post: link

- Note that the Reserved 128 MB partition is not visible within Disk Management utility, but it is listed with command line utility (diskpart).

- Open a command prompt as administrator and type (or copy and paste) the following commands.

Note: Do not select the Sony OEM partition.

diskpart
select disk 0
list partition

select partition # Note: Select the Windows RE tools partition.
set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001

select partition # Note: Select the Recovery image partition.
set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001

list partition
exit

 

[zBarryz]

I change the id as above, unfortunately it didn't work.

the partitions changed were changed to recovery, however im not sure about one of them which is called Sony System. is that supposed to be a recovery too ? or OEM ? if not how to changed it back ?


here are screen shots of reagent/ diskpart and the partitions

 

[genet]

OEM is BFBFAFE7-A34F-448A-9A5B-6213EB736C22

- Open a command prompt as administrator and type (or copy and paste) the following commands.

diskpart
select disk 0
list partition

select partition 1
set id=BFBFAFE7-A34F-448A-9A5B-6213EB736C22
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001

list partition
exit

 

[KYHI]

This is getting confusing - to many hands in the pot..

Reagentc /setreimage /path \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition2\Recovery\WindowsRE
Reagentc /setosimage /path \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition6\RecoveryImage /index 1

Right now you have your winre registered on C:\recovery\windowsre\winre.wim (reagentc /info)
windows recovery agent is also enabled,

now you need to register the recovery image..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

right click start flag > command prompt(admin)
type> diskpart
type> select disk 0
type> list volume

You will see a lot of volumes without drive letters assigned.. Find the 10-20GB volume number

type> select volume # (# being the volume number without a drive letter)
type> assign letter=R
type> exit (to exit diskpart)

You can now browse thru R and find Install.wim or Install.swm(s) - those are your Factory recovery Images..

Note: Assuming the install* file(s) are on "R" and in a folder called "RecoveryImage"
Note: Change "drive letter" and "folder name" to suit your system setup

type> Reagentc /Setosimage /Path R:\RecoveryImage /Target C:\Windows /Index 1

 

[zBarryz]

Thank very much guys,
@ KYHI , I assigned R: and I can see the recovery image ( INSTALL.WIM) however when I send this command:

 Reagentc /Setosimage /Path R:\Recovery /Target C:\Windows /Index 1

The Recovery letter in now "R" and its name is "Recovery
I get this in return :

REAGENTC.EXE: The specified path was not found

should I be exucting these commands on your post "

Reagentc /setreimage /path \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition2\Recovery\WindowsRE
Reagentc /setosimage /path \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition6\RecoveryImage /index 1


because I did and I get same results for the second one, and the first one says its already enabled.

Thanks in advanced

 

[zBarryz]

by the way, just wanted to provide more info .. the paths are different for the recovery image .. is that normal ?

 

[zBarryz]

Update,

I changed the command to : Reagentc /Setosimage /Path C:\Reco /Target C:\Windows /Index 1

After coping the wim file to c drive , and i can now reset the pc .. however none of drive or sony software are there .. its the same as installing from a usb drive.

 

[KYHI]

and I can see the recovery image ( INSTALL.WIM)

Where?? What was the path? R:\recovery\install.wim ?
Although can not be right because - path not found error message..
And also not R;\Recoveryimage\install.wim - because same error message

You can now browse thru R and find Install.wim or Install.swm(s) - those are your Factory recovery Images..

Note: Assuming the install* file(s) are on "R"and in a folder called "RecoveryImage"

Note: Change "drive letter" and "folder name" to suit your system setup

type> Reagentc /Setosimage /Path R:\RecoveryImage /Target C:\Windows /Index 1

Reagentc /setosimage /path \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition6\RecoveryImage /index 1

I'm not sure what you did, what folder you found and what wim you copied where..

Edit,
> C:\recovery\windowsre\winre.wim < you only got that by following the guide posted, rather then providing the diskpart info as requested.. because it is not the windows OS standard winre.wim location..
A guide which should of never been shown to you as a reference and you should not have followed ..

But it all may be to late now if you reset the PC..
Just start over with a pic showing the diskpart cmd window -