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My problem started with a failed migration from HDD to SSD. I created the copy which should work without problems, but the SSD was somewhat incompatible with my setup (drive visible in BIOS, but not visible in Windows installation/repair due to missing chipset drivers). I returned my old HDD in laptop and checked if everything worked.

I found out I had issues with inoperable recovery features. My laptop came with an OEM installation of Windows 8.1 (Lenovo Flex 2-14) on a GPT drive and has two recovery partitions - I believe one is Windows recovery partition and the other Lenovo recovery partition. The application One key recovery that came with the laptop for this purpose as well as recovery in Windows aren't working. After investigation I found the following issues: - Disk Manager shows both recovery partitions as 100% free with no FS - DISKPART shows both Recovery partitions as RAW (I am sure they were NTFS before) - Paragon Disk Manager shows the Recovery partitions full with data (and data is accessible) as well as NTFS formatted.

I have tried repairing the EFI bootloader using instructions that helped many users, but the procedure fails when I have to assign a drive letter to the recovery partition - the drive letter can be set, but the partition can't be opened.

Is there a way to fix this issue - correct FS of the Recovery partitions or perhaps create them anew and transfer files I can save using Paragon SW? I am sure someone somewhere had a similar issue, but I haven't found a solution yet.

Thank you for your help.

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If the original partitions are showing as invalid, then that suggests serious damage, probably to their filesystems but conceivably to your partition table. A tool like CHKDSK.EXE might fix them, but if that fails, I have two suggestions:

  • Contact the computer's manufacturer for a recovery disc set. They'll probably charge you to send you something that will restore the computer to its factory-fresh state.
  • Get a Windows installation disc from Microsoft. Apparently Microsoft now makes these available for download free. Try Googling or searching Microsoft's site. I found this page that describes how to get disc images, but I can't promise it describes the best way to do this.

I don't believe either approach will restore only your recovery partitions, but either method should enable you to re-install or recover from a damaged installation.

Incidentally, hard disks don't normally require drivers; only the chipset (on the motherboard or occasionally on an adapter of some sort) requires drivers. Thus, swapping one disk for another should never require new drivers, unless the disk has a different interface type (PATA vs. SATA, SATA vs. SCSI, etc.). Thus, I'm skeptical of your conclusion that you needed new drivers for your new disk. Chances are something else was causing that problem.

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  • Where can I download Windows 8 legally, from Microsoft?, especially this answer.
    – Karan
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 1:14
  • I was able to fix the problem with recovery partitions using a recovery USB. Fortunately I found someone close with the same setup who made the USB recovery drive for me. Furthermore I found a problem in EFI bootloader which I was able to manually correct.
    – Janja
    Commented May 19, 2015 at 12:28
  • About that cloned SSD.. I was told (in order to boot into Windows) the bootloader needet to be correctly set. The way to do this is to put the SSD into my laptop and start a command prompt from the repair options. But there's a problem with this. The drive would show up in BIOS; but never under any Windows repair. Even if I set to make a fresh install of Windows the drive doesn't show up at the Windows installation. I am perfectly able to see the disk in another laptop, I tried, but the Lenovo Flex 2-14 doesn't see it at Windows repair/install.
    – Janja
    Commented May 19, 2015 at 12:33
  • The SSD is Crucial M500 250GB. I've seen cases across forums with the same problem. I might be wrong, but I concluded there was something amiss with the chipset driver - not on the disk, that one might be perfectly fine, but on the Windows installation/repair disk. Using the original recovery drive for this laptop didn't help. I'm still checking if there was a way to make the drive work with the computer, but so far I haven't found a method to work with this SSD. I do have to mention that connecting the drive via USB makes the drive visible under Windows repair.
    – Janja
    Commented May 19, 2015 at 12:40

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