Win 8.1 Reset - What Source???

[abro89]

hi and hello:

Love this forum, the people, the experience, and the methods for troubleshooting (t/s'g). You guys helped me in th epast w/ new CBS files for Win 7E.

I purchased (Ebay) a Win 8.1E-64b HD and it shows SFC and DISM errors so decided to reset Windows, keeping all old files and apps. HD functioned OK and all updates installed successful before finding SFC/DISM errors. Proceeded w/ reset, however I left a Win 8.1 64b DVD install/recovery disk in the laptop. Reset started and Windows indicated "cannot find necessary files for reset". It appears some indication that reset has an error or cannot proceed (note: no Win error code observed). Immediately DVD started and reset begins and completes successfully. It appears DVD was used for reset based upon DVD start/start/whirl noise. Here are my question(s):

(a) Win RESET in recovery mode should use on-board Win install.wim image .......right?
(b) Does Win RESET default to external source(s) when "internal" source is not available?
(c) Anyway to ck image on Win recovery DVD vs internal laptop image after reset?
(d) Only (2) HD partitions installed: 350Mb (RESERVED), 300GB (OS) if this helps to understand above questions

NOTE: initial Win image on HD was virus free, WIN8.1E-64b non-activated, MS Office 2016 installed/activated. Laptop worked nicely (DELL E6400 w/ 4 M RAM). Ebay purchased 300GB HD no SMART errors. Intellectual curiosity caused my decision to Win RESET, perhaps should have completed more t/s and taken an image w/ Clonezilla. My bad!!!!

thx...comments, reflections...answers???

 

[xrobwx71]

(a) Win RESET in recovery mode should use on-board Win install.wim image .......right? The way I understand it, yes.
(b) Does Win RESET default to external source(s) when "internal" source is not available? I'm not sure but I do know there are usually more than one index it looks for.
(c) Anyway to ck image on Win recovery DVD vs internal laptop image after reset? I'm not sure.

Which DISM did you run?

 

[jcgriff2]

You did the right thing by resetting the system to factory defaults.

 

[xilolee]

Windows reset in Windows 8/8.1 should use the recovery partition... If it's present.
If it's absent, the reset will work with Windows CD/USB, with the recovery partition in it... If you created It during the first installation.
If there isn't a recovery partition in your HDD, and if you didn't have a recovery USB/CD, the reset won't work.

The same is valid for the refresh function: you can create new refresh images with a special command (recimg, from an elevated command prompt).

Both images are (were) usually preinstalled by the OEM.
In my case, I purchased a Packard Bell machine and the reset/refresh images were in two recovery partitions (last partition in the disk was 16GB in size, and It contained the reset Wim, i.e. factory defaults).

But what saves our a**** is always a system image, created with well known tools (macrium reflect, acronis true image, aomei backupper, iperion backup, easeus todo backup, and so forth).

 

[Wrench97]

Is the hard drive you purchased for the exact model PC you are doing the reset on?(I'm assuming you bought a used bare hard drive?)

 

[cluberti]

(a) Win RESET in recovery mode should use on-board Win install.wim image .......right?

No, not really. Windows reset uses the SxS directory on the OS disk to reinstall Windows when using recovery by default, and there's no WIM used to reset/recover unless you explicitly tell it to use external drive during reset/recovery wizard. The only time this would work is if you are booting into recovery from an external drive itself, which would by default try to use the external drive's .WIM file(s) for recovery.

(b) Does Win RESET default to external source(s) when "internal" source is not available?

No, it does not.

(c) Anyway to ck image on Win recovery DVD vs internal laptop image after reset?

No, but if the DVD contains a recovery image, going through the reset process and choosing "Use drive" will tell it to look on attached USB and DVD drives for recovery images to install from.

 

[abro89]

[SOLVED]...W8.1 REFRESH Source Selection

Great response and now making sense to me. Again I installed a working HD w/ w8.1E-64b, booted, and drivers self installed to my DELL E6400 laptop. Very surprised only 2 drivers needed re-install.

Some info missing in my questions:

(a) no recovery partition on the installed HD w/ W8.1E-64b (non-activated)

(b) HD has (2) partitions installed: 1st-350Mb (Reserved), 2nd- 300Gb (OS)

Supposedly Win 8.1 update destroys std partition organization for an existing W8.0 install, including the Recovery partition. Will try installing W8.0 and update w/ USB/DVD to see this effect. If this is true, then a REFRESH procedure that I requested indeed functioned as designed. The lack of a HD RECOVERY partition caused "missing files, use external USB/DVD" msg. Detecting this my Win 8.1 Install/Recover DVD was used for the REFRESH as it was installed in the DVD device. Interestingly my DESKTOP listed all files/apps deleted under a Google Chrome icon after the REFRESH. All updates previously installed were deleted and caused UPDATES to be reinstalled again. MS Office activation was retained and Win 8.1E/64b is functioning again w/ NO SFC/DISM errors. The HD may have been updated previously or fresh installed w/ Win8.1E-64b....no way to tell!!!!!

An interesting intellectual curiosity for me, "you learn by doing" according to Henry Ford. Thank you for your comments/recommendations. You are the best.

 

[xrobwx71]

Thanks for the follow up.

You do need a backup image though, sometimes the reset does not work but a full image backup would get you where you need to be as long as the drive isn't bad. If you do a Full backup with nightly incrementals, you'll only be 1 day behind if something goes wrong.

I'll be publishing a Macrium backup and restore tutorial here at Sysnative in the future but until then, this should suffice.

Configuring a Backup with Macrium Reflect