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I have an old Samsung X420 in which I had installed Linux years ago, alongside Windows 7.

I gave it to my girlfriend to use and since she didn't deal well with Linux and GRUB, I wiped and recreated the MBR so it would boot directly on Windows.

Now Windows need to be reinstalled and I realized the restore solution is not working since the partition is not accessible (it is still there).

I guess all I need to do is mount the recovery partition again into the correct drive letter.

Does anyone know what is the drive letter the recover partition should be mounted on and some tools to do the job?

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  • It sounds like you deleted the data so there isn't anything to restore. The good news is the information contained on the restoration partition is just WinRE which exists on the Windows 7 installation disk.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 15:49
  • I didn't, the partition is still there, it is just not accessible. That particular laptop came without a DVD drive, so the only available solution to reinstall it is from an external USB drive (mine broke :)) or from the recovery partition. I know the partition is there because when I installed Linux I only resize the partitions and to 'remove' it I only reinstalled the MBR (in reality, Linux is still there also)
    – Cleber Goncalves
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 16:02
  • Even if the data is there. All it contains is the WinRE. So unless your trying to repair the installation, and even if you are, it might be easier to create a bootable usb drive which contains WinRE ( i.e. the installation image ).. You cannot reinstall Windows from the recovery partition.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 16:09

1 Answer 1

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You don't normally activate a restore partition directly. Turn on/reboot the computer, and on the BIOS screen (or logo, etc), press the "Recovery" key, and follow the wizard.

The recovery key is usually F10, F11, or F12, or may be a dedicated button, such as the ThinkPad's "blue button."

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  • The button on Samsung X420 is F4, you can also just start the app from within windows. The issue is that because of my previous Linux install, the application is not finding the recovery partition.
    – Cleber Goncalves
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 15:58
  • @CleberGoncalves According to some research I did, it looks like you may have moved the partition. Can you move it back exactly where and how it was? I know I'm probably asking for a lot here, but that'd be the easy way. Alternatively, if you have a second Samsung, you can create a pen drive bootable version from SRS (Samsung Recovery Solution). Also, try here, there's a download link.
    – phyrfox
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 16:16
  • So do you mean SRS is looking for the installation image in a specific block of the disk, not just for the partition?
    – Cleber Goncalves
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 17:08
  • @CleberGoncalves That appears to be the case. The BIOS on most systems are pretty basic up until UEFI, which didn't become a "thing" until Windows 8. Systems not natively built for Windows 8 usually had an IBM-Compatible BIOS, a set of de facto standards, upon which many vendors imposed their own proprietary extensions. Since they designed it, they were assuming the average person wouldn't go messing with "their" partition layout. Technically, once you do anything to the hard drive partition-wise, the vendor considers your warranty void; they don't guarantee it'll work anymore.
    – phyrfox
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 17:14
  • Your best bet is to try and move SRS back to the exact block it came from, and hope for the best. Barring that, you'll probably need some form of pen-drive version of SRS, as I mentioned before.
    – phyrfox
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 17:15

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