Recovery Partition Access / Dual Boot Linux & Windows

Hello
I am new to this forum and I really need your help! This is not your typical Linux query but I really need help from someone with more Linux experience than I have. I hope that someone will find this problem interestingly enough to help me out or at least take pity on me. :-) My first couple attempts at loading Ubuntu on a two drive notebook ended badly. The Ubuntu install overwrote the Bootmgr file and left Windows in operable. I was trying load Ubuntu so that I could get back to learning Linux. I need to get proficient in Linux and in Windows for some upcoming certification exams. This issue just got even more complicated due to hardware problem with my new Notebook, see description below.

Background - I recently purchased a Toshiba Notebook (NB)and from day one there were problems. The biggest of which was a defective HDD. After spending a lost of time with their Tech support, I realized I was going to have to diagnose he root cause of this problem myself. They were absolutely no help, at all. When I finally confirmed that it was the HDD that was causing the problem and not the Motherboard or the OS I contacted them to arrange to have the unit returned for Warranty Service and then they advised that I would have to pay for the round trip shipping, because they do not pay for it as part of their Warranty Service. I have never had an manufacturer that did not pay for shipping on warranty issues, never. I have only had the NB for about six week, to long to return it to the store. That being said, the HDD has now deteriorated to the point that I need to move everything over to a new HDD. The issue in front of me now is being able to access the "Recovery Partition" on the HDD to that I reinstall Windows. Since Windows 8 (64) came with the NB, otherwise I will have to either pay to have the unit returned to Toshiba for a new HDD and OS and I really hate to pay them any more than I already have.

The issue is, I need to figure out a way to access the OS in the "Recovery Partition" on my Notebooks HDD, so that I can reinstall the OS on to a new HDD and there is not apparent way to access that partition from within Windows 8. What I need to be able to due is access it from a non-windows OS, then copy the OS Setup from that Recovery Partition and then copy it to a new HD and execute the System Install.

I am looking for any help possible! Thank you n advance for your help and consideration!!!

Sincerely,
Doug

Hi there,

so be welcome, and we'll try our best to help you.

That's totally un-typical. Usually Ubuntu, like many other contemporary Linux distros, cooperates nicely with another OS that is already installed - to the extent that often the original OS can be started directly from Linux's boot manager, mostly GRUB.

That's my experience with many a support hotline, too. I don't know who they employ to help customers with technical problems - tamed monkeys? Very often, the customers calling for support know more about the matter than the support personnel themselves.

Oh, that's not too sursrising. I've had that on a few occasions, too. Sometimes they promise to refund the shipping costs in case it turns out that the fault was on their behalf, or really a warranty issue.

Why this? What are the warranty laws in your country? Here in Germany, the dealer is obliged by the law to provide a six months' warranty, no questions asked (except for damages obviously caused by misuse on the customer's behalf), and usually they just replace the queried item within the first three months.

Honestly, at the first occurrence of an HDD error, I would've copied its contents to a new one and simply put it out of service. I want to trust a storage media, and I can't trust one that starts making trouble.

I don't quite understnad that. You're claiming replacement of the HDD because of a physical deficiency, are you? So why bother about re-installing the initial OS? Usually, the first thing I do with a new computer is wipe the pre-installed system (including the so-called recovery partition), and re-install it from scratch. Or installing another OS altogether.

You're searching from the wrong starting point. Usually, the computer's BIOS provides some hotkey that you have to press before the OS loads. On my notebook, for instance, it is F11, AFAIR (which is now useless, since there is no recovery partition any more). You should be able to see a message about that for a short moment, or the manual should tell you about that.
The question is, however, if the recovery partition is still intact and fully readable, now that the HDD in total is already making trouble.

[X] Doc CPU

1 members found this post helpful.

Seems to me you need to get the HD replaced if it has "deteriorated". What's the
point of installing anything at this point?

What makes you think the HD has deteriorated ?

Hi Frankzen!

Thank you for responding! I have put a replacement HDD in the notebook so that I could continue to trouble shoot it.

What made me think that it was the HDD instead of th motherboard, I/O or CPU was that the HDD would thrash a lot, go up to 100% utilization (HDD busy signal with less than 2Mbps of usage. It was so bad that that my touchpad would quit working until the drive returned to a lower utilization level, the CPU and RAM during this same period of time would be <5% and <40% respectively. I cloned a spare HDD and swapped the drive out. The new drive worked perfectly. I then put the "bad" drive back in and the problem was back immediately. The problem is that the "bad" drive was also destroying (degrading) the data on HD, to the point that I cannot trust the data on it, nor on the clone. SFC /scannow shows problems with corrupted or missing System Files. And now I can no longer "Refresh" nor replace the OS from the Settings / Recover menu. Fortunately, I have a "Good" / "Out of the Box" backup of the HDD from the day that it arrived.

Doug: Linux might just help save your bacon from the fire. Having worked as a senior tech for a F500 retailer, I can't recall a single instance of an end-user replacing/fixing hware, which is probably why you're having trouble w/ Toshiba. Basically, they're (ie. the vendor is) supposed to send a prepaid box, you return the entire PC/laptop, they return the computer fixed. When the company did official warranty service for HP is the only exception I'm aware of. Have an old customer from my retail days who just did this for a mobo and hdrive failure of the Toshiba laptop I sold her. The only thing to do is preserve your precious data from the failing hdrive and they're supposed to return the system w/ a factory-fresh hdrive and OS installation.

Otherwise, you're supposed to have made recovery discs immed upon receipt of the computer. Not being critical, it's simply the current policy for all of the majors mfrs, since none of the majors provide OS discs any more. The only thing I can suggest (and doesn't work with all vendors' recovery systems) is that you can try using Parted Magic (or some other live Linux distro that comes w/ GParted) to make the recovery partition bootable. Essentially, boot the Parted Magic CD, run GParted, hilight the recovery partition, right-click it, choose 'Manage Flags', check off the 'Boot' flag. Let the util update the disc, reboot, and keep your fingers crossed. Hopefully, the recovery software will launch directly. Can't recall which mfrs this worked for, but this was a regularly, helpful technique. Simply copying the contents of the recovery partition is unlikely to work under any circumstances.

HTH....

1 members found this post helpful.

Very true except with this unique system hardware config - 2 internal Notebook hdds. Windows installed on the primary hdd, linux going on the secondary.

I found out the hard way several years ago when a Sabayon dual-boot attempt borked the Win 7 Pro MBR and completely scrambled the MFT (master file table).

I had bought a new copy of Win 7 Pro to replace preloaded Vista so had the installation disk. Command line Bootrec/Fixmbr/Fixboot etc was fruitless as no OS detected. Sabayon Live CD couldn't find any partitions to access.

This was after creating a boot partion on the secondary hdd (hdb1) and instructing Sabayon installer to put grub there and NOT as the primary boot OS (I forget the precise wording).

Fortunately I had a recent backup so had to reinstall Win 7 from scratch.

Later trying dual boot installs with several other distros also ran into issues but not as severe. Just didn't work or Windows wouldn't boot but MBR was easily rebuilt.

Mandriva 2010 was the only distro I found that smoothly installed to the secondary hdd without a hitch and worked just fine thereafter.

At the time I did a fairly extensive search for a technical explanation for this oddity but could never find anything definitive. Maybe a Toshiba hardware engineer would know but they haven't put anything about it online yet as far as I can see.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi Doc

I have now run into several people that have had the same experience, where Ubuntu has written over the Windows BootMgr and trashed the MBR as well. I will worry about that after I get a reload of Windows completed.:-)

I have also learned that some of those "Monkeys" aren't "tamed" either.

In the USA most Retailers have a return policy of 30 days from the date of purchase and the MFG Warranty is not regulated (unfortunately), they have to legally live up to what they state as there Warranty Policy is but there is no Government regulation forcing consistency among all MFG's.

As soon as I new it was the HDD that was causing the problem I cloned the disk to a new HDD and pulled bad one (this notebook has room for two internal HDDs. Unfortunately, either the OS was already damaged or it was damaged in the cloning process, my guess was it was already damaged. I do a fair amount od cloning I have not had this problem before.

The refresh and the re-install options do not work properly due to the OS damage and these processes return errors. That is why I am trying to find a way to get directly into the recovery partition and to then execute the re-install (Windows Set-Up) from there. If I can get in I could also copy the contents to a non-hidden partition and then create a BOOTABLE Setup Disk for any future calamity. ;-)

Best Regards,
Doug

Hi Mr Roboto

Thanks for responding! Typically manufacturers are helpful or least they try to be but in this case that is not so. I was forced to trouble shoot my own system because their Level 1 & Level 2 Tech Support Technician were "Decision Tree Robots" and were only technically adroit enough to read a script. Under the Toshiba Warranty the User/Owner (that's me) is permitted under the Warranty to add or replace RAM or HDDs without voiding the Warranty, and since I did not change the HDD beyond their stated parameters I did not void the warranty. The issue with them is that simply don't pay for any shipping, which is unheard of among most PC MFGs in the USA, and their support staff has issues.

Toshiba apparently does not send shipping boxes, nor pay for insurance or shipping for Warranty Returns. They really know how to build Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty and Retention, NOT!!!

I was wondering about GParted but since I had never used it before I wasn't sure if was the right tools for this issue. Historically I have used Partition Magic but I could not find my disc as yet. What is your experience with Parted magic been like? That may be my best option but please let me know if there is anything else that I should be made aware of.

Thanks!
Doug

Hi there,

what's that hype about those so-called recovery discs? Why bother? Why not a plain, normal backup?

First, they have to if the customer asks for them. Second, MS provides downloads of the installation discs of Windows 7 and 8. If you have a license and a download of an installation media, what more would you want?
I repeat: The first thing I'd always do with a new computer is to wipe all preinstalled software, including any so-called recovery partition, and start over from scratch.
Then make backups at appropriate regular intervals.

[X] Doc CPU

My backup was corrupted because of the bad HDD.

I did not think that MS would provide downloads that worked with OEM copies of Windows 7 or 8 or any other. It was always my understanding that the MS downloads only worked for licensed MS packages and not with OEM versions. is that not true?

I am on a tight budget right now and I cannot afford to go out and buy a New OS when in theory I bought the OS with the purchase of the Notebook. In a perfect there are a lot of things I would do differently but for now I am stuck with the Hand that I was dealt. I had learned the hard way that Back-Ups are necessary but they also fail sometimes and OS Media is also a necessity, the "Recovery Partitions" are only a convenience at best.

Thanks!

The link below indicates it has a windows 8 Recovery disk for download. I don't use windows 8 and haven't used it and don't know anything about the site.

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/win8...m#.UeYYDqIXMqQ

You can get a recovery CD from neosmart at the link below but it costs $20.00USD. They had been offering a free download for earlier versions but Microsoft complained so now they charge.

https://neosmart.net/blog/2012/windo...r-cd-download/

You might try going to the Toshiba site. I know HP and Dell offer a full installation CD/DVD for a price, usually $15-$25 but I don't know about Toshiba.

Hi there,

how could it? A backup that deserves the name must be good for a disaster recovery. Thus, it is always stored on a different physical media, not just on a partition of the same HDD. Could be an external HDD, an internal HDD of another machine, a USB pen drive, a set of CDs or DVDs.

From Microsoft's technical point of view, full licences and OEM versions are hardly different. An OEM might add some favored software (or a driver for their particular hardware) that is included in the default install, or change the default installation options, or add some branding. However, OEM versions hardly differ from full-fledged installation discs. It's only a license thing.
Therefore it's perfectly okay to use downloaded standard installation media. That may even be a gain, as you don't have the load of bloatware that's often bundled with OEM installs (and which is often hard to get rid of).

I never suggested that. After all, you do have a license, even though coupled with a particular piece of hardware. By the way, in Germany there have been several verdicts saying that the connection of software and hardware in OEM bundles is only mandatory for the dealer, who actually has a contract with the manufacturer. The end user, however, is free to split this up, and he is even allowed to sell the software or the hardware component separately. I could imagine that some other countries' legalese is similar.

That's indeed what they are - a matter of convenience, not more. And a treacherous illusion of safety.

[X] Doc CPU