Windows 8 How do I boot a recovery drive usb on start up in windows 8 .1

[jhmac77]

how do I boot a recovery drive usb on start up in windows 8 .1
How do I boot a recovery drive usb on start up in windows 8 .1 like I can do in win 7 with a repair disk DVD? I followed the instructions and I cannot bring up the usb disk. Please help!!

I have had problems with win 8.1 to the point that I got in but was frozen and had to start over. F2 does not work. Please help!

JIM

 

[Jimbo22]

First you'll need the ISO of your OS then you'll need to create a bootable USB drive. I like using Rufus and it's free. Then you'll need to set the boot order to boot from the USB first from with in the BIOS or like most of us use the F12 key at the post beep. This will bring up the advanced boot menu with out having to go into the BIOS. Then select the device you want to boot from.

 

[jhmac77]

I have WIN 8.1 and made the recovery disk.on a 16 gb USB flash drive. I don't understand the rest, How do you do a boot order? I don't have BIOS, but the other new replacement for BIOS UEFI.
F12 does not work and neither is there a beep.

 

[Jimbo22]

Chuckle, lite laughter......but we all have to learn it.

The recovery disc is not the same as a bootable disc/thumb drive. I assuming you mean the recovery disc from programs list under maintenance, which is part of the retail PC option to recover in-case the hidden partition is deleted. As far as I know that recovery disc is not bootable but may have changed.


Every PC has a BIOS or UEFI (UEFI is replacing the old BIOS format) and what is called a post beep and...this is the sound the PC makes (a single short beep) that right after shows the BIOS flash screen.....here is where you tap repeatedly the delete key or F2, F10 or F12 if a retail PC depending on vendor that will take you into the BIOS/UEFI. In here is where you change the boot order. Also, after the post beep, if you start tapping repeatedly the F12 key (on most newer mobo's) which will bring up the advanced boot menu where you select the drive you want to boot from at start up. This will bypass going directly into the BIOS.....a much faster way.

 

[jhmac77]

I can get into the boot information. I will have to contact Lenovo support to learn to use it. I cannot find any information. I made the recovery drive from the instructions from a control panel icon place and I have seen your video but that is inside desktop.
Here is my problem:
So what if I have problems with my windows 8.1 and can only start the computer but it will not go to desktop. How do I start the recovery drive in windows 8.1.(not win 7 or XP).
HELP!!! Do I have to send it back to the manufacturer for repair. In previous OS's XP or Win 7 I could usually fix it myself

 

[Jimbo22]

You also can set it to load up the desktop mode. Right click the task-bar, select properties, select navigation tab then make sure the box is checked where is says "When I sign in or close all apps on a screen, go to the desktop instead of start".

 

[Saltgrass]

Getting into the bios with the speed of the new systems can be very hard. In some cases, it is critical as to when you press the required keys or how you press and hold or tap rapidly to get it to work. Your recovery drive should be bootable, and it you ever get into the boot device menu, you should see some type of reference to UEFI for that version.

If there is a key combination to get you into the Bios itself you can try that also, since the Boot Device Menu key may be harder to get to work.

One other thing to keep in mind is during boot, some USB ports may be temporarily disabled, so you might try a different port.

If you are in Windows 8 and had the drive connected to your system when you booted, you should be able to go to the Settings, Change PC Settings, Recovery, and Advanced options. When you select restart, it will end up restarting your system, but it should give you the option to Use a Device so you can boot to the Flash Drive or go the the Bios.

What model is you computer, and full designation please, so we can check.

 

[jhmac77]

Saltgrass: I can easily get into Bios by pushing a certain button before turning on the computer. I have Lenovo IDEAPAD S210 Touch using windows 8.1. When I am in Bios I see several options. I am not sure where to go and how to activate USB I want. USB drive is enabled but I think that is for installing a Windows installed SSD. You said I should be able to boot the recovery drive I have just made. Need some specific info on how to do that. Something that does NOT work now is "when you booted, you should be able to go to the Settings, Change PC Settings, Recovery, and Advanced options." I am really non-tech language savy but I can understand basic instruction about working with menus.
Jim.

 

[Saltgrass]

If you are using a flash drive, if you can open the Boot Device Menu or go to the boot options in the Bios, you should see the Flash drive listed. It may be listed twice, but one version should have a UEFI or CSM or some way to identify it. The bios may have a boot override option where you can pick the flash drive. If the recovery flash drive was made from Windows 8.1, it should be available to choose.

Could you get us a picture of the bios boot options you show?

I will see if I can find the user manual on your system to see how booting works for it.

Edit: In the Owner's manual, the only reference is on page 27 and talks about the device being listed on the Boot Device List. Are you able to see the Boot Device List? It says if the device is not listed, change the boot to Legacy, which you should not have to do, or try another device.

 

[jhmac77]

Ok this is what is in the Recovery Boot Menu(includes BIOS)
1. Normal Startup
2. Bios setup : Configuration choices:
Power Beep(electrical surges)
Intel Virtual Technology
Bios Back Flash
Hot Key Mode enabled
Deep Sx
(plus other saves, security and other things including Boot Mode)
3: Boot Mode
USB boot enabled
UEFI BOOT PRIORITY ORDER
Windows Boot Manager(Hard Drive # Listed) choose this and get normal startup
EFI Network 0 for IPv4(Big number after this) choose this and get boot failed goes back to normal Startup
4. Recovery this is Lenovo One Key Recovery Software, one part includes saving disk image and ability to copy image
Maybe there is something I missed involving booting the Recovery Disk?

 

[ussnorway]

Intel Virtual Technology allows virtual software (hyper-v, vmware etc) to use physical hardware… this is usually a good thing and it should be enabled.

Bios Back Flash is for emergencies and should only be used as last resort… at least 70% of the dead computers I see is from people playing around with bios flash because some friend told them it would make their system work better.

USB boot enabled… a good start but is the (bootable) usb in at the time i.e. the UEFI BOOT PRIORITY ORDER on some motherboards wont list it otherwise;

Security settings: Does this system have secure boot enabled? Sometimes you need to enter a password to change the bios boot… this is more of a business feature but these computers do sometimes get passed down onto employees to keep.

Recommended UEFI BOOT PRIORITY ORDER should say;

1. Usb... if the drive is in but doesn't show up then try a different port i.e one of the back ones.

2. Disc drive (if one is available).

3. Hard Drive # Listed i.e. the c drive for a normal boot

4. EFI Network is if the boot image is stored on a server network… handy for a business but not very practical for private use.

Lenovo One Key Recovery Software is not the same as having a windows bootable usb… to be clear, I'm not saying don't have a recovery drive but that it is a different thing.

Please confirm something for us;

1. Your system works right now and you want a backup in case something goes wrong latter on?

2. The system will not boot to the desktop and is ether not covered by a warrantee or you don't want to have the people that sold it to you fix it?

If 1. Buy some decent backup software like acronis and learn how to use it or better yet purchase another harddrive and ask a referable computer tech to clone the old drive onto this new one… it takes about two hours for a complete clone of a terabit system disc but most computer shops offer this service at a discounted rate

 

[Saltgrass]

What you are looking at does not appear to be the Boot Device List that is mentioned in the User's Manual, but I would think the Flash Drive would show up somewhere in the list if it was plugged in during boot.

If you are able to get into Windows, plug in the flash drive and boot back into Windows. Use the Charms bar and Settings-Change PC Settings-Update and Recovery-Recovery-Advanced Startup and select Restart Now. This is the same process in the video Bassfisher posted, but Windows 8.1 does have some different options from Windows 8.

The system will show a menu of which "Use a Device" is an option. From that option, you should show the Flash Drive. If it does not show, then it is probably not UEFI bootable for whatever reason. If it does show, select it and the system should reboot to it.

If you are not able to get into Windows, you will need to download the Windows 8 install, or even the Windows 8 enterprise trial version to make a bootable install media. The drive you may have is mentioned in the Owner's Manual and probably the one Bassfisher is referring to, but it is just a copy of the Factory image stored in the Recovery Partition. A "Recovery Drive" made using the Windows 8 utility is bootable.

The Lenovo one Key Recovery seems to be where the Repair Options should be, but since you have updated to 8.1, those options may no longer be available. If the system restarts 3 times it is supposed to automatically go into the Recovery Environment, if that is working correctly.

 

[jhmac77]

"Boot Mode
USB boot enabled
UEFI BOOT PRIORITY ORDER
Windows Boot Manager(Hard Drive # Listed) choose this and get normal startup
EFI Network 0 for IPv4(Big number after this) choose this and get boot failed goes back to normal Startup"

UEFI BOOT PRIORITY ORDER is exactly as the boot information indicates above::
Windows Boot Manager(Hard Drive # Listed) choose this and get normal startup
EFI Network 0 for IPv4(Big number after this) choose this and get boot failed goes back to normal Startup

Above UEFI BOOT PRIORITY ORDER is listed USB boot enabled(can be disabled)

I am considering two other software program that might work:
AOMEI Backupper or
Macrium Reflect Free v5.2.6444 - 64-bit.

Some people also use Rufus

Any comments on these. Some of these require switching to Legacy which does not seem to work.
Many thanks for trying to help and God bless you all!
Jim

PS You would think that Microsoft would have kept the Repair disk in UEFI as much as it has been used by persons like me!! This is really a very much negative to win 8.1 with all the complaints it has by people. I am not in a mood to send it back to the factory when "little" things like using a Repair disk problem happens. Maybe I better try to sell the whole thing before too many problems arise like I mentioned earlier. I had a freeze problem earlier which seemed to "magically correct itself" I am a person who has never sent my computer to the shop but fixed it myself.

 

[Saltgrass]

We are not getting very far with this. The boot listing you show does not include a USB flash drive. The USB boot enabled is just allowing that to work, but not showing a USB device to boot to, which should show under the Boot Priority Order, or the Boot Device List, which I don't think you have found yet.

Below are two attachments. One is the file structure of a Bootable Recovey Drive you can check against yours. The second in the Boot Device List on my system. You need a UEFI boot capable flash drive, and it appears you do not have one. There are some sites that seem to offer one you can download. As long as it is Fat32 and active, it should work if the correct files are on the drive.

 

[jhmac77]

I believe I found an answer!
"lakers808
April 8, 2014 3:21:24 PM

SCORE
0
m
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rufus.akeo.ie/‎

Download Rufus. Run it and select the recovery disk .iso file by pressing the Disk Icon, select the usb drive to be used as a recovery drive. If it's not an iso, there's also an option to select which files to copy to the recovery drive. Restart your pc with the usb drive in a USB 2.0 port, go to BIOS, go to BOOT DEVICE PRIORITY and Select you USB drive as First Priority. You can also do this by pressing "Boot Device select Menu" button at post(The splash screen when you press your pc's power button).

 

[jhmac77]

OOPS I Didn't
http://m.bestofmedia.com/sfp/images/design/noimg/no-profil-100x100.jpg
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/repair-recovery/a/recover...



I followed the above guide using recovery in control panel and copied the recovery drive info to a new folder. Then I used rufus to create a bootable usb. I had to change the autostart function to GPT Partition for UEFI. Then I copied the recovery drive info to the bootable usb.
But unfortunately I could not boot up the recovery drive. I could not find the usb drive listed in the Boot Device Priority.
OK so I called Lenovo and one man said I could make a bootable USB and another software "expert" said I needed a CD for the job.

 

[jhmac77]

Okay you guys, why should I keep a computer that I can’t fix myself. I have been doing that for many years with Win 95, XP and Win 7 using a repair disk. Sometimes more rarely that frequent I had to reinstall. I also had the aid of the information from the internet, some of them experts like Paul Thurrott. So there ought to be an answer to my problem.

 

[ussnorway]

I've never heard of Lenovo… are they an American company?

If I understand you correctly the motherboard does not support usb booting… which would rightly be considered a standard now days, even in budget computers.

If the above is true then yes, I'd get rid of the computer and go purchase a good one from Asus or some other real computer company… to be clear, Windows 8.1 does not appear to be your issue.

p.s. I've used Rufus for years both personally and professionally and consider it the very best formatting tool around… that’s my two cents on the matter.

 

[JAMES MCDONALD]

We are not getting very far with this. The boot listing you show does not include a USB flash drive. The USB boot enabled is just allowing that to work, but not showing a USB device to boot to, which should show under the Boot Priority Order, or the Boot Device List, which I don't think you have found yet.

Below are two attachments. One is the file structure of a Bootable Recovey Drive you can check against yours. The second in the Boot Device List on my system. You need a UEFI boot capable flash drive, and it appears you do not have one. There are some sites that seem to offer one you can download. As long as it is Fat32 and active, it should work if the correct files are on the drive.

I have the exact recovery disk that you gave me but I can't boot it. It is on a SANDDISK 16 GB drive.
I don't see a buyers listing of UEFI boot capable usb drives How do I know. There are no specs on this specification. Newegg does not sell such items.

 

[JAMES MCDONALD]

I contacted Lenovo support and he ran me through the process of putting everything into legacy but still my disk would not boot. He did not use f12 in the process but said my disk was not bootable. Since it has all the elements of a bootable media I have big questions about that.

All I know is during all these many years from using windows 95 to windows 7 I have never had to clone or image a drive but only relied on bootable repair drives or aid from the internet to fix a problem and I always did it on my own and never with the help of a computer repairman. This mystery of uefi is totally foreign and I prefer the "old" bios system and if I get another computer it will be a good refurbished bios system computer. At least I know how to fix them and at my age of 73 I am getting very tired of these new fangled computers.

I will have the opportunity to download windows 10 in July with system using bios instead of uefi and the preview trials are working very well now. Windows 10 Insider Preview 10074.