Windows 8 win 8 pro back to win 8 - no Recovery DVD's

win8user2013

New Member
Hi,

I do not have a Recovery CD from the Acer Recovery Software that you make to reset the pc back to factory default settings.And I then :

1) installed win 8 pro from dvd - and found I could not create a recovery dvd to reset pc back to factory default settings
2) reinstalled win 8 (not pro) which required the win 8 pro dvd to be put into the cd/dvd drive
3) when it was completed,i found that the acer software had all been deleted,and I still could not create the recovery dvd's after installing the acer software as there was message that said that the Hard Drive Configuration Is Not Set To Factory Default, for all options ....to create recovery dvd's or reset etc [as I guess the hdd has the os from the win 8 pro dvd and not the version from the factory.

And when I used the Repair CD
I) there was a message that a system image cannot be found.
Where is the OS that is in the hidden partition [from factory] that can be used to get back to factory settings???
that can be used to reset up win 8 with all the acer software??

I managed to make the repair cd and a copy of the drivers and applications of the acer software but there was no option to create the recovery dvd's as mentioned earlier.

Is there a way to get back to the factory state without sending the pc back to acer??

And now it also wants a key that I don't have,as I now have win 8 installed from a win 8 pro dvd

thanks in advance
 
Since it is a little hard to determine the current condition of your install, could you use the snipping tool to take a picture of your Disk Management windows and attach using the Upload a File option on the bottom? From that we might be able to see what is happening.

Do you have any system image or backup of any type for your system?

Also, if you could open an Administrative Command prompt and type the following command and the include the results. There is a space before the /.

reagentc /info
 
If the recovery partition is still intact you could get all back from there (recovery partition boot on acer is usually achieved by pressing Alt/F10 at startup).
 
If the recovery partition is still intact you could get all back from there (recovery partition boot on acer is usually achieved by pressing Alt/F10 at startup).

I have spoken to Acer Tech Support and they have told me that the [i originally had win 8] win 8 pro installation process deleted the contents [factory default settings] in the hidden partition as the win 8 pro installation is now using it.Is this unusual ?? So i do not have the factory default settings on the hdd anymore.....(?)
 
Since it is a little hard to determine the current condition of your install, could you use the snipping tool to take a picture of your Disk Management windows and attach using the Upload a File option on the bottom? From that we might be able to see what is happening.

Do you have any system image or backup of any type for your system?

Also, if you could open an Administrative Command prompt and type the following command and the include the results. There is a space before the /.

reagentc /info

That is the problem,i forgot to create the copies of the recovery dvd's.I have spoken to Acer today,they tell me win 8 pro installation is now using the recovery partition,the original contents are no longer there.!
I also tried alt + f10 on restart and nothing happened,i was brought back to the login page for the user

Anyhow the scr shots are below.

cheers
disk management scr shot.png
elevated command prompt.png
 
Your recovery partition is still there, so the image is probably still in it. From the reagentc.exe listing the system is not set up as showing a Reset image to use. That can be repaired fairly easily, but when you deal with different versions of Windows 8, you may end up with some type of version errors when you try to reset.

To get the system back to the original type of install, you will need the path to the image in the Recovery partition. All of this can be done from an administrative command window, but you will need to put a drive letter on the Recovery partition (15 GB one). Once that is done, you can check for the path to the install.wim file and use that in a reagentc /setosimage command to set the system to use it.

As you can see from the insert, on my system (not OEM) my recovery image is set up and ready. I have reset the system using it, but I use a current image captured from the actual install. If you want to go through the procedure, I will set up the process so I can show it in my next post. I will tell you now, it incorporates parts of the following site. Since the site is for a full deployment of Windows, we will only use a few parts of it, but it will give you reference to some of the commands used.

http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh825212.aspx

C:\Windows\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
information:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition1\Recovery\ba9d7916-e2cd-11e2-8073-94be720ea6b4
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: ba9d7916-e2cd-11e2-8073-94be720ea6b4
Recovery image location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition6\RecoveryImage
Recovery image index: 1
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.
 
In similar cirumstancesI've just right clicked on the recovery partition ans set it as active and the boot partition. When you reboot it will boot into it and run the recovery.
 
Pat, this is a UEFI install, no active partitions. And as we ALL now know from your experiences with your new system, you don't get along well with UEFI.... ;)

The recovery partition we are dealing with is not the small one at the front, but the large one at the back. So we are not talking about a recovery, we are talking about a Reset. When the OP advises he wishes to try the process, I will post it and we can see what happens.
 
Pat, this is a UEFI install, no active partitions. And as we ALL now know from your experiences with your new system, you don't get along well with UEFI.... ;)
Sorry bout that - didn't read from square one!
 
Since the OP has not yet responded, I will go ahead and post this. Hopefully I understand the situation correctly.

At the end of the post, I have included a copy of the actual procedure done in the Command Prompt Window.
********************
Start by opening an Administrative Command Prompt (Winkey+X and select)

Then start Diskpart to add the drive letter and check what all the Volume letters. Using these commands the drive letter for the primary drive is assumed to be 0. If it is something else in the lis dis command, use that number. Most of the commands can be done using only the first 3 letters.

Diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
select partition 6 <--assuming partition 6 is the one we need
assign letter="R"
exit

Now we need to find the path to the image file by using normal DOS commands.

R:
dir /a

If you show a folder, then you need to go until you see an install.wim file. The dir /a command shows hidden files an you may need to use it. Return to the C: drive to finish.

Once you have the path to the image, you can use Reagentc to set it. Type reagentc /setosimage /? for help on the command if you want. The spaces in all commands are required.

Assuming the path to your image file is r:\RecoveryImage\install.wim use it in the command below.

reagentc /setosimage /path r:\RecoveryImage /index 1

You should not need to give the command a Target while online, but if it does not work for some reason you can include it.

reagentc /setosimage /path r:\RecoveryImage /Index 1 /target c:\Windows

You should be able to run reagentc /info again and show the Recovery Image location. If it has worked, we need to remove the drive letter from the Recovery Image partition, so start Diskpart again and change the commands above to use remove instead of assign.

Diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
select partition 6 <--assuming partition 6 is the one we need
remove letter="R"
exit

You should be done. If it is done correctly, it should work unless the version numbers interfere with the operation. Do not choose the "clean all drives" option during the reset. I have also reset to a clean OS partition, but it does have to be formatted first, if you need to go that way. I cannot test your exact situation, so take whatever precautions you feel necessary.

You should now be able to make a Recovery drive which will copy over the contents of the recovery folder. The reset process is very picky and any changes in the other required partitions will cause it to refuse the operation. If you cannot get this process to work for you, since you have the necessary image, we could use DISM to apply the image to the OS partition and set up the recovery options after that.

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 596 GB 0 B *
Disk 1 Online 298 GB 1024 KB *

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Recovery 500 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 100 MB 501 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 601 MB
Partition 4 Primary 128 GB 729 MB
Partition 5 Primary 349 GB 129 GB
Partition 7 Primary 83 GB 478 GB
Partition 8 Unknown 18 GB 562 GB
Partition 6 Recovery 14 GB 581 GB

DISKPART> sel par 6

Partition 6 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> assign letter="R"

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

C:\Windows\system32>r:

R:\>dir /a
Volume in drive R is Recovery Image
Volume Serial Number is AC8B-3DF9

Directory of R:\

08/30/2013 06:33 PM <DIR> $RECYCLE.BIN
09/16/2013 08:56 AM <DIR> RecoveryImage
08/30/2013 06:30 PM <DIR> System Volume Information
0 File(s) 0 bytes
3 Dir(s) 7,346,081,792 bytes free

R:\>cd RecoveryImage

R:\RecoveryImage>dir /a
Volume in drive R is Recovery Image
Volume Serial Number is AC8B-3DF9

Directory of R:\RecoveryImage

09/16/2013 08:56 AM <DIR> .
09/16/2013 08:56 AM <DIR> ..
09/16/2013 09:31 AM 8,279,573,144 install.wim
1 File(s) 8,279,573,144 bytes
2 Dir(s) 7,346,081,792 bytes free

R:\RecoveryImage>c:

C:\Windows\System32>reagentc /setosimage /path r:\RecoveryImage /Index 1
Directory set to: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition6\RecoveryImage

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.


C:\Windows\System32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.2.9200

Copyright (C) 1999-2012 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: WATCHER

DISKPART> sel dis 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> lis par

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Recovery 500 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 100 MB 501 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 601 MB
Partition 4 Primary 128 GB 729 MB
Partition 5 Primary 349 GB 129 GB
Partition 7 Primary 83 GB 478 GB
Partition 8 Unknown 18 GB 562 GB
Partition 6 Recovery 14 GB 581 GB

DISKPART> sel par 6

Partition 6 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> remove letter="R"

DiskPart successfully removed the drive letter or mount point.
 
Sorry to hear about your problems, as I have been there and done that before. I always make a couple of sets of restore disks when I buy a new computer. And whether needed or not when I travel, I bring them with me. One thing I might ask is the following, I have a Sony laptop on which the recovery is hidden under normal circumstances. Might yours do or have something like that? Or does your computer offer you the opportunity to purchase a set of recovery disks? Most new computers that I have seen come with that opportunity. If Acer does that, I would make a copy of those for possible future use. Also, I have the possibility if I want to, to remove the recovery disk partition at the time I am using the recovery disks. Since the recovery partition is 38 gigs, that I might just for every day work.
 
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