Samsung recovery problems with factory image usb

Hi,

I just bought a samsung NP7403E-K01UB open box from best buy 3 days ago. I wanted to check it out and see how I liked it. I decided I want to return the laptop and go for a MBA or MBP. However, I installed ubuntu on the samsung and now I am having some issues restoring the factory image. I created a USB factory image using the recovery tool. Made it bootable and before I installed ubuntu I even made sure it worked by booting into it.

Whats happening is that I am able to load the USB factory image drive. It opens the recovery tools. Shows all the software etc. When I click Recover it confirms I want to delete all information. I hit accept...then it displays an error message "recovery partition does not exist or its path is incorrect". I tried all the different options it has and I still get the same error message.

Best buy won't accept it unless I can get it back to windows with the original files. So I need to figure this out. Samsung said that I could send it in for "repair" but then it wouldn't get back in time for the return. The support person said that it sounds like the usb is corrupt.

Is there anything I can do? I also used an external drive to back up the disk. However, even when I plug this in it doesn't work. It shows the back up and lets me select it as a restore option, but it gives the same error message.

Can anyone offer and ideas?

• Could I install windows 64bit and try downloading all the samsung softwre then maybe it would work? Anyway to create the restore partition that way?
• Can I extract the windows key somehow from the usb flash drive, or the external hard drive backup?
• Are there any tools that will let me restore the external hard drive backup?

Greatly appreciate if someone has any ideas.

Thanks

 

Well I may have figured it out (I hope!). I downloaded the ISO offered on this forum for SRS6 Admin Tools and put it on a separate USB. I booted that up and set it to create the recovery partition, and set it to fix MBR. When I booted up again I got the blue screen with Recovery saying I needed the USB backup for recovery. So this time I put the Factory Image USB back in and booted into that with my external Hard Drive containing the image backup connected. Now it looks like its doing the recovery. I selected to recover the image backup just in case the usb is corrupt.

It appears that the issue may simply have been that I need a partition set aside for the recovery to install into. It's strange that it wouldn't be able to do this on its own. Anyone else have this issue before?

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this does indeed work. We will see

 

Hi xalu, welcome to NBR.

That does indeed sounds nasty. I'm curious: When you say you made the USB bootable, you do mean you selected the Make Boot Disk option when creating the Factory Image in Recovery, right? Not by some other means?

Which BIOS settings do you use when trying to restore? You want the default settings, possibly with exception of Fast BIOS and SecureBoot (disable both while restoring). Importantly, make sure UEFI is enabled.

You say you have a full disk backup on an external drive. If that's an image backup (including Recovery partitions) I would restore that. We had one case where a member successfully imaged and restored his disk using Clonezilla (restoring such backups normally lose the ability to F4 boot Recovery). You may be in luck that your can boot Recovery after the restore.

Otherwise (ie even if restoring the disk backup doesn't allow you to F4 boot Recovery) having restored the Recovery partitions to the disk may help your USB backup complete the restore operation. It's just a guess, but it's worth trying.

If none of this works, you could restore the Windows image manually (Google imageX) to at least get Windows restored - even though you will not have Recovery. If Best Buy does a good job refurbishing (including a full re-image of the disk) I suppose that might be ok.

OR you could reinstall Win8 from a disc or USB stick. If you install the same Windows version as the factory installation, it should pick up the Product Key from BIOS. Otherwise there are tools to help extract it (Google it).

I'll be interested to hear the outcome. Good luck to you!

 

Hey Dannemand,

Yes I created the factory image usb with the make boot option checked. After I used the Admin tool to create the recovery partition layout (the one I downloaded online), the factory image usb is now working. I successfully restored windows. I am now doing another reset to the factory settings to get rid of my personal files.

I did have the bios settings set to default with the exception of fast boot (Which I set to off).

It's very strange the factory usb didn't work without me creating the partitions. Luckily someone had uploaded the admin tool or I would have been fighting with this a lot longer. Hopefully if this happens to someone else these posts will help them. This forum definitely helped me sort it out.

-James

 

Excellent work! And thank you for sharing.

Yes, that is puzzling why your backup wasn't able to create the partitions itself. That's the whole idea with that backup. I would love to find out why, so that we can help others avoid the same snafu.

What is the brand of USB stick? We normally advice against SanDisk sticks because they work as fixed disks, not removable disks -- which confuses Recovery. I hear that other vendors have been starting to do the same. Also, did it take a long time to backup the factory image? Some members reported slow backups (as in hours) as signs of a corrupt backup.

But again, good thing you found that Admin Tool. It's a good tool to have.

 

I tried using my 32GB SanDisk, however it wouldn't work. I read the posts on this forum about the issues with them. So I went and bought a 32GB PNY drive. I believe it was $25. This one came up as a removable drive instead of a hard drive like the SanDisk. It worked without any obvious issue once I plugged it in.

Unfortunately, I started the process before going to bed. So, I have no idea how long it took. Wish I had paid attention though just so I could offer insight.

I thought I had found the admin tool here but apparently it was another forum. Here is the link to the files. I used version 6. Now, anyone who ends up here has the tool.

I returned the laptop today to best buy. I ended up getting a discounted open box macbook pro retina 13". Double the price as the Samsung, however, it has double the specs(256gb, 2.6ghz 4gen i5, 8gb ram, iris HD 5200 gpu). I wasn't sure if it was worth the cost but after using the MBP for a few hours I am glad I took the plunge. A great machine. Anyway, I know this is off topic, but I figured I'd throw it in.

Again hopefully this post offers some help to anyone that runs into the same problem.

Cheers

 

Thank you again for sharing that information. Once again good job on getting it fixed. And congrats on your new MBP.

For others who might read this: Your Samsung Recovery Solution has a "secret" Management Mode with various features, including the ability to create an Admin Tool on a small USB stick (512MB-1GB depending on SRS version). You enter Management Mode in Recovery with [CTRL]+[ALT]+[F10], password: secclx (SECCLX).

Previously (with SRS5 and earlier), this Admin Tool (in combination with manual backups) was the only way to re-create a working Recovery (as described in this post). Models with SRS6 (all Win8 models) have much better and easier backup features, in the form of Disk Copy and Bootable Factory Image functions, which is why we don't talk much about Admin Tool anymore. But it is still a valuable tool for anyone who has a spare 512MB USB stick.

I would generally recommend creating the Admin Tool this way instead of downloading it from other users. It contains the actual SRS software (that's how it can re-create working Recovery and F4) and you want the exact same version as your original Recovery. But note that it doesn't contain the factory image, you still have to back that up separately.

 

I have the same problem except I am getting "This computer does not support recovery". Any help appreciated. I have the entire Recovery Image backup on a Corsair 32GB USB Drive and also tried recreating partitions etc using SRS6 admin tool. Maybe I am not doing something right while creating partitions etc. Thanks

 

Please see my response in the post linked below, and continue discussion on that thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...e-usb-computer-not-supported.html#post9664843

 

Hi,

I have a similar issue with a samsung notebook /. I have stored the factory image on an external 1 TB HDD and cloned the Recovery Partitions to get more free space.
Using the Samsung Recovery tool the restore point is found, but no restoration is performed. When I use WIN 8 Recovery I am getting "recovery partition does not exist or its path is incorrect".

Is it possible to mount the cloned partitions so that a recovery inside WIN 8 is possible, I cant create a bootable device with my factory image since I have no appropriate usb drive?

Michael