Jump to content











Photo

Fixing Windows 8 USB Recovery Drives

usb efi uefi recovery winre

  • Please log in to reply
2 replies to this topic

#1 Chaos Storm

Chaos Storm
  • Members
  • 5 posts
  • Location:Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Earth, Milky Way
  •  
    Canada

Posted 16 July 2014 - 08:33 AM

http://pegasys.codeplex.com

 

I started an open source project and my main focus at the moment is a tool to repair and salvage recovery images from Windows 8 UEFI machines. It's a simple cmd script which asks a bunch of questions and queries a drive or folder that has recovery images/files to ensure it can boot and recover a PC. It's still in beta stage but I really need more beta testers as although at my work I have access to lots of machines and recovery images, this is a controlled environment, and I need more "real world" input. 

 

I started this utility because as part of my work at a major retailer, I noticed that many of the recovery drives I saved would not recover a system and often complained if I replaced a hard disk under warranty. This is quite common with certain Acer, ASUS, Lenovo and Samsung units. Especially first generation Windows 8 units.

 

Below is a quick rundown of the release.

 

Please note it is still beta and as such, there may be bugs. Please use carefully and be sure to let me know if it it decides to declare war on France or impose martial law. :)

 

Pegasys Automation Systems Validator RELEASE NOTES
Pegasys Validator is used to validate USB Recovery drives from major OEM's and can also validate folders which contain backups of said recovery drives. Basic support for fixing recovery drives is also available. 

These fixes solve the following issues:

Resetting a PC fails if the primary disk is blank or corrupt
Resetting a PC fails because required scripts cannot be found


The latest version adds support for salvaging recovery images from machines that fail to reset (Windows complains files are missing) or that do not allow Recovery Media Creator to copy the contents of the recovery partition to USB Flash. (This option is greyed out)

 


  • Brito likes this

#2 Brito

Brito

    Platinum Member

  • .script developer
  • 10616 posts
  • Location:boot.wim
  • Interests:I'm just a quiet simple person with a very quiet simple life living one day at a time..
  •  
    European Union

Posted 16 July 2014 - 12:12 PM

From the description this seems as a very interesting project.

 

I'm sorry for the silly question but is it supposed to run from a Windows host or from a Windows PE boot disk? Perhaps it would help to provide a short step-by-step guide on how we can put this batch script to see it in action.

 

Just one typo on the description of the project: "and allow you choice" -> "and allow you choose".

 

:cheers:



#3 Chaos Storm

Chaos Storm
  • Members
  • 5 posts
  • Location:Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Earth, Milky Way
  •  
    Canada

Posted 16 July 2014 - 01:11 PM

Basically run the cmd from inside regular Windows 8 and input drive path or folder path and it will scan and determine if the device will work. I focus more time on the script and not on the documents so I created a very basic document. I intend to comment more of the script so users will know how to use once they run it. :)

 

I am working on more features and support for more vendors. Plus Windows 8.1 support.

 

https://pegasys.code...stems Validator

 

The Pegasys Automator Systems Validator is designed to be run from within Windows 8. It will allow you to test if a USB drive contains the correct configuration and files to restore a system.

Validator will ensure that:

*EFI Firmware is present
*WindowsRE boot image is present
*Reset configuration is present
*Reagent file is preset
*Diskpart script is present

If the configuration files are missing Validator can attempt to correct them. It will make a backup of any existing configuration that exists then generate new ones.

Note that Windows 8.1 support is not yet official, although functionally there is little to suggest any difference. Updates will confirm 8.1 support after recovery media is analyzed.

The basis for the recovery configuration is Microsoft Surface Pro, which has zero alterations, no OEM tools, just basic Windows 8 recovery.


Edited by Chaos Storm, 16 July 2014 - 01:30 PM.






Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: usb, efi, uefi, recovery, winre

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users