Recovery using "Start Recovery disc" in EXTERNAL drive no go
Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 12:28 am
Hello, all. (Please help!)
I have scoured this great website (and others) for answers, but have resigned myself to creating an account to solve my strange problem......
--- I simply cannot return my computer to factory state using the recovery disc(s) and my external CD DVD drive! ---
I did a system restore once before, a long time ago, and I believe at that time I used the recovery partition vice the external optical drive. The only other difference is that I just cloned my HDD to a SSD which is now installed in the computer. I DON'T see how that should affect anything, though.
The full sob story is at the bottom, but it should not make any difference to the main problem in red.
When I boot from the optical drive with the boot disc (the CD---the first recovery disc):
-- the computer goes into "Rescue and Recovery" (for a long time)
-- the computer then restarts and goes into "Windows Error Recovery"
-- I choose "Launch Startup Repair (recommended)"
-- the computer goes to "Windows Boot Manager" and gives me:
"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings, and then click "Next."
3. Click "Repair your computer."
If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible."
I suppose I should swap the SSD out and the HDD in and try the recovery. It might work (this ridiculous tactic worked for burning recovery discs---see below). ...but that would still leave me with the question of how to do it with the SSD.
(Extra info: I found, in another thread on this board, a warning that said if you are cloning a disk drive, you should have the target drive in the main bay and the source drive connected by USB. I did my cloning backwards, with the target drive (SSD) connected by USB and the source drive in the main bay, but that was exactly as per the cloning software instructions (Intel Data Migration). If I can't think of anything else, I suppose I could try cloning it with the reverse set-up, but that would be a huge pain, and again, it would be against the cloning SW instructions.)
(Extra info: as a bonus problem, the blue "ThinkVantage" button seems to have stopping working properly. It used to present multiple options (maybe only when I was running off the HDD?), but now it just flashes up what should be the option screen too quickly to read, picks something on its own (and doesn't even seem to show more than one option), and proceeds to load Windows. Argh...)
---
I first tried doing the system recovery from the recovery partition, but that did not work. I thought that might be because the cloning software did not put the recovery partition in EXACTLY the same place on the SSD as it was on the HDD or something, so I decided to produce recovery discs and do the recovery with those instead (which should be foolproof!).
I COULD NOT produce the recovery discs from within Windows on the SSD, and after many failed attempts using the external drive, and then many attempts using virtual drives instead, on a whim I tried swapping the old HDD in. From within Windows on the HDD, it worked (why the difference I would LOVE TO KNOW!), and I now had recovery discs.
With that multi-hour battle won, I swapped the SSD back in, thinking it would be smooth sailing, but no---the recovery process will not work from the disc(s). The computer seems to be fighting me every step of the way...
This is insane... :S
By the way, I put this in the X2xx/X30x forum section because only people like me (X200 Tablet), with tablets (or other small laptops), need to futz around with external optical drives, though if there were a section for model-non-specific troubleshooting (I can't imagine why there isn't one, by the way) I would have put it there.
Thanks for reading this wall of text. I just wanted to provide all the background info I could. ...and, let's face it, vent.
I have scoured this great website (and others) for answers, but have resigned myself to creating an account to solve my strange problem......
--- I simply cannot return my computer to factory state using the recovery disc(s) and my external CD DVD drive! ---
I did a system restore once before, a long time ago, and I believe at that time I used the recovery partition vice the external optical drive. The only other difference is that I just cloned my HDD to a SSD which is now installed in the computer. I DON'T see how that should affect anything, though.
The full sob story is at the bottom, but it should not make any difference to the main problem in red.
When I boot from the optical drive with the boot disc (the CD---the first recovery disc):
-- the computer goes into "Rescue and Recovery" (for a long time)
-- the computer then restarts and goes into "Windows Error Recovery"
-- I choose "Launch Startup Repair (recommended)"
-- the computer goes to "Windows Boot Manager" and gives me:
"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings, and then click "Next."
3. Click "Repair your computer."
If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible."
I suppose I should swap the SSD out and the HDD in and try the recovery. It might work (this ridiculous tactic worked for burning recovery discs---see below). ...but that would still leave me with the question of how to do it with the SSD.
(Extra info: I found, in another thread on this board, a warning that said if you are cloning a disk drive, you should have the target drive in the main bay and the source drive connected by USB. I did my cloning backwards, with the target drive (SSD) connected by USB and the source drive in the main bay, but that was exactly as per the cloning software instructions (Intel Data Migration). If I can't think of anything else, I suppose I could try cloning it with the reverse set-up, but that would be a huge pain, and again, it would be against the cloning SW instructions.)
(Extra info: as a bonus problem, the blue "ThinkVantage" button seems to have stopping working properly. It used to present multiple options (maybe only when I was running off the HDD?), but now it just flashes up what should be the option screen too quickly to read, picks something on its own (and doesn't even seem to show more than one option), and proceeds to load Windows. Argh...)
---
I first tried doing the system recovery from the recovery partition, but that did not work. I thought that might be because the cloning software did not put the recovery partition in EXACTLY the same place on the SSD as it was on the HDD or something, so I decided to produce recovery discs and do the recovery with those instead (which should be foolproof!).
I COULD NOT produce the recovery discs from within Windows on the SSD, and after many failed attempts using the external drive, and then many attempts using virtual drives instead, on a whim I tried swapping the old HDD in. From within Windows on the HDD, it worked (why the difference I would LOVE TO KNOW!), and I now had recovery discs.
With that multi-hour battle won, I swapped the SSD back in, thinking it would be smooth sailing, but no---the recovery process will not work from the disc(s). The computer seems to be fighting me every step of the way...
This is insane... :S
By the way, I put this in the X2xx/X30x forum section because only people like me (X200 Tablet), with tablets (or other small laptops), need to futz around with external optical drives, though if there were a section for model-non-specific troubleshooting (I can't imagine why there isn't one, by the way) I would have put it there.
Thanks for reading this wall of text. I just wanted to provide all the background info I could. ...and, let's face it, vent.