win 7 recovery disks not working?

D

deetee99

Member
Hello
I have a Samsung laptop, which has its own bespoke recovery solution. Which apparently has completely corrupted my machine...grrr. It doesn't get past the BIOS screen. As I don't have any windows DVDs with this machine, I thought the recovery disks were what I needed.
However, what I see with them also doesn't seem remotely to correspond to the helpful things I'm meant to see....

I have a black screen that asks me to choose between Windows 7 recovery and memory test. I choose the former, and I get another black screen that starts "try hda(0,0) FAT 16", then goes on to 'initialize variable space... starting cmain()'. It comes to the end of that process and says amongst other things 'No emulation' and asks me to load from CD or DVD....

Am I doing something wrong? I thought the point of this was to avoid the need for the DVD...
Grateful for your help!
thanks
dee
 
The W7 repair disk (Control Panel > Backup & Recovery > "Create Repair Disc" ), which is essentially what the download is (provided for those who didn't take the opportunity to create one while their W7 was working), will fix a broken boot process on an otherwise functional OS.
It has no capability to reinstall a corrupted OS, because it lacks the installation files (hence its size, CD not DVD).
You need to concentrate on getting the Samsung "factory reset" working.
Is it F4 as you power up ?
 
Terry

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I didn't quite understand it...
I downloaded the W7 recovery discs (and paid my $10). I put it onto a usb using EasyBCD, so didn't at any point use (Control Panel > Backup & Recovery > "Create Repair Disc" ) so I'm not sure what that refers to, but was maybe an option I could have used at some point in the past.

I don't know how to get Samsung factory reset working, or what it is. F2 gives me bios settings and F4 allegedly gives me Samsung recovery solution - except it doesn't. That it doesn't is why I started with these discs.

I would think it was hopeless, except the blurb on the pages here seems to suggest I should see something rather different to what i see, so I wonder if somehow I made an error in the USB creation?
dee
 
Control Panel gives you the option to create your own (free) repair disk, but of course you need to do it when W7 is working.
We hosted a (free) copy for those who'd neglected to do so before their PC broke, and over many years, many people made use of it. Unfortunately last year Microsoft, who'd always been aware but apparently unconcerned, suddenly threatened legal action if they didn't get a fee for every copy downloaded, so now it has to be purchased through a 3rd party under licence to MS.
CG attempted to add some value for the mandatory charge by adding some extras to the vanilla MS repair disc, like virus checking etc as described here
Recovering the Windows Bootloader from the DVD - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki,
but essentially it's still the MS repair disk and is designed to fix a broken boot (bootmgr and \boot\BCD), not repair a corrupted OS.
If the Samsung recovery facility (which should like all OEMs provide you with various levels of restore and recovery opportunities, right back to the fundamental "factory reset" which puts the PC back to the state you received it in as you unpacked it from its box) isn't working, has failed, or has corrupted the PC as you suggested in your OP, then you should seek help from Samsung tech support, who can advise you better than I, on your best course of action, ultimately being able to provide replacement recovery media if their onboard hidden partition has become damaged and unusable.
 
thanks Terry
Let me ask the question more simply:
I am getting the message above on using the Win7 recovery disc, made using EasyBCD. At no point do I get anything like a dialogue box.
Assuming I have correctly made the Win7 USB stick, what do the messages mean?
Does the behaviour described indicate that I have correctly made the USB stick?
dee
 
Have you used that USB stick for something else in the past? The "hda" linux designation for a hard drive should not be appearing anywhere in this process.
 
no, i didn't
i followed the guide exactly.
three times.
as i suspect did the other poster with the same issue
perhaps you would like to follow the linked guide step by step, following it exactly, and see what happens?

i have sent my laptop off for professional repair as I can't wait any longer, and this purported tool doesn't work. I also note that so far the ony person to have given remotely helpful feedback on this site was Abraxas.
J
 
I tried to tell you in the first reply, that if you've got a corrupted system you can't expect a miracle cure from a repair disk with one specific function if that's not your problem.
Sorry if you don't think that's helpful, but there are not too many ways to say it.
 
Terry - as you failed to spot in my first post, it seems that my usb stick was not formatted correctly. When it was, I got a different message. Maybe my system is corrupted beyond repair, maybe not - but i am not given confidence in this diagnosis, given that you didn't spot this earlier point. I thought that BOOTMGR being missing was one of the things this kit was meant to repair....
 
I did read your OP, in which you said " ........completely corrupted my machine........".
and I didn't want you to get sidetracked with the Linux business (which I did notice), by going down a blind alley of spending your time trying to fix your USB stick, when your real problem appeared to be with your Samsung recovery.

If you'd just posted that you were having problems getting the recovery disk onto a flashdrive, then we'd all happily have spent time addressing that issue, until you eventually got it working and then reported that it didn't help with your problem.

At that point we'd again happily have tried to help you fix the real problem.
I was trying to short-cut you straight to the heart of the matter, and I'm sorry if that appeared less than helpful.

And yes, "bootmgr missing" is one of the things the disc is meant to repair, on the broken OS, not on itself, which is why CG suggested something was amiss with the flashdrive creation.
I'll leave it to him to respond to your assertion that the instructions don't work, as I have not personally tried them, finding a CD more convenient.
He wrote them, so he speaks from practical experience.
 
deetee99 said:
Terry - as you failed to spot in my first post, it seems that my usb stick was not formatted correctly. When it was, I got a different message. Maybe my system is corrupted beyond repair, maybe not - but i am not given confidence in this diagnosis, given that you didn't spot this earlier point. I thought that BOOTMGR being missing was one of the things this kit was meant to repair....
Click to expand...

Where in your first post would we come to conclusion that your Flash Drive was not formatted properly? It wasnt until the 2nd post that you even mention the use of a Flash Drive and the Recovery Disk purchased from NeoSmart. So try not to blame someone else for missing information when you didnt give all the information up front and even when trying to prove your point, you mis quote your own postings.

The thing you fail to realize is this. The disk, wether provided by us or Microsoft, does NOT give a definite answer to any issues. You click on startup repair, it tries to fix it. If it cant it just says recovery fail with no explanation as to why or how to get it fixed. So if your wondering why "our" tool doesnt give you the vote of confidence, you need to contact Microsoft about why their startup repair as a whole fails that way. As it doesnt matter if you have a Retail disk bought from a store, recovery media made from the machine or recovery disks bought from NeoSmart, they all will say and do the exact same thing. So try not tossing a stone as NeoSmart and our Recovery Media. If you dont like it you could have easily spent 2x or 3x as much as you did to get the same results from Samsung or Microsoft.

Our Recovery Media was made given the process Microsoft has laid out in their licensing terms and with their software and techniques. We do nothing more than offer a cheaper solution to try and recover a machine from booting issues.

If you trying to figure out how to get your Samsung machine to boot to the Recovery Partition and restore the machine, their website would be a far better place to start looking than here. We are in no way, shape or form affiliated with any manufacturer or OEM. We do not support any of their products. Your issue clearly lies with Samsung and not being able to access their recovery.

Yes our Recovery Disks are meant to repair the BOOTMGR is missing message. But it is an automated process. If it fails, it just says that and nothing more. We cant fix that, only Microsoft can.
 
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