Factory recovery - Create a Custom Recovery Partition  

Hello, I'm new in the forum. This is a great tutorial but i couldn't find anything similar in sevenforums. Can I apply the same process described if running Win 7?

thanks in advance!

Hi All,

New to the forum. But I can tell you I have found many a resolution as a guest. You all provide a multitude of knowledge and are a credit to the WWW.

Hi Kari,

First thing, Thank you for the most detailed and accurate description of this task. I have completed as per your instructions. When I went to test it, it booted up from the recovery partition and displayed 2 choices. The first was to update, and the second was a complete new install. I chose the later because my image was a complete image as it is today. The recovery ran to the point where it asked me to provide a product key, or to chose 'no key' and system will be activated automatically later. But then it said it sees a current install of windows on the drive I had chosen to recover to. Yes, it was my C drive and it was functioning normally. (Note I have this drive cloned to an identical drive in my box, and imaged to my server til the cows come home. I wasn't worried about the outcome. I could recover from anything) But it refused to install my custom recovery.

The bottom line for us is we need to test it, before we can rely on it. I hope I have given you enough information. Can you advise me on this matter?

cheers,
Allan

Hi Kari,

Thank you for sharing this great tutorial!
In this tutorial, you have captured a windows image normally and created a Recovery Partition. I am wondering if it is possible to create a custom factory recovery partition for a WIM image that has been Syspreped and contains autounattend file which answers all windows install questions.
In other words, I have a Customize Windows 10 WIM Image which I have already created and captured by following your instruction at Customize Windows 10 Image in Audit Mode with Sysprep. As the installation process has been fully automated by the answer file, user doesn't need to answer any windows setup questions. But if I use this WIM image and copy that into Sources folder in the Recovery partition, then again windows will ask you the windows setup process questions. I know it is possible to deploy the image using bootable WinPE USB media or other ways but I like to have it in recovery partition and recover the system.

Hello,

Above all, an immense thank you for this knowledge sharing and this fantastic work.

In addition, please excuse me for my English, I am French and these are from google translation.

I come to you I have a problem.

I made a new install on an old laptop "Dell E5400 - core 2 duo 2Ghz, 4Gb, 1 ssd 30Gb + 1 DD 250Gb" it works wonderfully on Winodws 10.

- Windows 10 Home, single language (FR, French) 32 bits.



- Bios MBR

- Windows partition 29Gb disk 1
- Reserved system partition 500Mb disk 1

- I followed the tutorial to move the %UserProfile% variable on the second disk during the new install on a "users_data" partition 90Gb

- I cleaned the install and added what I need

- I set up the backups with internal tool in Windows 10 with a system image + user data on a "Backup" partition on the second disk 130Gb

- I activated the restore points on the Windows partition + the Users partition

- "Recovery" partition 5Gb disk 2





I tested a restoration with the system image of "backup windows7" ​​= OK

- I created the "recovery" partition on the second disk, made my "recovery" image with dism and copied the files from the USB key which I used for the new installation create with the Microsoft tool then created the new entry at boot windows = OK

- I made my partition "Recovery" bootable in parallel (activates the partition then "c: \ mbrfix / drive O fixmbr / win7" and "bootsect / nt60 O:") the partition "recovery" O: is bootable now more from the "Recovery" entry when booting Windows 10. = OK

- I deleted the letter O: from my partition so that it is invisible = OK

Now my problem:

When I try to restore my "Recovery" everything is good until the copy of the Windows files.

But when I arrive at 96% on "preparing files for installation" it stops and I have the following error.

"Windows could not configure the regional option information offline. Error code: 80FF0000"





Here is what I have tried for the moment:

- Cut wifi = Not OK
- Connect a network cable with active internet = Not OK
- Format partition C: = Not OK
- Delete partition C: = Not OK
- Change the letters of the partitions to put C: on the Windows re-install partition (Shift + f10 and diskpart) = Not OK
- Change the letters of the partitions to free the letter C: (Shift + f10 and diskpart) = Not OK

My diskpart at the time of Recovery installation



Each time, I replay my "Image system" backup of Windows backup, it works great = OK

The only thing I have not tested is the deletion of the partition "Reserved System" because I do not know if it is recreated with my backup "image system" Windows 10 backup tool.

I don't know what to do anymore, help me ...!

likes2learn said:

It has been fun testing this out. I do have an issue on trying to do a recovery.

I am using Win10 1903, on a PC with a bios activation key.
When choosing recovery on boot, after hitting Install Now. I am at the fist screen which is Activate Windows.
If I choose "I don't have a product key" it says "Windows could not display the images available for installation."

So I rebooted and grabbed the bios key and wrote it down. Rebooted again and choose recovery. Enter Bios key and get "This product key didn't work, Please check it and try again."

Would I need to create an ei.cfg etc because this is an OEM install? Maybe just something new with 1903? Could just be that I created a bad wim file, just not sure where to start troubleshooting.

Thanks

Mastermindj3 said:

When i try to boot from the Recovery, i get this error message "windows could not display the images available for installation".Attachment 236539

Kari said:

Weird.

Anyway, a missing image description is the issue. I've now edited step 1.10 in this tutorial, to add description to captured image when capturing it with DISM.

You have three options, as far as I can see.

1.) Use a generic key for your Windows edition instead of selecting I don't have a product key when Windows Setup asks for it.

Generic product keys:

• Windows 10 Home Single Language: 7HNRX-D7KGG-3K4RQ-4WPJ4-YTDFH
• Windows 10 Home: TX9XD-98N7V-6WMQ6-BX7FG-H8Q99
• Windows 10 Pro: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

Education, Enterprise and Server editions, see following support article for generic install keys: Appendix A: KMS Client Setup Keys

2.) Install Windows System Image Manager and Windows Deployment Tools as told in steps 1.1 to 1.3 in this tutorial, then see this post about how to change / add image description to your WIM file.

3.) Recapture the WIM file, this time adding the /description switch to DISM capture command as told in now edited step 1.10 in tutorial.

Kari

   Note

EDIT:

I tested this just now, 10 hours after posting the above. I captured the WIM file from an existing system without image description. Restoring from custom recovery partition worked like a charm, which makes it even more difficult to understand why you got issues.

Hi Kari, thanks for this excellent tutorial.

I'm running into the same issues noted above "Windows could not display the images available for installation" (when choosing "I don't have a product key") OR "This product key didn't work, Please check it and try again." if I attempt to use a generic or any of the keys I've extracted from my system.

I've reimaged several times using /verify and also made sure that I was capturing my system drive, but the result is the same. Doesn't make a difference whether I boot from the latest USB ISO or from my recovery drive that I'm attempting to setup.

I should make note that the system I'm capturing is an OEM Windows 8.1 build upgraded to Windows 10 (used the OneKey from Lenovo to reinstall fresh Windows 8.1, uninstalled some things, upgraded, cleaned up, and imaged) - there's some software from the OEM build that I wanted to keep.

I can't help but think that it's the upgraded OEM build that's posing the problem. Thoughts?

- - - Updated - - -

Too bad I can't get this going. I did manage to apply the image to my system using:

format c: \q
Dism /apply-image /imagefile:Z:\install.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:c:\ /checkintegrity /verify


So, that confirms the install.wim that I captured was fine. Mystery to me at this point. Does restoring my system using the above serve the same purpose?

@Kari
pls some body help me after creating recovery drive and putting everything ther when i tried to boot my recovry drive i am getting this
whats the solution for this or what i can do to fix this
anybody pls help me

@nordmann
Different errors when trying to install windows

Ok here are my results to kill the error message:
"windows could not display the images available for installation"

It doesnt help me to add a description with the dism tool.
The following worked for me for Win 10 Pro:
make a wim image with dism

take the imagex tool from Microsoft ADK <- thanks to Polo6RGTI
-> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ed/adk-install
imagex /flags "Professional" /info .\sources\install.wim 1 "Windows 10 Pro" "Windows 10 Pro" /CHECK

to bypass Product Key create the file ei.cfg in folder sources (.\sources\ei.cfg) with the following content:
[EditionID]
Professional
[Channel]
OEM
[VL]
0


If you have a Home Edition :
imagex /flags "Core" /info .\sources\install.wim 1 "Windows 10 Home" "Windows 10 Home" /CHECK

ei.cfg

[EditionID]
Core
[Channel]
OEM
[VL]
0

Thanks for the tutorial, I am new here. Just a quick question:
Concerning the content of the file install.vim created with the method above at the moment we wish to, with installed software and setting, is it different than the content of an USB recovery drive made by Windows 10's Recovery Media Creator, created at the same time? I mean does the USB recovery drive created by Recovery Media Creator contain the latest software and setting or just a new "reset" Windows? Also, what happens if we then just copy the content of that USB recovery drive to the recovery partition (in part 2 and 3)? Will it works? Thanks.