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    how to get the OEM partition work again...

    Discussion in 'Samsung' started by goodwind, Jan 20, 2013.

  1. goodwind

    goodwind Newbie

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    Dear All,

    Let me introduce myself... I'm from Italy :hi2: and I am looking for a solution from you guys as I got nothing from some Italian forums. Thus I want to thank you in advance for any helpful hints on the matter.

    I've bought a second-handed NP-RC530-S06 with a dual boot (win7 and Hackintosh). As I wanted to restore the notebook to factory status, I inserted the DVD (attached to the package) and installed win7. In fact the recovery solution was not accessible by pushing F4; probably the previous owner deleted the OEM partition... :confused:

    By the way, after the OS installation, the PC was (obviously) missing the drivers and the samsung software. I know I could download the samsung stuff from the support page but my idea was to get back the OEM partition.

    Thus, using testdisk, I re-spawned the OEM partition getting the following:
    - name: SAMSUNG_REC
    - hard disk letter: D.
    - partition type: Primary

    Here is my question: is it possible to restore the link between the F4 and the OEM partition? What would be the procedure?

    Thanks again for your kind support. :D
     
  2. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    The instructions to recreate the recovery partition are here, thanks to member Dannemand. However, you need to create the USB admin tool for which you need access to a Samsung notebook with a working recovery partition.

    John
     
  3. Dannemand

    Dannemand Decidedly Moderate Super Moderator

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    @Goodwind: As John said, you need USB Admin Tool in order to create a Recovery Partition with F4 working -- but unfortunately you have to boot a working recovery partition in order to create that USB Admin Tool in the first place.

    If you are convinced that the Recovery Partition on your HDD is intact (but you cannot F4 boot it), you can try to boot it using Grub4DOS as described in this post which is part of the same discussion that John linked for you.

    IF you manage to boot your recovery partition, go ahead and create that USB Admin Tool. While in there, I suggest you also backup System Software and the Initial Image, just in case. THEN backup the file and folder contents of the Recovery Partition (using a LiveCD or XCOPY after booting the Win7 DVD).

    Once you have all these backups, boot the USB Admin Tool and let it completely re-partition the disk for you. That will create a a new Recovery Partition that works with F4. Finally restore content to the recovery partition. Now your PC is back to factory state (except for the Purchase Date and saved logs - but you can actually clear that using USB Admin Tool).

    Again, it's described in the post John linked for you. Just know that this is a fairly elaborate process. Whether it's worth it is up to you :D