Windows 7 Create Recovery Partition

[Ilse Marseau]

I've been working on how to create custom recovery partition and here's what I came up with, it's not "perfect" or "pretty", but it gets job done. I only tested this so far on one laptop with BIOS & MBR partition scheme, so I can't say it will work with UEFI & GPT.

I'm just wondering if there's any info on how to create custom hidden recovery partition, similar to the ones that HP, TOSHIBA, DELL, Compaq are using. I use this feature at work quite a bit and works well. I find it very useful for quick and easy setup & recovery.

My goal is to create custom recovery partition with XP SP2 including drivers for Graphic Card, LAN, Sound Card ... then by pressing F11(or any assigned button) during boot to start automated system recovery/reinstall/win repair.

the idea is interesting, and certainly already used. From my IBM T42 I know that IBM used some Windows PE there. It all works by having a special boot loader in the MBR that checks for the 'access IBM' key to be pressed. If the key is pressed, it unhides the service partition by setting the partition type to FAT32 and boots it. If the key is not pressed, the service partition is hidden from windows by setting it to partition type 0x12 and afterwards the first partition is booted.

The downside i see here is, that you have to rely on tools of the vendor which you can only guess how they work. The way it works with IBM hardware seems to be well-known, how it works on other hardware, one can only guess or search the web.

Thank you guys for the good info. Looks like I'll be doing some reading before I start the project. I found some info already, but this is by doing it the Microsoft way, thru WAIK & OEM installation kit. The only problem is, I haven't got the OEM kit. I've dowloaded the WAIK yesterday & I found this

i have a similar idea. creating a mantaince mode. for defraging, cleanup and anti spyware, virus scaning. basic like all this mode is about is. Cleanup your windows with the utilities you have installed.

In other words, the object of this thread is to "refine" the way a recovery partition "looks" (or does not look, as it is hidden ) so, you should first thing get it working as "visible", and only once everything works as expected, hide it and provide a way for the "switching".

Now, my question is not how to create a recovery partition, rather I was wondering whether is there any real benefit to have one and to enable Windows RE before I actually go to the trouble of shrinking my OS partition to make room on the disk for creating a recovery partition.

If the computer originally came with Windows preinstalled by HP (e.g. OEM Windows), then you can purchase recovery media from HP. They are usually cheap. You can use it to restore your computer to factory default condition. Here is how to do it:

If the computer originally did not come with Windows preinstalled, but you installed it on your own after that, then you need to use Windows installation media to reinstall Windows. You can get Windows installation ISO images from Microsoft web site and then burn it on a DVD >> -us/software-download/windows8

It can be multiple DVDs (not CDs) OR USB pen drive. CDs are too small in capacity. CDs can usually have 700 MB max, DVDs can have 4.7 GB or more (depending on DVD type). USB pen drives can have even more.

Or, you can try a third party freeware, aomei onekey recovery, to create a recovery partition based on your current os. Once something unexpeded happen, you can recover system back under the help of the freeware.

This question does not appear to be about a specific programming problem, a software algorithm, or software tools primarily used by programmers. If you believe the question would be on-topic on another Stack Exchange site, you can leave a comment to explain where the question may be able to be answered.

As part of extending the size of the volume on Azure VM, i need to re-create Recovery Partition. I am following this guide, here.I am attempting to set the set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac" for the primary partition intended to be used as recovery partition. I get the error:

I know I am late but just for anyone who ends up here by a google search if your disk is using MBR not GPT then you need to set the id to "27" instead of "de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac" so it should look like this set id=27

When Windows 10 is installed using Bootcamp, one notable feature that is not present is a Recovery Partition. The absence of this feature makes recovery the within Windows Boot Environment very challenging, if not impossible.

Adding a simple and automated (or semi-automated) process to Winclone that would create such a partition is a feature that would be invaluable, in my opinion, and I am unaware of any such software that is designed to address this issue on the Mac.

I agree that it would be neat. I have been able to boot to WinRE with a single partition by having Windows boot to a WIM RE image. It would be interested into figure out when/how that happens and make it an option.

One day I'll probably sell that laptop, so it'll be nice to recover it to the manufacturer state. I want to backup recovery partition, save it to some file and keep that in cloud. One day I'll restore it and reinstall Windows from the recovery partition.

What tools should I use to make it painless? I tried some Windows tools with my current laptop when I first bought it, but after 3 years I'm unable to recover the partition. I created the backup on Windows, so now I don't want to make the same mistake twice.

To Perform a FULL Backup of the entire Drive you can buy a USB Drive that is larger, and then save it to a .dd file in the bigger drive. This way if you break something, you can boot into the Live CD/USB and attach your external drive and restore.

This method which images the entire drive works flawlessly to backup any operating system, including any version of Windows. I've used it repeatedly over the years. The only possible downside is that you'll need to restore (and store) the image to a drive of equal (or greater) size due to not using compression. The upside is it takes very little of your time.

Windows 10/11 can encounter issues such as failure to boot or improper booting due to failed updates and program installation problems. A recovery partition is a segment of the disk drive on a computer designed to store a system image, backup files, and recovery guidance files.

The recovery partition will help you get your software programs, device drivers, and system settings back quickly and easily. Besides, it can eliminate some unnecessary expenses - for example, the cost of purchasing a new operating system or taking the computer to a repair shop.

As the best lost partition recovery software, AnyRecover lets you recover lost partitions really easy. No technical knowledge is required at all. It is also extremely quick. You should have your recovery partition back within a few minutes. AnyRecover is capable of recovering files lost via other methods. It can recover files lost via accidental deletion, virus or malware attacks, OS crash or OS installation error, accidental formatting, damaged hard drive, etc.

This article explores the importance of recovery partitions and provides a guide on creating recovery partitions for Windows 10/11. Additionally, it explains how you can utilize third-party software, like AnyRecover Data Recovery, to recover a lost recovery partition. This serves as a valuable resource for Windows users aiming to enhance system stability and ensure data security.

Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a recovery environment that can repair common causes of unbootable operating systems. WinRE is based on Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE), and can be customized with additional drivers, languages, Windows PE Optional Components, and other troubleshooting and diagnostic tools. By default, WinRE is preloaded into the Windows 10 and Windows 11 for desktop editions (Home, Pro, Enterprise, and Education) and Windows Server 2016, and later, installations.

After any of these actions is performed, all user sessions are signed off and the Advanced startup menu is displayed. If your users select a WinRE feature from this menu, the PC restarts into WinRE and the selected feature is launched.

You can add one custom tool to the Advanced startup menu. Otherwise, these menus can't be further customized. For more info, see Add a Custom Tool to the Windows RE Advanced startup Menu.

You can customize WinRE by adding packages (Windows PE Optional Components), languages, drivers, and custom diagnostic or troubleshooting tools. The base WinRE image includes these Windows PE Optional Components:

The number of packages, languages, and drivers is limited by the amount of memory available on the PC. For performance reasons, minimize the number of languages, drivers, and tools that you add to the image.

During the specialize configuration pass, the WinRE image file is copied into the recovery tools partition, so that the device can boot to the recovery tools even if there's a problem with the Windows partition.

Add the baseline WinRE tools image (winre.wim) to a separate partition from the Windows and data partitions. This enables your users to use WinRE even if the Windows partition is encrypted with Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption. It also prevents your users from accidentally modifying or removing the WinRE tools.

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