ThinkPad Yoga Creators Edition won't boot, won't restore, won't reset.

Shouldn't I have something in my ReAgent file? There's nothing there, no Windows RE location, no BCD ID, no recovery image location, no nothing. There should be something there, right? Dropbox - Friday, Jun 16

I'm reading this. You may as well too.

[SOLVED] How Do I Prepare Windows Recovery Environment on Windows 10. Taking Backup Measures on Your Windows Using ReagentC Tool and PowerShell

TBO that's getting way beyond my skill level. The thing is your system is UEFI which means your drive is formatted in GPT, not the legacy MBR type. And I'm afraid to mess you system up even more. Let me go ask some friends for help.

Meanwhile to answer you question > Yes, there should be a lot of files in your ReAgent folder if this is the same folder. If it is, is yours empty?

Attachment 140018

Have you tried looking for a rescue disk or other support here?

Error

Restore points and the built in back up in 10 are unreliable at best as you learned.

As it was suggested earlier in this thread, I think a clean install is the way out of this mess now.
To me it looks like everything else you tried so far has only made more of a mess.

Do the clean install correctly, there is a tutorial here on exactly how to do it.
Clean Install Windows 10 Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Then, use Macrium Free version to make weekly back ups to an external drive,
also make a Macrium Recovery USB or DVD in case you have a problem in the future.
The external drive must be disconnected from the computer all the time unless making
a new back up.
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials

HippsieGypsie said:

Meanwhile to answer you question > Yes, there should be a lot of files in your ReAgent folder if this is the same folder. If it is, is yours empty?

Attachment 140018

When I run a command ReAgentc.exe /info from the c:\Windows\System32\ I get

Code:

Windows RE status:         Disabled    
Windows RE location:    
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000    
Recovery image location:    
Recovery image index:      0    
Custom image location:    
Custom image index:        0

I feel there should be more info here, like the recovery image location and a valid BCD identifier, an actual number, and not all zeros. When I run the same command on a working computer there is a path to the recovery image. Also, there should be a hidden directory named "Recovery" in c:\Windows\System32\ but I'm missing that as well.

Yeah, I've tried Lenovo site, but that's a dead end. They will send you a rescue media (by regular mail, no less) only if you're eligible, and apparently I'm not because I didn't get some kind of a flyer with my laptop. I'd have to call customer service to send me the rescue media and I'd need to pay $30 plus shipping, which is, honestly, appalling customer service, and I have no intention of paying for it. Why they can't just let people download it is beyond me.

tannalein said:

When I run a command ReAgentc.exe /info from the c:\Windows\System32\ I get

Code:

Windows RE status:         Disabled    
Windows RE location:    
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000    
Recovery image location:    
Recovery image index:      0    
Custom image location:    
Custom image index:        0

I feel there should be more info here, like the recovery image location and a valid BCD identifier, an actual number, and not all zeros. When I run the same command on a working computer there is a path to the recovery image. Also, there should be a hidden directory named "Recovery" in c:\Windows\System32\ but I'm missing that as well.

Yeah, I've tried Lenovo site, but that's a dead end. They will send you a rescue media (by regular mail, no less) only if you're eligible, and apparently I'm not because I didn't get some kind of a flyer with my laptop. I'd have to call customer service to send me the rescue media and I'd need to pay $30 plus shipping, which is, honestly, appalling customer service, and I have no intention of paying for it. Why they can't just let people download it is beyond me.

Well, rescue disks are money maker for them. Computers/pads/phones is a highly competitive, toxic market. i.e. That recovery partition has extra software on it that Lenovo gets money for. Anywho, you should face the fact that you didn't make the recovery disk. Water over the dam > Lesson learned.

All 0's there means it's empty. I would think whatever you did deleted the files.

As others have said, a fresh install is the solution here, with or without the recovery partition. If you want to delete that, make a copy of it as simrick suggested.

Do you have Windows 8 keys by any chance?

COMPUTIAC said:

Restore points and the built in back up in 10 are unreliable at best as you learned.

As it was suggested earlier in this thread, I think a clean install is the way out of this mess now.
To me it looks like everything else you tried so far has only made more of a mess.

Do the clean install correctly, there is a tutorial here on exactly how to do it.
Clean Install Windows 10 Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Then, use Macrium Free version to make weekly back ups to an external drive,
also make a Macrium Recovery USB or DVD in case you have a problem in the future.
The external drive must be disconnected from the computer all the time unless making
a new back up.
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials

Yeah, I doubt there's anything other for me to do than a clean install, but at this point, I'd really like to figure out how things work. I haven't had to resurrect an OS since Windows 7, and I'm finding out that a lot of stuff has changed since then. I've learned a lot in the last few days, and it would bug me if I didn't figure this out. Crazy, I know.

simrick said:

p.s. System Restore Points are removed when Windows upgrades to a new major version. This is because it makes a "rollback" available for you for a short period of time.

That's just crazy. How is one to fix things when exactly this happens without restore points? I have "Windows10Upgrade" on my c drive, can I do anything with that?

simrick said:

(I don't understand how Macrium would mess up your boot - it does just the opposite...)

I clicked the "Fix Windows Boot Problems" button, and it went from bad to worse :/. I assume Lenovo has some custom BCD settings that point to the recovery partitions and stuff, but I just can't figure out what they are. And I didn't remember to backup the BCD before running Macrium .