Solved System Repair Disc Fails to Boot

[Steve C]

I have Windows 8 64 bit Pro Edition working fine using UEFI boot from a SSD disk. I've twice created a system repair disk on DVD but when I use boot override in the BIOS to boot from the DVD, I get the message "Non-system disk.....What might be the problem?

 

[Brink]

Hello Steve,

How does it work with a recovery USB flash drive instead?

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5132-recovery-drive-create-usb-flash-drive-windows-8-a.html

 

[theog]

Are you booting the CD uEFI mode.

 

[Steve C]

Thanks for your advice.

I created a USB flash drive recovery disc and this works fine using the UEFI USB flash drive boot option!

I then tried booting from the DVD recovery disc using the DVD UEFI boot option as a BIOS boot override option (Gigabyte UD5H). However the Bios screen just flashes and nothing happens. Trying to boot from the DVD non-UEFI option produces the 'non-system disc' error mentioned above.

I'm not too bothered now I have a working USB repair disc, but would like to understand why booting from the DVD repair disc doesn't work.

 

[theog]

I'm not too bothered now I have a working USB repair disc, but would like to understand why booting from the DVD repair disc doesn't work.

Most likely a bad burn.

 

[Brink]

Good news Steve.

I agree with Ray. Most likely a bad burn with the DVD.

 

[Steve C]

I don't think it's a bad burn. I've retried burning a repair CD and DVD and both fail to boot. The CD/DVD contains the same files as the USB repair disc so I don't see why the DVD doesn't boot.

 

[Brink]

Are you able to boot from the DVD on another W8 computer?

 

[SIW2]

More to the point, can you find anybody who has a windows 8 computer?

I don't know any - apart from me.

Perhaps just try booting the dvd on any other machine.

 

[Steve C]

No, the DVD repair discs don't boot on old Win XP system either - I get the same non-system disc error. It seems Windows 8 is not making the DVD repair disc bootable. Do I need to use a particular type of DVD (-R / +R etc)? I can still do a UEFI boot from the Windows 8 installation DVD so the BluRay burner I'm using is OK.

 

[SIW2]

The recovery options on the installation dvd are the same as you would get on the repair cd/dvd.

You may as well just use that.

You might want to make a copy of the installation dvd - in case it gets scratched/whatever.

Pretty easy to do.

Any iso handling/burning program will do that - plenty of free versions around.

 

[Steve C]

OK - I'll just use the original installation DVD. However, I wonder why the system repair disc burned by Windows 8 doesn't work? There is either a problem with Windows 8 producing a system repair disc which can UEFI boot, else there is a problem with my system.

Can someone who has Windows 8 Media Edition 64 bit please burn a CD/DVD system repair disc and see if will complete a UEFI boot to the start screen.

 

[theog]

My Repair CD works fine.

 

[Brink]

 

[Steve C]

Thanks for your help. Failure to boot from a DVD repair disc seems to be a 'feature' of my system. I'll use your alternative solutions which do work for me.