NP700Z5C create new factory image

Ahoy all,

I started my laptop the other day and had an unresponsive touchpad and keyboard (an external one still worked). After a reboot the computer got to the spinning dots under the Samsung logo and then goes to a black screen where it hangs.

I have got into Safe Mode, and Recovery as I thought this was probably a sign it was time for the clean installation I'd been putting off until University was over. However, there is no 'restore factory image' setting.

I could just do a clean installation of Windows 8.1 (I have a disk I've just burned) and all my data and Samsung Update drivers are backed up, but wondered if I could use those tidy Samsung partitions as they were intended.

Alternatively, having perused various threads, I still can't get my head around how to make a clean installation of Windows, then use that as a new factory image (I have the System Admin USB stick).

TL;DR: Can I make a new personalised factory image after a clean (bloatware freee) installation?

 

Once you have booted into Samsung Recovery Solution with F4, you should be able to select Recover and choose the earliest (leftmost) Recovery Point, which is the Factory installation. (See the attached cutout from Samsung's manual.)



If you created a Factory Image backup on a USB stick, you need to boot that in order to restore it -- which will wipe all partitions on the disk and start over, including rebuilding SRS with the original Factory installation. I would do this only if regular Recovery doesn't work. If there is a problem with the USB stick (as has been known to occur) you'll have nothing.

If you want to start over with a clean and lean Windows installation as the "Factory installation", you need to create a so-called Admin Tool on a USB stick and use that to re-partition your disk with an "empty" SRS, then add the new Windows installation as the Initial Image.

Member @Gulfmaster posted a great guide and thread about how to do this on Win10 (linked below). It applies to Win8.1 as well.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...covery-solution-6-srs6-and-windows-10.780805/

 

Thanks Dannemand - there is no recovery point, or option for a factory image, which was why I was a bit stumped.

I had been perusing the guide you linked earlier, but wasn't following it very well. As you say it's fine for 8.1, I'll go ahead and follow it.

I have the Admin Tool on a stick, and an 8.1 ISO on a DVD. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

That's puzzling why you don't have any Recovery Points. Updating Windows on the Factory installation is often what borks SRS, so if you updated from Win8 to 8.1 on this laptop, that may be the cause.

But if you are ready to do a new Windows installation anyway, and you already have an Admin Tool, you are on the right path with Gulfmaster's guide. If you haven't already, you may want to download/create the latest Admin Tool version using the links in the guide.

You could also skip SRS altogether and just use a 3rd party partition imaging tool to backup your new Windows installation. SRS is great for simplicity (when it works) and for getting back to factory state (before selling the computer) but it can be finicky, as you already discovered.

 

Well, I'm back to a clean 8.1, but before setting partition size and making the new factory image I need to install all the Samsung software and drivers, which I have downloaded in a folder. I'm sure when I did this before I was reading a thread about the order to install them in, but now I can't find it. Was I misremembering, do you think?

 

You remember right, we have a couple of posts like that. I'll give you links to the ones I remember (which include my own guides):

Win7 install guide (all Samsung models, contains Win8 notes)
Win8 drivers to install (Ativ Book 8, and in general)
Win8/8.1 Clean Install tutorial (by @Obyboby, Ativ Book 8)

 

Thanks again - jolly helpful.

However, after all that something's put the kybosh on it. When I reached the stage of the guide where I had to recreate the F4 link with the Admin Tool from Windows, I got a message about the recovery partition being a different version of the Recovery programme and therefore it wasn't possible to install Recovery. This is despite the Recovery installation files I had downloaded from SWUpdate being the same version as the one on the Admin Tool (although SWUpdate didn't give me an option to install Recovery as an update, which was interesting).

I tried again from scratch, this time ticking the "install windows" when booting from the Admin Tool. Now I have all the drivers up and running (having installed "Recovery" first!) and haven't used SWUpdate, working instead from the suite of previously downloaded drivers.

Now the installation has gone well, and I can boot to Recovery with F4. However, when I tried to create the backup from the Admin Tool in Windows, it reboots to Recovery and fails with the error "there is not enough space to create the backup". Can I resize a few things or is this the death knell?

I attach a copy of my Disk Management screen in case it's of any use.

 

First, very well done getting it all (mostly) working!

I don't know why you would get that version conflict. I always used Admin Tools created from my own SRS (F4); I never tried creating it from an updated SRS Windows app as described in @Gulfmaster's guide. I love the idea, though.

My guide is this older post where I recommend 24GB for the Recovery Data partition, depending on your model.

Your Recovery Data partition is only 10GB, which is why you are unable to create the backup. I fear that if you just increase the size of the partition, it will break the F4 link. But the alternative is starting over with Admin Tool re-partitioning the disk and re-installing Windows. If you're prepared to do that, you might as well try resizing the partition first and see if it works.

 

I'm typing this on the newly renovated laptop!

I created the admin tool from my own original recovery partition, so I don't know why that was a problem either. Anyway, I redid the whole process, resizing the partition to 24GB as you suggested. I wonder why Samsung set it to such a small amount, as after installation and updates my Windows 8.1 size was over 20GB. Intriguingly, during the factory image creation, the size listed was only 12.5GB... So, Samsung must have some rather good compression software, and I have some spare recovery partition. No matter! What's 12GB of a hidden partition between friends?



Success, and the updated, Bitdefended factory image is now a ticked point on the timeline.



When exported, it manages to reduce itself further to 7.3GB!



Further benefits: Touchpad drivers. I downloaded some from stationdrivers.com (elan_touchpad_15.14.4.1) and replaced the 11.7.19.9 Samsung driver with this through Device Manager, pointing the search to the downloaded file rather than using the included executable.

I think I may have had to choose "have disk" and change the type of hardware it was detecting to an "Elan Touchpad" rather than the "Samsung Input Device" the Samsung drivers called it. Then it would accept the 15.14.4.1 driver as a valid update.

Now, the 'options' in the mouse section of the Control Panel goes to what I know as "ETDAniconf" and options for palm rejection and so on are available. I have turned this off, and can now use programmes like Illustrator where panning is controlled by holding the space bar and clicking and dragging. I have struggled with this for years, as none of the registry keys in the Samsung drivers fixed it, so I'm a happy bunny.

Thank you Dannemand for the support and help! Fora are wonderful things.

 

Well done getting that working! And thank you for sharing the results here.

Interesting that the non-Samsung Elan driver has the advanced control panel (ETDAniConf) built right in. The only reason I can think of for Samsung to keep all that useful functionality from its users is to simplify support. But based on the number of questions here about how to perform even simple tweaks to the touchpad, I'd say they are accomplishing the opposite.

As for how they achieve so much compression of the factory image (or initial image) I am guessing that it's not merely a compressed version of all files in the partition, but rather that the Windows installation is stripped down to just the raw installation files, and essentially "re-installed" at the time of restore. The 3-4GB of files on a Windows installation DVD get inflated to some 15-20GB during the installation (plus page and hibernation files) and maybe SRS is using a similar approach.

Once again well done!

 

Ah, that's probably it. I'm not concerned with the loss of a few GB but perhaps it'll be of use to anyone else wanting to make a new factory image. It would seem that it could be knocked back some if required.

I managed to get some functions working with the original Samsung touchpad driver by renaming ETDAniConf to SimpleUIWin8 or whichever one it is that the advanced options directs to, but upgrading to the new driver is certainly the way to go in my opinion. The really weird options can be enabled with the registry keys, and stick after a restart. Perhaps it will work on the NP700Z5A as well, as that's where I first discussed the lack of any ability to get it working with Adobe programmes.

Thanks again. Reputation points given.