Win10 - Broken Win7 Recovery Partition on refurbished laptop

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FremontPC

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Well, it had to happen. Customer with a Refurbished laptop with Win7 Pro got himself upgraded to Win10 and three months later decided he didn't like it. Wanted me to fix, no backups of course! Win10 has broken the ability to boot to the recovery partition, but the Install.wim is still there. I'll use that and apply it to Windows partition and:

Tried Hiren's and Gimagex. No joy, "The supplied user buffer is not valid for the requested operation." Finally bailed on that one.

Tried a WinPE disk and DISM. No joy.

Tried mounting Install.wim in Gimagex and figured I'd make a Macrium image of it for future use, Macrium BSOD's.

Looking through the web, articles on how to do with with OEM recovery partitions and a Tools folder that doesn't exist on refurb installs.

After running into a number of dead ends, I recalled that 7zip File Manager in Hiren's was able to see inside the Install.wim. I launch it, go to 2 pane view and let it load the wim, format the Windows partition then copy the contents of the Install.wim to it.

Restarted on a Win7 Pro DVD and let Startup Repair fix the boot files, restart again and we have OOBE. I go through the usual stuff and get to a Win7 desktop. Now, I'm figuring that this is a somewhat screwed up installation, so I restart and tap the spacebar to get into the Boot Manager, then F8 for the Advanced Options, where "Repair Your Computer" is available, which happily invokes the Restore Partition in the intended manner. A little more time with OOBE and it's a Win7 Pro laptop again, eagerly taking forever to install the March update client.

Stick that in your "User Buffer", ya intransigent sack of syntax!
 
FremontPC said:
Well, it had to happen. Customer with a Refurbished laptop with Win7 Pro got himself upgraded to Win10 and three months later decided he didn't like it. Wanted me to fix, no backups of course! Win10 has broken the ability to boot to the recovery partition, but the Install.wim is still there. I'll use that and apply it to Windows partition and:

Tried Hiren's and Gimagex. No joy, "The supplied user buffer is not valid for the requested operation." Finally bailed on that one.

Tried a WinPE disk and DISM. No joy.

Tried mounting Install.wim in Gimagex and figured I'd make a Macrium image of it for future use, Macrium BSOD's.

Looking through the web, articles on how to do with with OEM recovery partitions and a Tools folder that doesn't exist on refurb installs.

After running into a number of dead ends, I recalled that 7zip File Manager in Hiren's was able to see inside the Install.wim. I launch it, go to 2 pane view and let it load the wim, format the Windows partition then copy the contents of the Install.wim to it.

Restarted on a Win7 Pro DVD and let Startup Repair fix the boot files, restart again and we have OOBE. I go through the usual stuff and get to a Win7 desktop. Now, I'm figuring that this is a somewhat screwed up installation, so I restart and tap the spacebar to get into the Boot Manager, then F8 for the Advanced Options, where "Repair Your Computer" is available, which happily invokes the Restore Partition in the intended manner. A little more time with OOBE and it's a Win7 Pro laptop again, eagerly taking forever to install the March update client.

Stick that in your "User Buffer", ya intransigent sack of syntax!
Click to expand...

Nice job!

So its in the condition it was in when bought new. That means you didnt have to go thru driver hell unless he has some old printer or scanner or whatever.
 
I did get his data with FABS and also got an image in case something went wrong. I didn't have a refurb ISO and couldn't find a source. A number of people posted about their attempts to download an ISO from MS, but after entering the key they got the message that pointed them back to their refurbisher.

coffee said:
So its in the condition it was in when bought new. That means you didnt have to go thru driver hell unless he has some old printer or scanner or whatever.
Click to expand...

Exactly. He has an install that is golden and legal for that laptop and a recovery partition that will put it back that way if there's ever a need for it. Activated online without so much as entering a key.

I did have to invest some time in coming up with this solution, but now I know how to do it, though I may find some quick way of repairing access to the recovery partition in the future.

BTW, how does one make a valid refurb DVD out of a retail or OEM ISO?
 
Sometimes the long way is better to be honest. As far as a universal image. From what I have seen if you follow the instructions for making a universal ISO it still retains the "original" type. Meaning if you had a OEM ISO it stays OEM and will not register a retail or refurb. At least from what I remember.
 
FremontPC said:
I did get his data with FABS and also got an image in case something went wrong. I didn't have a refurb ISO and couldn't find a source. A number of people posted about their attempts to download an ISO from MS, but after entering the key they got the message that pointed them back to their refurbisher.



Exactly. He has an install that is golden and legal for that laptop and a recovery partition that will put it back that way if there's ever a need for it. Activated online without so much as entering a key.

I did have to invest some time in coming up with this solution, but now I know how to do it, though I may find some quick way of repairing access to the recovery partition in the future.

BTW, how does one make a valid refurb DVD out of a retail or OEM ISO?
Click to expand...

No idea. Would love an answer though. Perhaps have to make it bootable and a script to run the re install? I dont know.
 
FremontPC said:
BTW, how does one make a valid refurb DVD out of a retail or OEM ISO?
Click to expand...
I may be incorrect about the refurb version but I doubt it. I don't think there is any difference in Refurb versions and standard. I've always been able to use my universal disk I made on ANY copy of Windows 7. I've NEVER had a failed activation. And tools like @pcpete https://www.technibble.com/forums/threads/automate-slp-activaiton.67396/#post-525982 help with activation on OEM. I wouldn't want to restore an out of date, bloatware filled, image. I'd N&P using my premaid image and get it done in minutes. The end user is better served by it and I don't waste valuable time.
 
Porthos said:
Since Win Vista they are all the same disk.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Never tried activating a refurb key from a retail install. Too bad MS doesn't allow the download, guess that extra bit of bandwidth is too much for them to bear. Or maybe they're just being sticklers about having the restore partition there? Dunno.

Back in the XP days I set up some ISO's with slipstreamed updates and other customizations, but there were so many different flavors of XP that maintaining the images took more time than it saved. I just didn't use them often enough. I did like the route Vista took with letting you choose your edition of Windows from one disk after you skipped entering the key.

If I can use a retail ISO for all like editions (HP for HP, Pro for Pro) then I might set up some images again. That could indeed save some time, although I still don't have call to use such a thing that often.
 
FremontPC said:
If I can use a retail ISO for all like editions (HP for HP, Pro for Pro) then I might set up some images again. That could indeed save some time, although I still don't have call to use such a thing that often.
Click to expand...
I have two images. One is a Windows 7 Pro and One is Windows 7 Home. I use sysprep and I can activate using the key slapped on the side. After @pcpete created his SLP tool I don't even use the key on the sticker anymore. I just use the tool and it automatically activates.
 
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