Windows System Restore. Recovery environment could not be found Windows 8 Recovery Environment

The development of technologies, the emergence of new generations of components that work much faster, more economical, allows you to extend the life of computers, to delay the need to buy a new, more productive model. One of the options for such modernization is the replacement of the traditional hard disk its solid-state counterpart.

Considering the excellent speed characteristics of such drives, using them as system drives is the best solution. O possible problems that may arise when transferring a system partition from a classic hard drive to an SSD, we will tell you. We will talk about the Windows 8 system installed on a Lenovo laptop, and similar issues of upgrading, repairing, setting up computers Apple we'll leave it for another time.

Binding a wim image

Windows 8 has a factory reset mode when it encounters a malfunction that cannot be corrected by any other means. This will entail the loss of all installed programs, settings, personal data, etc., but all shortcomings in the work will disappear, and the system will return to its original form.

When replacing a disk and after the accompanying procedure for transferring the system from an old disk to a new one, it happens that the connection to the Windows 8 system recovery environment of the wim-image of the OS with factory settings is broken. It is contained in the hidden section of Recovery. The result of a violation of such a binding is the impossibility of rolling back the system to the factory settings.

Next, we will describe the process of how to restore the binding of a wim image. For example, a Lenovo laptop with a UEFI BIOS is used. The algorithm of action will be similar for devices from other manufacturers. The difference may lie in the names of menu items and some other little things.

If you are not confident in your abilities, what is described below looks too complicated, then it would be best to go to the start.rf software workshop computer repair in Otradnoye and find out when they can help you with the problem.

You need to go to the Disk Management utility. There we will see that all partitions, including the hidden Recovery, on the system disk are intact.

First of all, make sure that the recovery environment is enabled, for which you need to enter "reagentc / info" in the command line.

In response, we will receive a message that the recovery environment is disabled. This happened after transferring the system from an old dick to an SSD. You need to enable it. The "reagentc / Enable" command is intended for this.

REAgentC will inform you that the recovery environment (Winre.wim file) is enabled, and its default location is in the hidden first partition of the disk - \\? \ GLOBALROOT \ device \ harddisk0 \ partition1 \ Recovery \ WindowsRE. The problem is that the location of the recovery image is unknown. This means that if you use the Push-Button Reset Overview, the Windows installation DVD will be used as the image.

Earlier, we established that we have all the necessary partitions, including the hidden Recovery with the wim-image, and the problem is the missing connection between this image and the system recovery environment. Let's start restoring the binding. You will need a command line, where you need to enter several commands in sequence:

"Diskpart".
"Lis vol" - a list of all partitions on the disk is displayed.
"Sel vol 4" - select the partition containing the desired recovery image.
"Assign letter M" - assign the letter "M" to section 4.
"Exit" - exit from the Diskpart utility.

Now you should open "Explorer", in which the "M" drive will appear. For control, you can check that the "install.wim" file containing the factory image of the system is located on this drive.

Let's return to the command line and continue working. "M:" - with this command we go to the "M" drive.

The next directive is "attrib / s / d". With its help, the full paths of files located in the directory and subdirectories on this disk and their attributes. We see that the "Factory" subdirectory of interest to us has attributes S "system", H "hidden", R "read-only", which we do not need, and they need to be cleared.

To do this, enter the commands:

"Cd OKRBackup \ Factory" - change the current directory to L: \ OKRBackup \ Factory.
"Attrib -s -h -r / s" - remove the listed attributes from all files in this directory.
"Attrib / s / d" - control that the attributes are removed.

"C:" - go to the system drive.

Now we bind the wim image with the command "reagentc / setosimage / path M: \ OKRBackup \ Factory / index 1". If everything went well, now, when you roll back to the original settings, the information from the desired disk partition (from the wim image) will be used. To verify this, you can run the "reagentc / INFO" command.

Push-Button Reset Overview

Just in case, we will briefly describe the procedure for returning to factory settings. You need to go to "Options".

Click the "Start" button in the "Delete all data and reinstall Windows" item.

A window will appear warning you what action to take. It is necessary to press the "Next" button.

The procedure for rolling back the system to factory settings will start.

If the OS does not start

You need to boot from the Windows 8 installation media, click Next.

Click "System Restore".

In the "Select action" window that opens, click "Diagnostics".

Select the mode "Return the computer to the initial state».

Then select "Windows 8.1".

The last window will open, in which you can click the "Reset" button.

The system restore process starts with factory settings.

A few weeks ago, I became the owner of an HP Pavilion p170nr laptop with Windows 8.1 preinstalled. Since I am an avid Linux user, it was decided to install the main one, working system Ubuntu, but also leave Windows for toys and something whimsical, like updating the BIOS. Greed also played a role - for the 8, in fact, the money was paid.

The first step was to free up disk space. the system, according to the precepts of Microsoft, occupied all the available space with one disk C. Google suggested that Windows has finally learned how to repartition its disks using regular means. But, as it turned out, you can only reduce the C drive by half. Then there were some "non-relocatable files" that Windows categorically refused to move. Rollback points and swap files were found to be “non-relocatable files”. After removing them and turning off paging, we managed to start the process of trimming the disk to 100GB, but after a few seconds of work, a dialog box appeared stating that “there is not enough memory”. What memory, where and for what - was not reported. The disk did not have time to become very fragmented, and why there is still need for memory is a mystery to me.

I had to use some kind of partition manager (I don’t remember the exact name and don’t recognize it anymore), which promised that it could work with Windows 8, but, as a result, killed my system partition. Moreover, completely both it and the section with the image for recovery, although I did not perform any manipulations with it.

Naturally, there was nothing to restore the system with a laptop. As I found out later, HP sells them separately. And I didn't bother to create something like that myself.

SystemRescueCD came to the rescue. I will not describe the hour-long twists and turns with manipulating fdisk and testdisk. But at the output, we managed to get a structure identical to this

All files appeared to be in place. testdisk correctly displayed the contents of all partitions except Windows and MSR. The problem with Windows was, apparently, in a very large partition size (it just fell out with a segmentation fault), and I still did not understand what MSR was. Seems to be just storage for anything even without a filesystem.

However, the system refused to boot. Gave a number error (something like 0x00000025), after trying to start the recovery tool, the message changed to "the file \ windows \ system32 \ winload.efi is damaged or missing."

I had to download the PE image of Windows 8.1 (I found it ready at rutracker.ru) and dive into the study of boot loaders, images and other low-level details. All of the following is the fruit of my research, so I was probably wrong about something.

Terms and details

UEFI and .fi files... UEFI, as everyone knows, is a replacement for BIOS with advanced features, and efi is, in fact, executable files for it. As a rule, they contain loaders, the sole purpose of which is to initialize the environment and start the OS boot. But not necessarily. For example, a memory test is implemented in the form of an efi file.

wim images... .Wim files are widely used in newer versions of Windows. Basically, it is just an archive that is used to deploy the system. It can be split into volumes with the .swm extension. The dism utility is used to work with these images.

Boot order

After starting, UEFI analyzes the list of boot loaders. This is something like a start menu, which is edited by special utilities, for example, efibootmgr in linux. The loaders themselves are located in the "System" section. The file system of this partition must be FAT32 (otherwise UEFI simply won't see it). It seems that the UDF format is also supported for booting from CDs.

Boot loaders are simply efi files that are usually located in the \ EFI \ NAME \ Boot directory. NAME is simply a name, often after the name of the hardware manufacturer. Specifically, I have 2 subdirectories in the \ EFI directory - HP and Microsoft, and the bootloader is configured to \ EFI \ Microsoft \ Boot \ bootmgfw.efi.

The standard Windows boot loader also has its own boot menu. It is contained in the file \ EFI \ Microsoft \ Boot \ BCD. Basically, it is just a list of .fi files that can be launched and their launch parameters. For example, this is where the memory test, the system recovery environment and normal Windows boot start. This file is edited using the bcdedit utility. By the way, this is where I had a problem after restoring disks. One of the parameters of the boot record defines the working disk for it "device partition =". And from it the corresponding.efi-file will be loaded. But after re-creating the Windows partition, its UUID changed, so the file \ Windows \ System32 \ winboot.efi was not found. But I realized this much later, after reformatting the entire section.

Boot order in case of failure

In case of failure Windows boot, the bootloader entry in the BCD has a recoverysequence parameter that specifies which “item” to run in this case. This entry describes how to prepare a RAM disk from the \ Recovery \ WindowsRE \ winre.wim image from the "Recovery Tools" section and launch the appropriate Windows boot loader.

From the recovery environment, in turn, you can deploy the recovery image, which is stored on the appropriate partition in the install.wim file (about 17GB). In addition to it, this section stores .wim files with drivers, manufacturer utilities, as well as scripts for installing all this. My install.wim was split into many .swm files, about 350GB in size.

On the same section, I found the winUCRD.wim file, which is very similar in size and structure to winre.wim, but differs from it in size by a couple of hundred kilobytes and contains several extra files. Perhaps some kind of blank for winre, which is being finalized during the installation process.

Recovery of work

Everything looks quite simple - in the event of a system failure, the recovery tool is launched, which tries to correct the situation, and if this is not possible, the system is completely restored to the factory state. Only, apparently, due to the complete re-creation of several disks, only a black screen appeared when starting the recovery.

There were a few googled options left

Boot from the partition with the recovery image. Some articles recommend marking this section as active, after which the system installation will start from it. Naturally, it didn't work out. With GPT partitioning of a disk, there is no active partition, and file system NTFS on it. In theory, the method is probably working. But not always and not at all.
Just unpack the install.wim image to WIndows disk, and then the installation will go by itself. Already a more plausible option. install.wim was really there, and it was unpacked, however, the installation did not start, but the system tried to boot, but crashed at the stage of loading directx drivers. Apparently, it was necessary to reinstall the drivers for the laptop. But here a problem arose in the form of several dozen .cmd and .vbs scripts designed to deploy the system and I did not succeed in linking them into some meaningful sequence. Attempts to simply unpack various .wim files onto the same disk after install.wim, of course, did not lead to anything.
Burn the image to a disk or flash drive and boot from it. I think this is a working option. The only problem is that the image takes up about 20GB and finding such a medium can be a problem.

On this I decided to end my research. A working laptop was needed by Monday, installing and configuring Ubuntu and everything else took about 5 hours.

P.S. While collecting material for this article, I came across an interesting post explaining why the recovery tool might not start. For it, in the BCD, you need to specify the parameters of the RAM disk and the disk on which the installed WIndows is located, which could also break for me.

P.P.S. Yes, indeed, the matter was that the device / osdevice parameter of the BCD recording with loading recovery tools did not indicate a recording with the parameters of the RAM disk, but it was not clear where. You can restore using the following commands ()

Bcdedit / create (ramdiskoptions) / d "Ramdisk options" bcdedit / set (ramdiskoptions) ramdisksdidevice partition = Drive bcdedit / set (ramdiskoptions) ramdisksdipath \ Recovery \ WindowsRE \ boot.sdi
Here: Drive - the drive where the recovery image is stored. This is not a UUID, but simply ‘c:’

Drive- the disk where the recovery image is stored. This is not a UUID, but just a string with the drive letter ‘c:’ (without quotes)
(ramdiskoptions)- specified exactly like this (predefined name), but you can substitute the record GUID here

Now we edit the parameters of the recording of the startup of the recovery environment (you can create it anew):
bcdedit / create / d "Boot from WIM" / application OSLOADER bcdedit / set (GUID) device ramdisk = \ Recovery \ WindowsRE \ winre.wim, (ramdiskoptions) bcdedit / set (GUID) path \ windows \ system32 \ winload.efi bcdedit / set (GUID) osdevice ramdisk = \ Recovery \ WindowsRE \ winre.wim, (ramdiskoptions) bcdedit / set (GUID) systemroot \ windows

Here:

GUID- id of the entry for starting the recovery environment, if necessary, you can create
is the current drive letter where winre.wim is located. The drive can be hidden, in which case the path is indicated through its id - (UUID) \ Recovery \ WindowsRE \ winre.wim

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Question: Couldn't find Windows 8.1 recovery environment

Good afternoon.

HELP ME PLEASE!!

Answer: Because of the first mistakes, it was not worth continuing the commands. You will have to enter on a new command

Question: The message "Could not find Windows 8.1 recovery environment"

Good afternoon.
Once again I decided to roll back the laptop, and he answers me "We could not find the Windows 8.1 recovery environment." I don’t know what to do and how, and why this happened, I don’t understand either, everything was always fine. The last time I did a rollback was when I installed the beta version of Windows 10.
HELP ME PLEASE!!

Answer: There were no errors when executing commands?
Let's look at the partition ID, although in theory it shouldn't affect recovery. We need a screen of the commands:

Off-topic:

Do not worry, as a last resort we will expand the factory image from the flash drive with our hands.

Another question arose, when you open the D drive in the explorer, does it open or write that the partition is protected and you cannot go there?

Question: Couldn't find recovery environment (Windows 8.1)

I cannot restore the system from a hidden recovery partition. Before that, I split the C drive in two to install Linux. After a long time (a year and a half), Windows started to blunt, well, I decided to reinstall it, or rather restore it from the hidden partition (which I did repeatedly before splitting the C drive into additional partitions). The recovery fails, the error "The recovery environment could not be found" is written. After walking around the forums, I realized that I was splitting the disk in vain (although this is stupid) - the partition structure was broken. "Collecting" the broken partitions for Linux into one disk again, the error persists. Please help restore the partition structure!
Screenshots of the error and sections (from Windows and from DMDE)

Answer:

Message from olen6

It was not possible to simulate your situation with the appearance of RAW partitions, hidden partitions remain in NTFS as if nothing had happened. It remains to try using DMDE to return the partitions to their previous state. Try to do what is written below with a 352 MB partition, you do not need it and if something does not work out, then it’s not scary (anyway, delete it later anyway).
In disk management, select a 352 MB partition and click the "Delete" button. Next, run DMDE> open your HDD> find a 352 MB partition with an inscription free, under this inscription there should be a line with the word "Found", also 352 MB, select it> the "Restore" button> restore the boot sector from a copy (Yes)> red Apply button> write changes to disk (Yes)> focus again on this section with the word Found 352 MB> Insert button> GPT GUID section (OK)> red Apply button> can be unchecked to create backup and click (Yes).
After rebooting the 352 MB partition should become visible and NTFS, try to view its contents, open or not?

I connected the screw to another computer via USB - NTFS file system.

Question: Couldn't find Windows 10 recovery environment

I wanted to rollback a laptop with windows 10, but I get this error "Unable to find the recovery environment." Previously, I repeatedly reinstalled the system, there were no such errors.

I tried to do as it says here I got to the point, as in the screen, but nothing comes of it ...

Answer: yes, it seems that all the partitions are in place

Question: Windows 10 "Could not find recovery environment"

Good time of the day.
I am asking you for help ...
I had a laptop and I exchanged it for a Stationary PC, it already had Windows 10 installed and a bunch of programs for the motherboard, video card, and so on ... After a while I decided to restore Windows to factory settings ... But alas, in the first I ran into the problem - "Could not find recovery environment"
I ask for your help, I can not find a solution to the problem myself ...

Answer: Assembly system?

If the system is NOT an assembly, you can try to do an integrity check system files (sfc / scannow from com.line). If it finds and repairs damaged files, then you can try again to execute

Question: Couldn't find recovery environment

After another download Windows updates 8.1 asked for a reboot. After rebooting, the OS stopped working (see Fig. 1). Found a solution to the problem on the site. I did everything as it says there. In Diskpart (see Fig. 2) I chose Volume 4 and assigned the letter assign letter = Z... Then I prescribed bcdboot C: \ windows / s Z: / f UEFI

But this did not help... Somehow I restored the system to a certain restore point.

Now after I want to restore the system it writes: Could not find recovery environment
What to do? How to restore the ability to restore Windows? (Screenshot of the "Disk Management" window in Figure 3).

Answer: Drop8Dead What is the name of your laptop and which windows was preinstalled on it from the factory: 8 or 8.1? Give a screen of the command reagentc / info look. I see you added a letter to the last section, so look for a large wim file (about 10 GB) or several swm files on it. If you find it, then give a screen with the full paths to them.

Question: Windows 8.1 cannot be restored - could not find the recovery environment

Hello guys, excuse me for my bad Russian language, because I am not Russian and not from Russian speaking countries. I have such a problem that Windows 8.1 is not restored. I click on the "start system restore" button there for a few seconds it thinks and writes that it was not possible to find the recovery environment. / I have a Russian laptop /

Answer: There was a case, I updated it to Tehnical Prewie, but then rolled it back to the drain.
But I solved the problem myself, wrote down the environment on a USB flash drive, made a recovery through it, now everything is in order!

The recovery environment for Windows 8.1 and 10 in the form of a menu with the inscription "Select an action" and, accordingly, with a list of possible actions on a blue screen background - this is the environment for resuscitation of these versions operating system, an evolutionary continuation of the menu on a black screen background with additional boot options, familiar to many from the version of Windows 7. The recovery environment is designed to solve problems that arise in the operation of Windows 8.1 and 10, it offers access to some standard tools, the use of which can prevent the use of a radical method - reinstalling the system. In the recovery environment, you can:

run automatic troubleshooting that may be preventing the system from booting;
use the ability to rollback Windows to a restore point or state from a backup image, if those were previously created using standard system tools;
run the command line;
launch into the system using various boot parameters;
resort to a radical way to solve the problems that have arisen in the form of returning the computer to its original state;
in some cases, return the current version of the system to the previous version.

The predecessor environment in Windows 7 is started by pressing F8 while the computer device boots. This method is extremely convenient in case of a sudden system failure and, as a result, the inability to boot. But with Windows 8.1 and 10, this method does not work. For these purposes, there are Shift + F8 keys, but in fact it will not be possible to apply them in practice in every case due to quick launch the last two versions of Windows. The faster launch of versions 8.1 and 10 actually makes it impossible to use this keyboard shortcut, especially on computer devices with SSDs.

How do I get into the recovery environment for the last two versions of Windows? From a running system, this can be done in several ways:

hold down the Shift key and press the computer restart button;
enter into the command line:

shutdown.exe / r / o / f / t 00

in the standard application "Settings" open "Update and Security", then select "Recovery", and then - "Special boot options".

In an emergency, when Windows 8.1 or 10 refuses to boot, to enter the recovery environment, you can use either the installation media of one of these versions, or prepared using the system itself. In some cases, if the system undergoes a serious malfunction and cannot boot, the recovery environment itself starts as the only option.

Access to the recovery environment can be organized in another way - by installing two or more Windows on the condition that version 8.1 or 10 is installed last and, accordingly, it is their loader that will offer a choice of operating systems for further launch. Thus, the implemented option to enter the recovery environment will be available all the time when the computer boots. And, accordingly, it can be quickly used in the event of a sudden appearance of system problems without the need to use bootable media. Plus, we will get the advantage of an alternative operating system, which, without being damaged itself, will be able to help reanimate the problematic system.

The operating system boot selection menu, implemented by the Windows 8.1 and 10 boot loaders, in addition to the list of the systems themselves, also contains the option to change the boot parameters and some other parameters.

With these other parameters

and is the recovery environment.

In the implementation of the boot menu of several operating systems on UEFI computers, the recovery environment may also have an additional option to select the computer's boot device.

Can the second, third and so on Windows, even in direct implementation, even as an access to the recovery environment in the bootloader menu, become a panacea for all cases of problems with the software part of the computer? If two or more Windows are installed on different partitions of the same hard disk, and they have a common bootloader, then no. Windows loaders have an unpleasant feature - they are damaged. And it is not always possible to reanimate Windows using its standard tools. In this regard, it will be much more useful from. By the way, some of them (based on WinPE), in addition to third-party Windows resuscitation tools, may contain some of its standard features, including launching the recovery environment. Among them is the resuscitation Live-disk, and it, by the way, is another way to access the recovery environment of non-boot Windows.

Have a great day!

A Windows 8 recovery disc or a Windows 8.1 recovery disc is intended for troubleshooting the operating system when the computer cannot boot. Recovery tools are launched from the recovery disk to carry out work to restore Windows to health.

In the process of working on a computer, sometimes problems occur due to various reasons. Malfunctions occur due to abnormal operation of equipment, errors software, and perhaps the most common reason: incorrect user actions.

In the event of serious problems, the user can start System Restore in different ways:

Restore system files and settings using previously created system restore points.
Restoring your computer (Refresh) without deleting your personal data.
Delete all data and reinstall (Reset) Windows.

These recovery options run directly from the operating system. If impossible Windows startup, it is possible to start recovery by booting from a bootable USB flash drive or from a DVD with an operating system image, and if the user does not have a Windows image, then by booting from a recovery disc.

The Windows 8.1 (Windows 8) installation DVD or bootable USB flash drive can also be used as a recovery drive by entering the operating system recovery environment.

You will need a Windows 8.1 system recovery disc in the following cases:

the user does not have an installation disk or a bootable USB flash drive with the Windows1 operating system (Windows 8);
in case of a serious computer failure;
if Windows cannot boot.

After booting from the recovery disc, the recovery tools can be used by the user to perform the necessary work to troubleshoot the computer.

Creating a Windows 8.1 recovery disc

The user can independently create a Windows 8.1 recovery disc and write it to a USB flash drive.

When creating a Windows 8.1 recovery disc, follow these steps:

Enter "Settings", then click on "Control Panel".
Enter "Recovery", select "Create a recovery drive".

The next window prompts you to copy the recovery partition from your computer to the recovery drive. If there is such a partition on the computer, the user can check the box next to "Copy the recovery partition from the computer to the recovery drive" in order to use it to restore or return the computer to its original state.
Click on the "Next" button.

The application will check the computer for connected drives. In Windows 8 it is possible to write to a CD / DVD disc (for this you will need to launch another application), in Windows 8.1 a recovery disc is created only on a USB flash drive.
Then a window opens with available disks. Select the desired USB drive. The size of the flash drive must be at least 256 MB, all information from USB devices will be deleted.

Agree to delete all data from the flash drive. Transfer the data (if any) from the USB device to another drive in advance.
Click on the "Create" button.
Next, the service files are formatted and copied.
The recovery disk is ready, click on the "Finish" button.

Remove the Windows 8.1 recovery USB flash drive from your computer.

A bootable USB flash drive with a Windows 8.1 system recovery disc has been created. Now, in the event of an operating system failure, the user will have a chance to return the computer to a working state.

Bootable Windows 8.1 USB flash drive for system recovery

Now let's see how to start recovery in Windows 8.1 from an installation disc or from a bootable USB flash drive. The recovery disc (not the installation disc) will start in a similar way, only without the windows to install Windows 8.

In the BIOS or UEFI, select the priority for booting the system from the connected disk (USB drive or DVD disk), or immediately enter the boot menu to start the disk from there.

In the window " Installing Windows 8 "click on the" Next "button. Here, by default, the language and keyboard layout are already correctly selected.

In the next window, click on "System Restore".

The Select Action window offers two options for action:

Diagnostics - restoring the system, returning the computer to its original state, or using additional tools.
Turn off computer.

Select "Diagnostics".

The Diagnostics window offers the following actions:

Restore - restore the system while preserving personal files.
Reset - reinstalling the system with the loss of personal data.
Extra options- using other means of recovery.

Select Advanced Options.

The following system recovery tools are available in the Advanced Options window:

System Restore - Restore Windows using previously created restore points.
System Image Restore - Restore Windows using a previously created system image backup.
Startup Repair - Eliminates a crash that prevents the operating system from loading.
Command line - launch command line for troubleshooting.

Select the correct solution to solve the problem with your computer.

Conclusions of the article

User can create boot disk Windows 8.1 Recovery (Windows 8), which will help you launch the system recovery tools if you experience serious problems with your computer, Windows cannot start.