Custom Recovery Partition

nkaufman · 31 Jan 2017

Hello,

I have a fresh intalled Win-10 NVMe P50 with all necessary drivers etc.

All factory partitions were deleted before installing Win-10.

Was wondering how to create a Recovery Partition that would work like Lenovo factory system does when one restores system to factory status. This allows me to revert Programs partition to the Initial State even when I do not have access to the Image.

Got info about AOMEI Onekey Recovery and was wondering if anyone has used it successfully.

Thanks.

AddRAM · 31 Jan 2017

You already had it but you wiped it out.

Call the manufacturer for recovery discs.

Samuria · 31 Jan 2017

You can create images to another drive or partition with any imagine software acronis let's you do it to its own recovery partition you press f11 on reboot to restore

Bree · 31 Jan 2017

I use Backup & Restore's 'create a system image' to put an image on a second partition, then use Advanced Start-up to restore it. One of the (very) few situations where the built-in imaging seems to work reliably.

cereberus · 31 Jan 2017

Lots of ways to do this eg Macrium Reflect Free - see tutorial section.

nkaufman · 01 Feb 2017

AddRAM said:

You already had it but you wiped it out.
Call the manufacturer for recovery discs.

Do not want to restore to Factory State but MY Initial State (i.e after I've installed certain drivers and software on the unit).

nkaufman · 01 Feb 2017

Samuria said:

You can create images to another drive or partition with any imagine software acronis let's you do it to its own recovery partition you press f11 on reboot to restore

Thanks will look at Acronis also. I thought the free version just did backup/restore. Didn't know what one can create Custom Recovery Partition with it.

Kyhi · 01 Feb 2017

So you are wanting to create an OEM type System Recovery...
There are many ways to do that, the issue is which method would work best for you, and which would be the easiest to create...

The OEM method is out unless you know how to silently install your programs..

When you installed Windows 10 - it created several partitions...
One of them is the windows recovery tools PE environment (WindowsRE) a 450MB Partition

When the OS falls to boot, the WinRE Partition is flagged to boot and boots into recovery..
That recovery environment will then use the files in the Windows/WinSXS Folder to ONLY repair Windows itself..
It will then incorporate the Windows Customizations captured via the User State Migration Tool ( USMT.ppkg) which you do not have.. So that is out..

If you are looking to create an actual Recovery Image Partition on the PC itself >
(external is better because if it PC fails to boot the HDD then your Recovery fails also)

You would need to shrink your C partition to make room for a partition to hold Recovery Image (Usually the Install.wim) flag it as a recovery partition and then register it from within windows.
But here is the problem with the usual method, you would need to capture the current OS into a new install.wim -
But some of your programs may have an issue after the fact (ran into that issue many times).. So that is out..

Now lets say One created a macrium boot disk -
One could swap the Windows Recovery Enviroment (winre.wim) with the Macrium Boot.wim (Renamed WinRE.wim)
This would allow the PC to fail over into Macrium Recovery instead of Windows Recovery

Then you would create a Marcium System Image and keep it on the partition you just created when you shruck C..
To be used to Recovery the PC back to it's Fresh Install State and be all self contained on the PC...

I will Note: Macrium does allow the ability to Boot directly into it from with your current OS..
So in reality you just need to create a system image - and store it on a seperate partition

Macrium Reflect is your best, easiest and free option..
My Macrium System Image is stored on a 32GB USB Stick

nkaufman · 12 Feb 2017

Kyhi said:

So you are wanting to create an OEM type System Recovery...
There are many ways to do that, the issue is which method would work best for you, and which would be the easiest to create...
....

Perhaps I'm mistaken how AOMEI Onekey Recovery works but what I understood is that it creates a Recovery Partition akin to OEM (which you've taken out as an option since I do not have USMT.ppkg).

Better than Macrium, I use Win-10 install USB with your USB Recovery Tools file in it (instead of MS, as suggested I think by NavyLCDR in that thread) to create Macrium images and fix HDD issues etc. :)

I could create a partition and stick an image or store image externally but that would mean passing the USB disk around to the users of the laptop. This laptop would be moved around users and I wanted them to have the ability to just refresh the system to the base image and then install whatever they need to finish the work and once done, set the system back to base image with little effort. But that seems difficult to achieve if AOMEI does not provide this functionality.

Thanks for your assistance.

nkaufman · 12 Feb 2017

Bree said:

I use Backup & Restore's 'create a system image' to put an image on a second partition, then use Advanced Start-up to restore it. One of the (very) few situations where the built-in imaging seems to work reliably.

Thanks, will look at Backup & Restore along with Acronis.

Am wondering what is the difference between the above 2 and AMOEI and which one is preferable.

Thanks,