Solved Unable to use built-in ASUS recovery partition

After I reset my PC using the installation media that I created from the Evaluation version of Windows 8.1, it says my license is valid for 90 days.
I've noticed I can no longer press F11 to get back to the recovery menu. It would usually show the "F11" option when I pressed Enter on boot.
It just disappeared, it no longer is there. The reset must have wiped it.
I am now stuck again. Is there a way I can get recovery media from somewhere else? or Is there a solution to this?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Internet Speed
    15 mb/s
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Avast
My first step would be to get a new hard drive to replace the original. You could then use it to recover with a Recovery Drive, which will recover your system to bare metal. If you had a System Image Backup of the original Windows 8 install, or even your Windows 8.1 install you could use that to put yourself back to at least where you are now.

Why would you want to get back to where you are now? Because some of the roadblocks are being thrown up because a different version of an OS is already installed on the system. It might be necessary to remove that before a reset will succeed. Speaking for myself, I am reluctant to recommend anyone remove an OS without knowing for sure they have a backup. If you had the original drive removed from the system and safe, you would be protected.

But if no other procedure would work, you could apply the factory image back to your system, and use the Microsoft Deployment process to get the system back to a functional state. Knowing the Index number for the OS image would be essential, and that information may be contained in your Reagentc /Info listing.

If SIW2's procedure would reset to bare metal, that would be great.

Ordering media from the OEM is also a possibility. If it contained an image to restore the system, you would also be protected.

This entire hassle started because the computer is no longer running as smooth as it should. I think the option that you have indicated is a little bit extreme for me. I am running windows 8.1 and like it and would like to format the windows drive and make a clean install in order for the computer to run smoothly again.
The thing is that i am thinking about downloading and creating an usb stick an installing windows 8.1 from it and then using my serial number to register it (if it won't register by itself as I do not have a serial number written anywhere and i think the system activates using the OEM on board activation). This is my guess and would need to use one of those programs that tell you the serial no.
Anyway, if i will try this i do not know if i will lose the partition with the kit, or if the computer will successfully authenticate or if things like the backlit keyboard will any longer work (and where should i get the asus software that currently came with the laptop).
Any help would be greatly appreciated. :p
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8 x64

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
Are the file SIW2 provided earlier in this thread still available somewhere?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS UX301LA
@ 320i24v

and where should i get the asus software that currently came with the laptop



You will find all the drivers and utilities for your model from the below link.

https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_Transformer_Book_TX300/HelpDesk_Download/


Besides basic drivers, you should install ATKACPI driver and hotkey-related utilities and ASUS Wireless Radio Control. Other utilities can be avoided.

Thank you kindly for your reply! Really helpful!
Any thoughts about my idea? Is it OK to format the laptop the old fashion way and boot from a different USB stick containing windows 8.1 x64 in order for a flawless clean install?
Just a couple of question though:
1) what are your opinions? yes, no, why?
2) why the new 8.1 version activate itself? or will i be able to activate it using the serial number?
3) right-clicked my computer and said i am running windows 8.1 and that's it. didn't say anything else. just windows 8.1. should i download the windows 8.1 version and not the pro, etc. as i won't be able to activate it?

Thank you guys!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8 x64
@320i24v

If your PC works fine without issues, there is no need for a clean install. The error message you are receiving - "A required drive partition is missing " - is not your fault. Your current OS is "Win 8.1" but the recovery image on the laptop is for "Win 8.0" which is the OS originally shipped with your model. When you try to "Refresh" or "Reset" your machine, the recovery environment is looking for "Win 8.1" installation image but all it can find is the "8.0" image in the recovery partition. So the "Reset" function will just display an error message similar to the one you are receiving.

Unfortunately there is no official solution exist to fix this. If Microsoft simply provided an installation image with 8.1 update, we won't have this issue. The only workaround exist is to download either MSDN or Technet version of "Win 8.1 x64" DVD image from net and use it to reset your current Windows installation. The below link will provide you more details.

http://www.eightforums.com/installa...tted-genuine-windows-8-lenovo.html#post330277
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
I hit this same error when trying to restore my asus x200ca didn't have all that much data that I cared about so I formatted the os partition. recovery software worked perfectly afterwards and then I just updated to 8.1.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7/ Win 8/ OSX / Various Linux
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP ProBook 4530s/ MBP
    CPU
    i5/i7
    Memory
    8gb
Hi guys, new to the forum, but I thought I should post what I've been through (thank you Microsoft).

Unfortunately the steps on this post didn't work for me, probably because I only had a working XP machine, and I coudn't create the boot USB stick even though I was able to get the winre.wim and install.wim files but here's my story:


So I had Windows 8.1 on my ASUS K55V, it was having issues like BSOD and shutting off randomly, so I decided to do the recovery, only to find out that windows 8.1 breaks the factory link to recovery.

So it asked for media and I used a windows 8.1 ISO to continue the recovery. Now I had an unlicensed windows 8.1 installed with no ASUS drivers etc. Since it was unlicensed I tried to apply my original ASUS OEM key but it wouldn't accept it. But since I wanted my OS legally licensed I thought I could format it install windows 8 from a dvd then, since it was downgraded to Windows 8 it would allow me to then use the recovery partition, or so I thought...

So I tried to boot a windows 8 but my bios woudn't let me boot from it, so I changed the settings to enable CSM launch, and then finally it would boot, so off I went and formated the OS partition and tried to install it only the get an error: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk the selected disk is of the gpt partition style.".

Fantastic, now I have no OS and can't install one. When rebooting of course it would say there was no bootable media on the PC. So after spending an entire afternoon trying to solve the problem and googling everywhere I was about to give up and thank Microsoft by installing a linux OS and move on. But then I remembered that I should go back to the BIOS/UEFI and disable CSM again and reboot, to my surprise it stated to attempt to repair the OS even though it wasn't there, so of course it wouldn't repair and it would open up the windows 8 blue screen with the troubleshooting options. So I thought it something still has to be there, how would the screen show up with a formatted OS partition? Must be reading another partition, maybe the recovery partition? So still hopelessly I clicked on the Reset PC icon and I was almost shocked when I saw it starting to recover normally.

At the end it recovered successfully to ASUS factory settings!!! First thing I did was to use the windows recovery drive utility and copied the recovery partition to a 16Gb usb stick. No way I'm going through all that again!

At the end I found it very weird not sure if formatting the OS and allowing the PC to open the troubleshooting options on a lower level did it, but I'm happy now!

Sorry for the long post, but it may help someone out.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Hi guys,

Can you provide the tool developed by siw2 (RE64v7i.zip) to create a bootable usb drive? The dropbox links are all broken.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Hey, I'm back and I'm happy to say the problem is resolved :D

I used your tool and it worked great, until I selected my install.wim file. It said that the file contained multiple recovery images (or something similar) and it gave me the option to choose from a list of about 4 images. I didn't know which one to choose so I decided to come back to the forums to ask. And then I saw the post ariftwister made. EaseUS had set the type of my recovery partitions from Recovery to OEM, and so Windows had trouble finding them (since it was looking for a Recovery partition).

So I did the following to fix it:
- Open CMD
- Type diskpart
- Type list disk
- Select the disk with the recovery partition, using select disk # (mine was select disk 0)
- Type list partition
- Select the recovery partition, using select partition # (mine was select partition 6). The partition has OEM listed as its type.
- Then I used set id=27 to set the id to that of Recovery, but since my drive was GPT and not MBR, it didn't work.
- So, I did some Googling and found that for a GPT disk I had to use set id=DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
- So I did set id=DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
- It succeeded, so I again typed list partition and it was now listed as Recovery!
- Rebooted into the Recovery Environment, and it detected my Restore partition and allowed me to reset.

I couldn't be happier :)
And also thanks to everyone for the help, and even though I didn't fully use your tool SIW, I'm sure it can help others a lot, and I really appreciate you making it.

I'm going to restore now, and if it succeeds I'll come back here and mark this thread as solved.

HELP! I cant also reset my asus laptop since it says i must insert the media with recovery partition! i tried this method qub1 used to reset but i still have the same problem. i believe i have the correct partition list(please see pic below)
Capture.PNGCapture1.PNG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
I'm having the same problem, only I can't understand how they're managing to copy an 8.6gb install.wim file onto a fat32 formatted flash drive.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1
I'm having the same problem, only I can't understand how they're managing to copy an 8.6gb install.wim file onto a fat32 formatted flash drive.

Install.wim or Install.swm (splitted WIM ) will be stored inside the hidden 15 -20 GB sized recovery partition. Usually Windows won't allow you to assign drive letter and browse the partition. However you can access and copy the contents using "PartitionGuru".

"PartitionGuru" download : http://www.eassos.com/partitionguru.php

How to copy files : http://www.partitionguru.com/manual/CopyFilesFromPartition.php


If your install.wim is sized 8.6 GB, copy it to a NTFS formatted drive. You can use another flash drive with FAT32 file system for UEFI boot.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8 / 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus N550JV
Guys, I too have been having similar problems with my Asus N550JV. I upgraded to Windows 8.1 and started facing frustrating problems. All I want is to reset my PC via the recovery partition but when I do try, the system claims that the recovery partition is not found. I tried to follow the steps that were mentioned to Qub1 to diagnose his problems and I'm attaching pictures.

Problem 1.jpgProblem 2.jpgProblem 3.jpgProblem 4.jpgProblem 5.jpgProblem 6.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Can someone please help and tell me how qub1 got his problem solved? I'm trying to understand the solution but I just can't since I'm not tech savvy and a complete novice at this.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
You have included many help attachments for us to check your system. But I do not see a directory listing of the 450 MB Recovery partition..

The 8 to 8.1 updates added the 450 MB partition and set up the Reset to work through those tools, except for some. You, and others like you are still showing the original Recovery tools partition (2) when it should be partition 5, or at least that what seems to be correct.

If you get the listing in the 450 MB partition and it shows a Recovery\WindowsRE directory, I will suggest you use Reagentc to set the Recovery tools to that partition.

Your reagent.xml file seems to have the necessary entries for the Reset to work, although I can not confirm their accuracy. But the difference mainly hinges of the offset for the Partition containing the Winre.wim file.

Other differences, which I do not know the meaning of are the ScheduledOperation state and the OperationParam path.

Edit: My BCD store also has Ramdisk entries for both the original Recovery and the Added 450 MB partition.

ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume5]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim
ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume1]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

<WindowsRE version="2.0">
<WinreBCD id="{2998c611-e331-11e3-be72-40167e0d4460}"/>
<WinreLocation path="\Recovery\WindowsRE" id="0" offset="161836171264" guid="{c39766f6-321a-429f-948c-cdb7b1348c30}"/>
<ImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}"/>
<PBRImageLocation path="\RecoveryImage" id="0" offset="1980930981888" guid="{c39766f6-321a-429f-948c-cdb7b1348c30}" index="3"/>
<PBRCustomImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" index="0"/>
<InstallState state="1"/>
<OsInstallAvailable state="1"/>
<CustomImageAvailable state="0"/>
<IsAutoRepairOn state="1"/>
<WinREStaged state="0"/>
<OperationParam path=""/>
<OsBuildVersion path="9600.17031.amd64fre.winblue_gdr.140221-1952"/>
<OemTool state="0"/>
<IsServer state="0"/>
<DownlevelWinreLocation path="\Recovery\WindowsRE" id="0" offset="1048576" guid="{c39766f6-321a-429f-948c-cdb7b1348c30}"/>
<IsWimBoot state="0"/>
<ScheduledOperation state="5"/>
</WindowsRE>
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
HELP! i also can't recover my asus k56cb, it says i must insert the media with recovery partition. I've been Reading the posts but i can't understand what to do, here are some screenshots: Thanks in advance!

1.png2.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    Graphics Card(s)
    gt740m
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