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  • How to create a hidden recovery partition yourself. How to return a laptop to factory settings if hidden partitions on the laptop are deleted Windows 8 os part lenovo hidden partition

How to create a hidden recovery partition yourself. How to return a laptop to factory settings if hidden partitions on the laptop are deleted Windows 8 os part lenovo hidden partition

Preventive computer maintenance takes a lot of time. Either you need to configure the operation of applications, or remove useless “garbage” in temporary folders, or restore the normal operation of lost drivers. And even the most careful user, who is used to constantly maintaining order in the system, periodically has to be distracted by such actions. There is no escape from this, so the only way to somehow deal with this problem is to approach it wisely. For example, take a “snapshot” of the most important files - save a backup copy of the data.

An interesting personal observation: many users are very conservative in their preferences. From year to year, they use approximately the same set of software, select the same system configuration parameters, and even almost never change the color scheme of the interface of their work applications. For such people, there is a simple and effective solution to the problem of information loss and system failure - restoration using a backup copy of the system partition. This method is familiar to any more or less experienced user. In this case, reinstalling the system with all its settings is reduced to a single operation of copying the file with the partition image.

The tools with which you can perform the operation of data cloning and recovery are not very diverse. Almost the sole leader in this area is the Acronis True Image software package. It is this tool that is most often mentioned when discussing the problem of taking an image of an entire disk. There is also a Symantec Ghost Solution Suite. Among Russian-speaking users, this program is not as popular as the Acronis product, but it can be used with the same success for system migration and deployment. Both of these products are certainly very convenient and have a lot of advantages, but they are not free. And the full range of capabilities of these applications will be unnecessary for many. Let's try to figure out which free programs for taking images of disk partitions can replace these popular tools.

⇡ Testing boot images using a virtual machine

Bootable media images can be tested directly from Windows using a virtual machine such as VirtualBox. In this program, you just need to create a new virtual PC configuration and specify the disk image as the boot source.

It is very convenient to store such images on multiboot media. In addition to tools for removing and restoring images from disk partitions, such a boot disk may also contain a number of additional options - a Windows installer, a couple of Linux distributions, and so on. If you decide to burn such a bootable USB flash drive, you can also test it in VirtualBox. However, the Oracle Corporation product does not support booting from removable media, so you will have to perform a number of steps to force VirtualBox to boot from a flash drive.

To do this, you need to open the standard disk management utility diskmgmt.msc. Based on the contents of the window of this utility, determine under what number the USB drive being written is identified in the system. Then run command line mode (cmd.exe) as an administrator and go to the VirtualBox folder using the command cd %programfiles%\oracle\virtualbox. At the command line, type VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "%USERPROFILE%"\.VirtualBox\usb.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive#, replacing the # symbol with the previously memorized disk number. Now you can create a new virtual machine. At the stage of setting up the disk to be used, select an external disk (use existing hard disk) and specify the location of the usb.vmdk file. Let's go!

⇡ Redo Backup

The main advantage of Redo Backup is that the program is as simple as possible, lacks numerous options and works reliably. The shell launches almost instantly, after which the most simplified Linux environment (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) and a utility window for creating a backup copy of partitions appear on the screen.

In addition to the main tool for cloning disks, the distribution includes a small set of essential utilities. In the Redo Backup boot image shell you will find a fast file manager PCManFM, a simple text editor Leafpad, an image viewer GPicView, a Chromium browser and a utility for launching a terminal. Among the tools for working with disks, there is a small but useful program for resetting all media parameters to their original state. True, you can use it only at your own peril and risk - the data is deleted, and no one gives a guarantee that the hard drive or any other storage device will function properly. Using the Gparted partition editor, you can partition your disks and configure them in the Disk Utilities media manager.

The application with the funny name baobab will show a diagram of disk fullness. The distribution also includes the PhotoRec utility, the main purpose of which is to recover deleted files.

The created images of the specified partitions can be saved to one of the available partitions of the local machine or written to a folder on a remote PC that can be accessed over the network. Data can also be uploaded to an FTP server.

The boot image of this utility is so small that it will fit even on a good old CD. Of course, today this medium is hopelessly outdated and is living its last days. On the other hand, if you still have a laser drive and a stack of unused CD-R discs, then why not get rid of one of the extra “blanks” and make yourself a copy of the saving tool?

⇡ AOMEI Backupper

In addition to a bootable disk image (AOMEI Backupper Linux Bootable Disk Image) with a proprietary utility, the developers of AOMEI Tech offer users several products for running the application from Windows - two free editions of the program and one paid one.

It must be said that the developer caused some confusion by releasing two free versions, because the differences between them are not immediately clear. One is called AOMEI Backupper Standard, the other is AOMEI Backupper Standard Win7. The size of the first one is several times larger, but there are few real differences. Don't be fooled by the words For Win7 - both versions work great on Windows 7. The one that For Win7 does not work on outdated versions of the operating system from Microsoft - Windows Vista and Windows XP, while AOMEI Backupper Standard officially supports them . In addition, AOMEI Backupper Standard For Win7 does not have the option to create bootable media.

In our opinion, the paid edition of the AOMEI Backupper Professional program has nothing special to attract the attention of the average user. Its main advantage is the ability to combine partition images with support for incremental data copying (that is, copying only changed files, which greatly speeds up the process). In addition, the advanced version supports running the backup process using the command line and allows full use of the PXE Boot Tool (network boot application) with an unlimited number of clients on the local network.

According to the developers, the free versions copy slower than the Pro version. This may be true, but if you compare the speed of creating a partition image using boot images of Redo Backup and AOMEI Backupper, the difference is unnoticeable: the process takes approximately the same time in both cases.

But compared to Redo Backup, the AOMEI Backupper utility offers many more options. Here you can copy in several ways: clone a partition, transfer content from disk to disk, make a backup copy of the system disk, individual directories or certain files. To save space in AOMEI Backupper, you can enable the maximum compression mode, but if you need to speed up the process of recording a backup copy, you can completely disable file compression in the settings. In addition to this, you can also set up a task scheduler that will record a backup copy of your data at a specified time.

There are many ways to burn a boot image to a USB flash drive. For example, you can use the Sardu utility, which will do this automatically, and even help you make multiboot media with a rich arsenal of Linux distributions. But it’s best to write everything to a flash drive directly in the AOMEI Backupper program itself, in this case you will receive a guaranteed working bootable media with the current version of the AOMEI Backupper engine. The boot image can be compiled against Linux or Windows PE.

It is preferable to use the second option, since if you create bootable media on Linux, only the basic functions of the program will be active in the AOMEI Backupper shell. The desktop application AOMEI Backupper Standard has even more options - for example, it is possible to automatically split the image into files of a specified size, there is an option for intelligent data reading (in this case, the contents of only those sectors that are used by the file system are copied), you can control file compression, and so on .

⇡ Clonezilla

Clonezilla is a completely free and open source software developed by Taiwanese programmer Stephen Shiau.

This program is aimed at experienced users rather than beginners. It is designed on the principle of a step-by-step wizard and works almost in text mode, without an interface as such.

The situation is saved a little by the fact that Clonezilla supports the Russian language and many operations, as well as comments to them, are correctly translated. The choice of language occurs at the very beginning of the data backup wizard launch.

The program is universal - it supports all popular file systems, including ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, xfs, jfs (GNU/Linux), FAT, NTFS7, HFS+ (Mac OS).

To create a bootable USB drive, you will need to follow several steps. To get started, download the boot image in ZIP format from the official Clonezilla website. Note that the type of Live image loaded depends on the architecture used. It is also worth paying attention to whether the Secure Boot feature is enabled on your computer. It is one of the UEFI options and is designed to protect the computer from malicious code that modifies the MBR boot sector. When you enable the secure boot option (uEFI secure boot enabled), you need to download a separate boot image built on Ubuntu - links to it are also available on the download page of the official Clonezilla website.

After downloading the required file, unpack the contents of the ZIP archive onto a USB drive. Run the makeboot.bat file directly from the flash drive, which is located in the utils\win32 directory (or makeboot64.bat at drive:\utils\win64).

A backup copy of data can be recorded “as is,” that is, in the form of files and folders, or it can be saved in a single image file. Of course, the image file can be used to restore information on the media. The backup copy can be saved to a local disk, written to a SAMBA network environment server, an SSH server, or using the NFS protocol. Clonezilla supports AES-256 encryption. The program is completely undemanding to PC system resources and can run on the oldest “toasters”.

The program does not support differential and incremental copying of files, and a prerequisite for the normal completion of the process of writing a backup copy of a disk is that the volume of the media on which the recording is being made must be no less than the volume of the disk (partition) from which the data is read.

Along with the regular version of the Clonezilla boot disk, users are offered the Clonezilla Server Edition. This application is a tool for running simultaneous cloning on an entire array of computers (more than forty PCs).

⇡ Paragon Backup & Recovery 14 Free Edition

Paragon's products are well known to many, but for some reason not everyone knows that among the programs of this developer there is also free software, for example, a version of the Paragon Backup & Recovery 14 Free Edition application for creating a backup copy of data.

The only condition that Paragon sets for users is that they use Backup & Recovery 14 Free Edition only for non-commercial purposes (for personal use). And although the company has been selling a newer edition of this program for a long time, the fourteenth version still remains relevant. It even officially supports Windows 8, which is reflected in the interface of Backup & Recovery 14. The tiled Express interface that appears when you first launch it can be disabled, then the application will take a more familiar look.

The set of free tools for working with disks that Paragon's program offers is small. Most options are unavailable, and the developer himself suggests upgrading to activate all the features of the utility.

However, the functions that exist are quite enough to solve the main problem - creating a backup copy. In addition, the user has tools for managing disk partitions. With their help, you can create, format, delete partitions, hide or open them, assign a letter and change the volume label, and check the integrity of the file system.

In the program menu you will find the Recovery Media Builder wizard. This wizard is designed to burn a boot disk image to ISO format or prepare a bootable USB flash drive. When creating bootable media for data recovery, you can choose settings that are convenient for you - specify BIOS or EFI, select an environment (Linux or Windows PE), use WIM images of the current operating system to restore, and so on. If you burn a boot disk in expert mode, you can manually add drivers for storage devices and network devices to the media, as well as specify specific network parameters.

The engine for creating a backup copy of disk partitions provides the ability to carry out a copy operation in one of two ways: the standard method, creating images of cloned partitions, or placing all the backup data on the Paragon virtual disk (for example, this way you can collect several images in one place at once). The backup copy can be written to a mounted partition or to an unmounted partition that has not been assigned a letter.

The program pays special attention to data security. One of the options of Paragon Backup & Recovery 14 Free Edition is that data can be backed up into a so-called capsule, that is, into a hidden partition that cannot be mounted and seen in the operating system.

We would like to draw your attention to one more very important point. While testing the bootable media recording option, we discovered an error in the program. Recording an image with the Microsoft Windows PE environment from the “classic” interface of Paragon Backup & Recovery 14 Free Edition may be accompanied by a failure and a message stating that there is no access to the partition.

The solution to the problem was found on the official Paragon support forum - recording media must be started from the Express interface, then the error will not appear.

Paragon Backup & Recovery 14 works well with all types of hard drives. The contents of a hard disk image with a cluster size of 512 bytes are restored to another media with a cluster size of 4 kilobytes without additional user action.

⇡ DriveImage XML

If you've ever lost data as a result of erroneous formatting or some kind of file system glitch, Runtime Software should be a familiar name. The GetDataBack utility made by this developer has been helping to rescue data and recover information from problematic media for many years. In addition to GetDataBack and other great utilities, Runtime Software includes DriveImage XML, a free tool for creating disk backups.

The program can be installed as a standalone application, or can be launched using a boot image based on the Linux distribution Knoppix 7. Of all the boot images discussed in this review, the Runtime Software disk can be considered the “most life-saving”. In addition to DriveImage XML Private Edition (free version for home use only), Knoppix contains the entire range of programs from Runtime Software for data recovery and working with disks: GetDataBack NTFS, GetDataBack FAT, GetDataBack Simle, RAID Reconstructor, RAID recovery for Windows, DiskExplorer for FAT , DiskExplorer for Linux, Captain Nemo Pro and so on. Please note that commercial utilities require registration.

Knoppix is ​​a universal assembly, it has a browser, a video player, and a text editor. For completeness, the only thing missing is the free office suite, which was apparently excluded from the build to save storage space.

Windows versions are launched on the system using Wine (software for an alternative implementation of WindowsAPI).

Using the Microsoft Volume Shadow Service (VSS), the program can take a disk image, including system and locked data that is currently being worked on. The procedure for creating a backup copy in DriveImage XML will result in the following output: two files. The first one, written in *.XML format, will contain a description of the disk. The program will save the second file as *.DAT - it stores the binary data of the captured image. Program options that are associated with standard Windows services may not work, so developers. they recommend burning bootable disks with the Windows PE environment or an alternative BartPE environment yourself. For the second option, the official Runtime Software website contains plugins that simplify the connection of the main utilities of this developer.

⇡ Conclusion

Programs for creating copies of disks can be used not only for quickly reinstalling the system. They can also successfully serve as regular means for backing up important data. Take photographs, for example. Paper photo albums are practically a thing of the past, and along with them, the persistent tradition of taking them out of the closet and showing guests family history in photographs has sunk into oblivion. It's scary to think how many children today will be deprived of pleasant memories when they grow up. The phrase “I don’t have children’s photos because my parents’ hard drive on their computer once crashed” has every chance of becoming very popular in the next few years. Don't want this to happen in your family? All you need to do is take care of a backup. It's very simple and, as you can see, free.

Very often during the operation of a computer a situation arises when it is necessary to reinstall the operating system. And this can lead to a lot of troubles, since all programs installed during the operation of the PC will be lost along with the OS. And if reinstalling Windows takes a little more than one hour, then it can take days or even weeks to find all the necessary software. However, this problem is easily solved thanks to special software that allows you to create a backup copy of your hard drive in advance.

Backing up a hard drive is classified as a preventative measure, which is a very labor-intensive process. After all, simply clearing the tin of accumulated debris is sometimes not enough. Sometimes it becomes necessary to configure some applications to work normally or install a more recent driver version. Absolutely all users face these challenges. However, the most advanced ones approach the task more intelligently and optimize this process by backing up the most important files and programs.

This approach allows you to optimize the process of operating your computer and save a lot of time when servicing the device. After all, as statistics show, every user very rarely uses programs from other developers and gives preference to more familiar and time-tested utilities. Therefore, the optimal solution if the operating system crashes is to not completely reinstall it, but to restore it using a backup copy to a working state, preserving all installed programs. And this procedure takes much more time than doing everything from scratch.

There is a special category of software designed to create a backup copy of a physical or logical partition. All of them are almost identical, have a similar set of tools and are completely free, and the main difference lies in the interface of the working window. One of the most common programs in this category on the RuNet, which even novice users know about, is Acronis. The program has a simple interface and great functionality, however, you must purchase a license for the right to use it. However, this utility has many analogues that perform similar operations and are free. It is about them that we will talk in our article today.

Redo Backup

This utility has become widespread among many novice users due to its minimal set of the most important tools, high reliability and intuitive interface. The program runs in the Linux environment, does not load the system and contains a minimal amount of information.

Among the main features that the utility is endowed with are the creation of backup copies of physical partitions, the ability to roll back all HDD parameters to factory settings, collection of detailed statistics on the state of the hard drive, a partition editor, recovery of deleted files, a graphic and text editor integrated into the utility for viewing documents and file manager.

When creating an image of one of the partitions of a persistent storage device, you can specify one of the available logical partitions, any external drive with the required amount of free space, or a remote computer as the storage location. The program packs the image very tightly, so you can even save it to a regular CD or an old USB flash drive with a capacity of 2 gigabytes.

AOMEI Backupper

This program has several editions, two of which are freely available. It is worth noting that one of them is intended for older versions of Windows, and the second is for seven and higher. As for the set of tools and functionality, both versions of the program are almost identical and allow you to perform similar operations with hard drives. As for the commercial edition, its main advantage is the ability to create an image of a hard drive partition through incremental copying, during which copies are created only of files changed during the operation of the operating system. This allows you to significantly reduce the time it takes to create a disk image. In addition, the paid version includes the ability to backup over a local network, and also supports working via the command line.

According to the developers themselves, the paid license works many times faster than its free counterparts. However, in practice this difference is not significant, so there is no point in paying for this program.

If we compare this utility with Redo Backup, discussed earlier, AOMEI Backupper has much more advanced functionality. For example, this program can create a disk image in different ways: by cloning, by copying contents from one partition to another, by creating a standard image in which all data is combined in one file. In addition, the utility supports setting the compression ratio, which allows you to, if necessary, control the size of the image in order to save free space.

To further work with the image, it must be written to a CD or flash drive. In most cases, to implement this, you need to install special utilities, however, AOMEI Backupper supports writing an image to a USB drive, so installing additional software is not required.

It is also worth noting that the utility allows you to pre-configure the process of creating a hard drive image. For example, the user can tell the program to create copies only of used files that are stored in the affected sectors of the HDD. This allows you to significantly reduce the image size. In addition, you can manually adjust the degree of file compression.

Clonezilla

Another application for creating an image of HDD partitions, available for free. Its creator is private programmer Stephen Shiau, originally from Taiwan. Despite the fact that the utility was created on open source, it has a very complex interface, or rather, it would be even more accurate to say that there is practically no interface at all, so it will be very problematic for inexperienced users to understand how to work with it. The entire process of working with the program is carried out using text commands. The program has Russian localization, so it will be easy to use for domestic users. You can specify the required language at the very beginning of the backup process.

One of the main advantages of this utility is the maximum level of localization. It can work with all desktop operating systems that exist today and supports all modern file systems.

To create a bootable flash drive, the first thing you need to do is download the installer from the developer’s official Internet resource onto your computer. The type of installation package depends on the operating system installed on your computer. It is worth noting that if the secure boot function is activated on your OS, then you need to download a separate distribution designed for Linux operating systems.

The installation file will be downloaded in zip format. After the download process is completed, you need to unpack its contents onto a USB flash drive, and then run the makeboot.bat file.

A backup can be created in two modes: in the form in which the system is presented on the computer (i.e., with all folders and individual files) or as a single file. Regardless of the form in which you create an image of the logical partition, using each of them you can subsequently restore the OS. The utility has very good functionality and practically does not consume hardware resources, so it can be used even on weak machines.

However, the program also has one drawback, namely, it creates a full backup of the entire logical partition, so the volume of the external data storage device must be equal to the amount of space occupied by the operating system.

It is worth noting that a regular and server version of Clonezilla is available. The second is designed to work over a network and allows simultaneous copying on multiple computers connected over a local network.

Backup & Recovery 14 free version

The arsenal of software from the Paragon studio contains a lot of useful free and commercial utilities created for the Windows OS, one of which is Backup & Recovery 14 Free Edition, with which users can create an image of the operating system.

The program is free, however, it can be used exclusively for non-commercial purposes. Today, the developer has created a newer version with a paid license, however, the old version still does not lose its relevance. At the same time, it works excellently not only with the seven, but also with newer versions of Windows operating systems.

It is worth noting that in the free version most of the tools are blocked, and to use them you need to update the utility to the commercial version, however, they are quite enough to backup the system. In addition to the main function, using the program you can control various parameters of logical partitions, for example, assign a different letter, check the file system, hide the partition from prying eyes and some other operations.

In the main menu of the program there is an integrated utility designed to create an image of the system partition. Before creating an image, the user can specify the type of operating system, where the image will be stored, a set of drivers for the necessary devices that will be included in the image, local network connection settings and many other parameters. The image is saved in the standard ISO format, supported by most modern programs.

The utility can work in two modes: firstly, the image can be created using the standard method, which involves saving the image file to any other logical partition of the computer or external drive, and secondly, the file can be saved to a virtual disk created by the utility itself, with the purpose of storing a large number of backup copies in one place. This approach is very useful, since there is no need to create a separate directory and constantly move files into it from other sections.

The big advantage of this utility over other programs in this category is the increased level of security. Its essence lies in the fact that when this function is activated, the backup copy is placed in the so-called capsule, located in a hidden section of the hard drive to which user access is blocked.

It is worth noting that the utility has two interfaces: standard and tiled. In addition to differences in design and ergonomics, the standard interface may be unstable. This manifests itself in the following: when creating an image of a Windows OS, the program may generate a system error and interrupt the image creation process. The reason for this is unknown, however, the problem can be solved very easily. If, while creating an image of a logical hard drive partition, the process was interrupted by the utility, you need to restart the application in tiled mode. After this, no problems will arise during the operation of the utility.

The software works reliably with all types of HDD, regardless of the cluster size and the file system used.

DriveImage XML

The DriveImage XML program was developed by Runtime Software, which is known to most users as a manufacturer of utilities for recovering deleted files. The company is the author of many software products, however, they have not received much recognition from users for various reasons. Nevertheless, the utility for creating a hard drive image, DriveImage XML, is a very useful and practical solution that is used by many Russian-speaking users. The main reason why the utility has become widespread is its accessibility.

To use the program, it is not necessary to install it on your computer, since the developer has provided the ability for the utility to work in a Linux environment. It is worth noting that of all the backup tools discussed in our article today, this particular utility has the widest range of tools and the greatest functionality.

By and large, this program is a set of utilities that allow you to back up your hard drive, restore deleted files, check logical partitions for errors, defragment, format, delete existing and create new partitions, change the volume label and much more. Such a large set of tools and functionality is not found in any utility that is freely available on the Internet these days.

In addition, on the official Internet resource of the company you can download an installation file, which is a set of programs, which, in addition to the utility mentioned above, includes a set of programs for viewing Internet sites, working with multimedia content and text files.

Runtime Software implements a shadow copying algorithm that allows you to create a backup copy of entire hard drive partitions, including files located in the system and hidden partitions that are not visible in the operating system. The final hard drive image consists of two files: the first has an xml extension and is a description of the created image, and the second is assigned the dat format, which directly acts as a backup copy of all files stored on the logical partition. The tools and some functions integrated into the utility that are tied to standard operating system services may not work during the operation of the program, however, the developer himself warns about this, so if you are faced with the fact that some Runtime Software functionality is not available, do not be alarmed worth it, the utility is fully functional.

Conclusion

Utilities designed to backup a system partition are a universal solution that can be used not only to roll back a crashed operating system to a working state, but also to ensure the safety of important information that you want to save no matter what. For example, these days everyone uses digital cameras, and the captured images are stored on the computer’s hard drive. Imagine what would happen if malicious software entered your PC and damaged or completely deleted your treasured memories? And with the help of the applications discussed in this article, you can ensure complete safety not only of photographs that capture all the most pleasant and important moments from your life, but also other important information. And this opportunity is available to you completely free of charge.

Hello admin! Judging by the articles on this site, you can tell me a way out of this situation. Three years ago I bought a laptop with Windows 8 Single Language pre-installed and immediately reinstalled it on Windows 7. Now I want to sell this laptop, but the buyer asks that Windows 8 be installed on the laptop. How can this be done if the partitions are Factory settings removed and the hard drive converted to MBR?

I couldn’t find an ISO image of Windows 8 Single Language on the Internet, but I also have a laptop, albeit from a different manufacturer, and it has Windows 8.1 installed, to which it was updated from Windows 8. Can this help me somehow? What happens if I copy a factory image of Windows 8 from a hidden partition on a laptop from another manufacturer and deploy this image to my laptop?


Hi all! In this case, the simplest solution is to download Windows 8 Single Language on the Internet and install it on your laptop, before installing, enable the UEFI and Secure Boot options in the BIOS, respectively, Windows 8 will be installed on a GPT disk, after installation the system will pick up the key from the BIOS and is activated automatically after the first access to the Internet.

Unfortunately, we cannot post an ISO image of licensed Windows 8 on our website, and it is a pity that Microsoft will not post this image on its official resources, as is done with Windows 8.1, 10 Single Language.

What happens if you copy a factory image of Windows 8 from a hidden partition of a laptop from another manufacturer and deploy this image to your laptop?

Friends, this is what will happen - a factory image of Windows 8 taken from another laptop will perfectly deploy to your laptop, but along with the operating system, all proprietary software from another manufacturer will also be installed on your laptop, which is best removed, since it is not clear whether it will whether it works correctly. And also, since the factory image is not native, you will have to install drivers on most of the devices on your laptop after deploying Windows 8. One positive thing is in the process of deployment factory image of Windows 8, the native license key will be picked up from the BIOS of your laptop and Win 8 will be activated immediately after the first access to the Internet. All!

So, everything else that is written below is for lovers of experiments and computer enthusiasts.

If you have another laptop at hand (even from a different manufacturer), on which Windows 8 was installed from the store and hidden partitions with factory settings were saved on this laptop, then from these partitions you can copy the factory image in WIM format and deploy it to on your laptop. Let me note again - it doesn’t matter what operating system is currently installed on this laptop, even Windows 10, the main thing is that the hidden partition with the factory Windows image is safe.

What it looks like in reality. For example, I have an HP laptop and Windows 8 Single Language was installed on it from the store, then I installed everything on it, as a result it ended up with Windows XP, then I needed Windows 8 again, but the hidden partitions on the laptop were deleted , and I don’t have a Single Language ISO image, but I have a second Toshiba laptop on which Windows 8 was installed, then upgraded to Windows 8.1 and eventually Windows 10 ended up on it, the hidden partitions on the laptop were preserved.

Copying a factory WIM image from a Toshiba laptop to a portable hard drive USB

So, we take the laptop - “donor” Toshiba and go to disk management. Usually, the most recent hidden partition without a letter has a volume of 15-25 GB, this is the partition with factory settings. From this section we need to copy the factory WIM image of Windows 8 to a portable USB hard drive New volume (F:). Then we will connect an external USB drive to a second HP laptop and deploy a factory image of Windows 8 to it during system deployment and Win 8 will be activated immediately after the first access to the Internet. All!

Let's enter the hidden factory partition using the command "

Assign".

Launch the command line as administrator and enter the commands:

diskpart

lis vol (displays a list of hard disk partitions)

sel vol 4 (select hidden partition without a letter, with a factory Windows image, capacity 20 GB)

assign (this command assigns a letter to the hidden partition)

Open the “Computer” window and go to the section with factory settings (E:).

Left-click on View and check the box “Hidden elements”, with this action we are in We switch on the display of hidden files and folders, otherwise we will not see the factory WIM image with Windows 8, since it has the “Hidden” attribute.

Now we look in the folders for the factory WIM image. On my laptop it is located in the “Backup” folder and is not one install.wim file, as usual, but several files with the .swm extension.

Select all the factory image files with the .swm extension, right-click on them and select:

Send-->New Volume (F:).

The process of copying an image.

The factory image files are copied to the (F:) drive of the portable hard drive.

We no longer need the Toshiba laptop.

Create a bootable Live CD AOMEI PE Builder flash drive with ImageX utility

Now we need to create a bootable Live CD AOMEI PE Builder flash drive with ImageX utility and boot the HP laptop from it.

In the main WinSetupFromUSB window, select the name of our flash drive.

Put a tick on the item Auto format it with FBinst and check the FAT32 box,

Check the box Vista/7/8/Server 2008/2012 based ISO and click on the button that opens the Explorer window.

Explorer opens, find the ISO image of the Live CD AOMEI PE Builder on the computer and select it with the left mouse, click “Open”.

Click “GO”.

"Yes"

The creation of a bootable Live CD AOMEI PE Builder flash drive begins.

The bootable USB flash drive is ready.

"OK"

We boot the laptop from the bootable USB flash drive Live CD AOMEI PE Builder. Our flash drive is universal; from it you can boot a laptop with a UEFI interface, as well as a regular BIOS.

Press “Enter” on the keyboard.

The Live CD AOMEI PE Builder desktop loads, which is a regular Live CD based on Windows 8.1.

We connect an external USB drive to an HP laptop and deploy a factory image of Windows 8 to it using the ImageX utility

Double-click on the Windows Disk Management shortcut and the Disk Management window opens.

In Disk Management, we need to completely delete all partitions of the laptop’s hard drive; if there are hidden partitions on the disk, then this can only be done in the command line.

Launch the command line.

Enter the commands:

diskpart

lis dis (list all hard drives connected to the computer)

sel dis 0 (select laptop hard drive)

clean (with this command we delete all partitions on the laptop’s hard drive)

convert gpt (with this command we initialize the disk in GPT style)

create par efi size=100 (create an encrypted (EFI) system partition of 100 MB).

format fs=fat32 (format it to the FAT32 file system).

creat par msr size=128 (create a 128 MB MSR partition required in the EFI system)

Close the command line window.

Return to the Disk Management window and create a disk (C:) from unallocated space.

Right-click on the unallocated space and select “Create simple volume”.

Disk (C:) has been created.

Now all we have to do is deploy the factory image of Windows 8 to disk (C:) using the command line.

The factory image files are located on the (G:) partition of the USB portable hard drive, but you may not see them,

since they have the "Hidden" attribute. Left-click on View and check the “Hidden” items box.

Open the command line and enter the command:

Since any install.wim or install.swm file must have an image index, we must specify it in the next command. To determine the image index of the install.swm file, open the command line and enter the command:

DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:H:\install.swm

where H: is the drive letter of the install.swm file.

As you can see, the image index is 1.

Enter the following command:

imagex /apply /check /ref G:\install*.swm G:\install.swm 1 C:\

where (G:), the partition with the .swm files of the Windows 8 factory image, and 1 is the index.

Windows 8 image files are deployed to the C: drive of the laptop.

Progress 100% - Windows 8 is deployed to disk (C:) and all we have to do is restore the Windows 8 boot loader, enter the commands:

diskpart

lis vol (we list all partitions of all drives connected to the laptop)

exit (exit diskpart)

Creating download files for Windows 8.

Since the letter with deployed Windows 8 is (C:) (in your case it may be different), to create the operating system loader we enter the command:

bcdboot C:\Windows

We exit the command line and reboot the laptop and immediately enter the final phase of installing Windows 8.

We do not change the regional settings, click “Next”.

We accept the license terms.

Enter the computer name.

"Use standard settings".

Enter your username.

Windows 8 is loading.

Branded Toshiba laptop screensaver on an HP laptop.

Disk management.

As I warned, drivers will need to be installed.

It is better to remove the pre-installed software from Toshiba on an HP laptop, although many programs work.

Article on this topic: .

Lenovo laptops, as well as laptops from other manufacturers, come with a lot of pre-installed junk programs (bloodware). But among all the rubbish there is a rather useful program called One Key Recovery from CyberLink. If you do not know how to use other system recovery tools, you can use this program. It can only restore a Windows system, but it may still be useful to someone... In this article we will figure out how to restore the functionality of this program.


This program consists of two components. The first is a regular Windows program that can create a backup copy of everything on your C drive. The second is an EFI application (like a mini operating system) that restores from a backup.

It is understood that the user can get into the recovery utility in the following ways: 1) From a running Windows: run the OneKey Recovery program, select System Recovery and the computer should reboot into the recovery utility; 2) From the off state: press the Novo button with a paperclip, select System Recovery and the recovery utility should load.

You wonder Why does Windows 10 boot again instead of the recovery utility? But I’m no longer there. I know how to fix this because I did the research. And don’t believe Lenovo official representatives who say that “Recovery tools are built into the OS” of win8, so there will be no support for OneKey Recovery in win10. They also say that if you roll back to win8, your OKR will work. This is wrong. Let's figure it all out.

Generally speaking, there is a way to download the one key recovery utility without any tools at hand. But for this, the Windows must still be in working order. Hold down the Shift key and select reboot. You will see a menu where you need to follow the following points: diagnostics, additional parameters, load other devices, show more devices and select the displayed Lenovo Recovery System item (if you have a menu in English, then either guess or change the bcd locale from under Windows ).

If Windows has already been demolished, then you can use either already installed Linux or a bootable USB flash drive with Linux. A flash drive with ArchLinux is suitable since it does not contain anything unnecessary, takes up little space and will ultimately save us time. Boot, run the command efibootmgr -v. This is how we find out the number of the Lenovo Recovery System boot variable. We need the four digits of the BootXXXX variable. Next, you need to set the efi variable BootNext; to do this, run efibootmgr --bootnext indicating the entry number. We reboot and rejoice - the recovery utility is loading.
But this procedure will have to be done anew each time, since the BootNext variable is applied once and is overwritten. What to do if you want everything to work as expected?

Before installing Linux, I looked at how the partitioning scheme from the manufacturer (OEM assembler) works:

List of sections with explanations

  • Sda1 ntfs 1000 MiB WINRE_DRV is the boot partition for windows recovery. Used when you boot into the WinRE environment.
  • Sda2 fat32 260 MiB SYSTEM_DRV is an EFI System Partition (esp, that is, the main boot partition for UEFI). It all starts with him. It stores efi applications (windows bootloader, Linux bootloader and other applications).
  • Sda3 fat32 1000 MiB LRS_ESP is the original equipment manufacturer (oem) section, namely Lenovo Recovery System. This partition simulates a real esp (you can only create one real esp on your hard drive). The efi one key recovery application is stored on it.
  • Sda4 without FS 128 MiB Microsoft Reserved Partition is a partition that Microsoft reserves on gpt disks. Used by Windows when you move or change partitions using disk manager.
  • Sda5 ntfs 892.15 GiB Windows8_OS is the main partition of Windows (drive C). There is the OS itself, the swap file and all your files.
  • Sda6 ntfs 25.00 GiB LENOVO - this is the partition on which Lenovo installed drivers for your computer and installers of some spam software, displayed as disk D. It was assumed that you could backup to this partition. But look at its size and everything will become clear.
  • Sda7 ntfs 12.03 GiB PBR_DRV is a partition that contains the very, very initial recovery image that you can select in OneKey Recovery.

When installing Linux, if for some reason you need pre-installed Windows, I advise you to simply shrink the system partition to the required size, and in the free space create an LVM partition and smear all the internals of Linux into it (forget about the problems of moving and resizing partitions). I checked that the OKR system will not destroy this section when restoring from the image.

If Windows 8 was pre-installed on your Lenovo computer and you decided to upgrade to Windows 10, then you The functionality of the One Key Recovery program will be lost. You can run OKR in windows and create a backup, but you will not be able to launch the recovery utility either by selecting Reboot recovery in the program or from Novo Button Menu - System Recovery. It will just start Windows. How to boot into the recovery utility, and why did this problem arise?

The thing is that when Windows is installed, it replaces the file in the standard path $esp/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi with its own, and in Windows 8 it was simply replaced manually by OEM.
Where do we even need to go? We need to load the efi application from the LRS_ESP section. There we have the following efi files, which I checked and found out what we need:
LRS_ESP:/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi - loads what we need, the OKR utility
LRS_ESP:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgr.efi - does not support booting
LRS_ESP:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/LrsBootmgr.efi - loads what we need, the OKR utility
LRS_ESP:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/memtest.efi - does not support booting
LRS_ESP:/bootmgr.efi - does not support booting

My laptop has UEFI firmware from Phoenix. It is made in such a way that when you select System Recovery in the Novo button menu, the following boot order occurs: 1) If there is a file $esp:/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi, then it is loaded; 2) If there is a file $esp:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgrfw.efi, then it is loaded, that is, a normal windows boot; 3) If there are no files from points 1 and 2, then LRS_ESP:/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi is loaded (exactly like that, and not the lrs boot record) 4) If it is not there, then (regardless of the existence of other boot records) an entry with lenovo recovery system is added to the bootorder and normal startup occurs, which will lead to OKR in our utility, because the Lenovo Recovery System entry contains the necessary path LRS_ESP:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/lrsBootmgr.efi.
When you press the power button, the order of downloading the firmware is as follows: 1) if you hold down the esc, f2, f12 key, then load the desired application from ROM; 2) if the bootnext variable is set, then load the boot record with the number from this variable; 3) normal boot using boot order.

And when you press the Novo button, a new menu is loaded. And generally speaking, you can safely do without the novo button, since all the items in its menu can be called up separately, and the last item is nothing more than loading a recording from the hard drive. This entry is displayed when you hold f12 and for me it starts with WD. Please note that WD is not a boot record of the Lenovo Recovery System, but rather a record from the hard drive, which behaves according to the boot sequence described above, that is, in step 3 it will load LRS_ESP:/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi, and not the Lenovo boot record Recovery System. OKRs are also loaded along this path, but I specifically pay attention to this subtle point. Because of this boot sequence, by the way, we did not get into the recovery utility, despite the working entry of Lenovo Recovery System.

That is, the firmware itself was made quite cleverly, it deleted the system boot variable - it was restored with all other variables cleared, if there is absolutely nothing to load during normal sturtup - it will add the number of the lrs entry to the boot order, which in turn will be recreated automatically; in a sad situation, the firmware tries to do everything possible. A the culprit of all dances with a tambourine is Micosoft, which obligingly does nasty things to you, for example, overwrites other bootloaders when it is not asked to do so. Using the standard path, you can put, for example, a fallback kernel for Linux and boot into it, if necessary, with the novo button or make a boot selection menu.

As you can see, with Windows running, even deleting the $esp:/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi file, which was overwritten by a Microsoft file when updating Windows, which loads Windows, will not help us, although there should be a file that contains instructions or download the application with LRS_ESP partition, or set bootnext to the entry with lenovo recovery system and reboot. Now it’s clear why you were loading windows normally using the novo button?

I could write these instructions myself, but I haven't done EFI application programming yet. So for now, the only option is to either pull out a similar file from a Lenovo computer that has not yet been updated to Windows 10, or you can install rEFInd there, which already has built-in functionality for downloading OKRs from Lenovo laptops. If it doesn't appear, just press ESC. An orange life jacket with a Windows icon will appear in the menu.