Samsung Recovery Solution 5 - Recovery area of the computer not found

Firstly, sorry about my bad English...

Hi guys, I know there are a lot of people that already had that issue before, but I want a particular help because some problems are caused by different mistakes...

I bought my notebook in 2012.
I use a Windows 7 x64 Home Premium. (16GB Ram and 2Tera HDD)
Samsung Model: 700G7A

It came by default with Samsung Recovery Solution 5 and I had used it before without any problem.
But now if I try running it from windows, it says Recovery area of the computer not found.
If I press F4 (SRS5) before booting Windows, nothing happens, and Windows boots automatically.

That's what I get after typing list volume on diskpart.


That's the whole story:

I bought an 8GB USB and put Ubuntu 12.04.iso on it. I wanted to have a multi boot, so I installed Ubuntu 12.04 alongside with Windows 7.

The instalation was successful. I could ran either Ubuntu or Windows without the USB by choosing one of them on GRUB.

But then, I decided to install Kali Linux as well, but it was harder than I thought because I chose to do Manual Changes on partitions, and I didn't even know what I was doing, so I gave up. I turned off my computer and then when I booted it again, I couldn't do anything. GRUB screen was not showing up.

That's what I appeared on my screen:

error: no such device: c4d250ab-b08f-4a9a-84b9-344d9ea61e03.
grub rescue>

I couldn't leave this screen, I couldn't ran either Windows or Ubuntu, so I plugged in my USB and ran Ubuntu Live. And I think I typed :

sudo apt-get install lilo
sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr

It worked, though, I couldn't choose either Ubuntu or Windows anymore. It automatically boots Windows.
Since then, I don't know if I have Ubuntu installed on my computer or not. I messed up so much with my HDD that now I'm scared of doing it again. I feel that Windows is a bit slower than before. That's why I want to run Samsung Recovery Solution, but now I can't run it! I need some help, please

 

1. I'm sure it's F4 at the BIOS screen to boot into recovery.

2. If the recovery partition has been moved, even slightly, from the original location the SRS won't find the recovery partition. I think Samsung store its physical address on the drive rather than a name that can be looked up in the partition table.

John

 

Sorry, it's F4. I wrote it wrong on the topic. How can I find out where the recovery partition is then?

(this is so complicated)

 

You'll have to wait for Dannemand to pass this way since he understands the Samsung recovery issues much better than I do but there's some useful info here about how SRS works. The SRS Admin tool must write the address of the recovery partition someone where it doesn't get lost by clearing the CMOS or the NVRAM.

John

 

Sure, man! I will wait for him. I've read through this topic, but I'm too scared too try anything. I prefer to be helped by someone who really knows about that stuff.

 

dump

 

Patience!!!

John

 

I will be waiting, doesnt matter how long it takes, but I noticed something weird now.

I installed the Kali Linux .iso on my USB and got this error after booting it as Live:



The weird thing is that if I install Ubuntu on the same USB, it boots without problems on my computer.

If I plug in the same USB with Kali Linux image on another computer, it boots without any problems!

So I bet the problem has something to do with partitioning as well.

Look:

 

Hi saintseiyabr,

Your Recovery partition looks to be present and (presumably) intact. But Samsung Recovery Solution depends on a link in order for F4 to work, which we believe is hidden in the partition table. As John pointed out, even seemingly harmless actions, such as moving partitions or imaging/restoring the Recovery partition with a 3rd party tool, can damage that link and render SRS unworkable.

But before assuming that, let's check a few other things. These are things I would try:

1) I assume you are able to get to BIOS with F2. If you are NOT, your NVRAM may have become corrupted, which can cause all kinds of problems. The thread here discusses how to clear it. Though I don't think we have reports of that happening on Gamer models (G7A or G7C).

2) Restore your BIOS settings to default (F9 on the BIOS screen): In particular, if you enabled UEFI Boot in your BIOS (which many do when installing Linux) that would prevent SRS5 from working. Models that came pre-installed with Win7 use SRS5 which relies on legacy BIOS mode (UEFI=disabled). Conversely, models that came pre-installed with Win8.x use the newer SRS6 which relies on UEFI mode. Your partition list doesn't show an EFI boot partition, so I don't think this is your issue, but please check.

3) Also in BIOS, make sure Disk 0 (which contains SRS) is your primary Boot Device. If another disk was made primary when you installed Ubuntu or Kali, that too would prevent SRS from loading. Similarly, make sure the 100MB MSR (Microsoft Reserved SYSTEM partition) is flagged Active on Disk 0.

4) Many users have reported how installing Win8.x on a Win7 model would prevent SRS5 from loading. I would assume the same to be true if you installed Grub or any other boot loader. I have two Win8 partitions on my Sammy and am still able to load SRS5, so this problem is not always consistent. But in those cases, re-installing Win7 usually made SRS5 workable again. But DON'T delete any partitions when doing so, just format the Win7-partition and install on it. Again, make sure the 100MB MSR is flagged Active before loading Windows Setup. Installing from DVD is best on models with ExpressCache.

5) If none of that makes SRS5 workable, your F4-link may indeed be damaged. Sometimes (very rarely) it can be repaired, but usually the only solution is to wipe the disk and re-create Recovery using a so-called Admin Tool. First backup the files and folders on the Recovery partition (Linux is great for that). Then once a new Recovery has been created (with working F4) restore the files and folders to the newly created Recovery partition.

The Admin Tool is itself created from inside Recovery. You should be able to manually boot it, either with Grub or by adding it to the Windows Boot menu. Alternatively, look for the Admin Tool ISOs shared by member dosibox. All of that is covered in the (admittedly rather verbose) post here (same thread as previously linked by John).

 

Thanks for your reply.

1) I'm able to get into BIOS menu.
2) I set it as default. UEFI was disabled.
3)I'm not sure which Disk 0 is my primary boot device. I think Disk 0 is just fine as it shows in the screen:
(SYSTEM 100 MB NTFS is Healthy and Active)


That's my BOOT priority (default). I guess it's fine.


4)How can I re-install Windows 7 then?

 

This may be helpful..

 

Thank you for the update. It is a good sign that you can enter BIOS. Some can not, which is usually sign of a bigger problem. No worries about that!

On the BOOT Priority page, try and move your Disk 0 (which I assume is SATA HDD: P0) to the top. I believe it's F5/F6 to move these items up/down. I agree it should still work with the SATA CD on top (as you have now) but it is worth a try.

Also make sure the 100MB MSR on Disk 0 is marked Active. You can use Linux GParted to do that -- or open a Command Prompt with Shift-F10 in Windows Setup and use DISKPART.

If that doesn't help, change Boot Priority back (SATA CD on top) then re-install Win7 using this guide. Again, just format the Win7 partition but leave everything else intact. And do install from a DVD.

If your current Win7 partition contains important data or programs, of course back those up first. You can even make an image backup of it and restore it once everything is working again. In fact, I would recommend backing up important data before doing any of this, even if stored on another partition.

 

1) I moved it. Nothing happened. So I returned to default.

I will try to follow this guide and see what happens. I will be posting the result afterwards.