Samsung Series 5 - NP550P5C Windows 8 System Recovery

Hi

I have upgraded to Windows 8.1 and then wanted to go back to Windows 8 so I restored factory settings using Samsung Recovery Software, however now I have more hidden partitions then before and unfortunately I can't remember what I had back then. In short, my issue is similar to the one described here:

Strange new Drive created by Windows 8.1 update

I'd like to delete the partitions I don't need, but I'm not quite sure which. I was wondering if someone could paste a screenshot of the partitions they have as they were originally set up. Apart from two 350 MB (Recovery Partitions) on the right of Drive C, I have a 24 GB Recovery Partition, and then another 1GB Recovery Partition! On the left of Drive C, I have 500 MB Recovery Partition and 300 MB EFI Partition. All I want to keep is a recovery partition that will allow me to restore factory settings/system in the future.

Any help or advice much appreciated

Cheers

 

We did have another similar story here. That's a terrible mess, I don't know how Microsoft can release a Windows update (not a clean install) that messes with partitions.

Windows Disk Management hides some partitions. Please install Minitool Partition Wizard (Google it) and post a screen dump of your current partitions. I'll take a look when I get to my pc later.

Meantime, take a look at the post linked below, it lists the standard partitions you should be seeing.

Standard partitions on all Samsung Win8 laptops

 

Thanks, I'd like to paste a screendump, but perhaps because it's a clean reinstall, it does not seem to work. I triedd pasting into my google document (it works fine on my old Toshiba), but no joy. I tried with the FN lock button on and off and nothing...

BTW, I precisely listed the partitions I can see (including names and sizes).

If someone could paste the default partition setup, at least I would know what it should look like. As described before I already can see 7 partitions (including Drive C) in Disk Management so at the moment I would not look for more as that is plenty to deal with. I'm sure there were three (including C) or four when I had a look a long time before the upgdrade.

As the link lists partitions for a different model, it would be really great to see it for the NP550P5C. I spent a long time googling this but again to no avail...

 

That list of standard partitions in the linked post is the same for your model, I guarantee it. Let me copy that part of the post here and add the expected sizes, just for clarity:

The Data partition is optional. When you don't have it, the Windows C: partition fills the space. All the others are standard on any Samsung Win8 computer, and similar on Win8 computers from other vendors. It is a Microsoft requirement -- as described in the post I linked.

Anything you see beyond those were created by yourself or others -- including if that Win8.1 updater messed with the disk.

If you cannot post a screenshot, then please post a list of partitions, names and sizes from left to right (similar to the one above). That will make it easier for me to help you. If there are duplicate partitions, look at their content (Minitool lets you inspect even hidden partitions).

 

OK, thanks very much, I ran Diskpart and below is the list followed by what I see in Disk Management. If you think it's necessary, I can install and run Minitool Partition Wizard, but as I said earlier I only want to delete 'clutter' which I'm pretty sure are the two 350 MB 'recovery' partitions; I'm just not sure I need the 24 GB & 1 GB as I cannot recall they were always there though going by what you show they must have. Anyway, I'd like to go back to 'factory settings/setup' as much as I can and be able to recover if need be.

Diskpart

Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 904 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 Recovery NTFS Partition 500 GB Healthy Hidden
Volume 3 SYSTEM FAT32 Partition 300 MB Healty System
Volume 4 NTFS Partition 350 MB Healty Hidden
Volume 5 NTFS Partition 350 MB Healty Hidden
Volume 6 SAMSUNG_REC NTFS Partition 24 GB Healthy Hidden
Volume 7 SAMSUNG_REC FAT32 Partition 1024 MB Healthy Hidden

Disk Management
Left to right

500 MB Recovery Partition
300 MB EFI System Partition
(C: ) 904.44
350 MB Recovery Partition
350 MB Recovery Partition
24.48 GB Recovery Partition
1.00 GB Recovery Partition

 

Excellent, thank you for posting this. No doubt the two 350 MB Recovery partitions are the ones added by Win 8.1 setup, while the last two recovery partitions (24GB and 1GB respectively) are the original Samsung recovery partitions, which are necessary for Recovery and factory restore to work.

I cannot help wondering how the 8.1 could add these partitions: It would have had to shrink either of the neighboring partitions, which is no trivial task. Some users have reported that the integrity of their Samsung Recovery was damaged by Win 8.1, so that they could no longer factory restore. But that was from a clean install, not from an update.

What I would do in your case, is create a so-called bootable Factory Image backup on a USB stick, using the first two steps in this post. That will give you a self-contained, bootable Recovery on the USB stick which you can use to re-image the drive anytime in the future, no matter how messed up it becomes.

I would also backup any data to an external drive (if you didn't already do so before the update).

Then take a look in Control Panel - Recovery and see whether it lists any restore points that might be on those two new partitions, and whether you can delete them from there (before you whack the partitions). And finally, try and delete those two partitions and see what happens. If all goes well, you can Extend your Windows partitions into the empty space.

If you learn anything more about what happened and what Microsoft's logic is, it would be great info to post here.

Edit:
Wait, I notice your partition lists don't have the 128MB MSR partition. Windows Disk Manager hides it, but DISKPART should normally list it. I wonder if one of the new 350MB partitions is somehow used as MSR, in which case you do NOT want to delete them. I don't think that's the case, since they would be displayed as SYSTEM, not as RECOVERY.

But please, before you delete anything, check again with Minitool and make sure the 128MB MSR is there in front of the Windows partition.

 

Thanks for your help. I ran Diskpart again for partitions and got this:

Partition 1 Recovery 500 MB
Partition 2 System 300 MB
PArtition 3 Reserved 128 MB
Partition 4 Primary 904 GB
Partition 5 Recovery 350 MB
Partition 6 Recovery 350 MB
Partition 7 Recovery 24 GB
Partition 8 Recovery 1024 MB

which I hope confirms the MSR you mention is not merged with one of the 350MB partitions.

I was also thinking of backing up the system before attempting to delete, but the Manual from Samsung does not provide full instructions, i.e, it says what you can do, eg. create a system image using Samsung software, to replace the hard drive, but does not fully explain how to transfer it on to a new one (if you want to swap, or the drive fails). Would you know where to find good instructions? Following links in your link I found this:

Create A Factory Image

I understand I would need to select to create 'a boot' disk'? And it does not say how to recover the image I guess it would be F10?

Also, soon after I bought this laptop I created some kind of backup on an external hard drive using Recovery (I think it was the same as in the link above) so I was wondering if I really need a USB stick as that would be an extra expense and it would take a bit to get one (would Kingston be OK or would recommend some other brand? I read about Sundisk not being a good option so how can I check for that?). On the other hand, a usb stick is more failure proof I guess so it could be a good investment.

Another thing is the image I will create now will most likely include the unwanted partitions?

About Control Panel - Recovery, do you mean system restore points? If so, I used Samsung Recovery so Windows is reinstalled and in System Protection I see

Local Disk C: (System) Off
Samsung REC_2 Off
(C: ) Missing On

And even though it's On for the last one, the allocation is 0.

And an interesting fact about this upgrade is that I actually did it twice, e.i. performed a system restore after each which must be why I have two 350MB partitions.

 

Thank you. Yes, that confirms that (A) the 128MB MSR is where it should be, and (B) the two new 350MB Recovery partitions are indeed backups created by Win 8.1 update. Presumably there is a way to use them somewhere in the Windows Recovery control panel (with which I am not very familiar).

In Recovery, you can make a regular Factory Image backup to an external disk with Create boot disk=off, but it will not be bootable and only works if your Recovery on the HDD is intact. The Factory Image backup I suggested is one where Create boot disk=on, which can ONLY be made to a 32GB USB stick. (You CAN make it to a regular external disk, it just won't work). Follow steps 1-2 in this post including choice of USB stick (NOT SanDisk, NOT USB3).

This is not a partition backup, so it won't contain the unwanted partitions. Rather, it is a self-contained bootable Recovery containing the Factory Image, which can be used to completely re-image a drive: It will wipe the drive, create all standard partitions and working Recovery, and install the factory Windows installation. Having a regular (non-bootable) Factory Image backup on an external disk is still a good fallback, as described in this post.

I think you should create that bootable USB backup, and test that it boots -- but don't restore yet, just keep it as backup. Instead boot Recovery with F4 and perform a Factory Restore with Partition settings=on and see if that doesn't get rid of the unwanted partitions. It should wipe everything, so be sure to backup your data first. If that fails to achieve the desired result, can you re-image the disk with the USB backup (follow the remaining steps in the post linked above).

That's what I would do in your situation. Please keep us posted on your progress.

 

Thanks very much for this. Can I just confirm I understand correctly that the bootable USB backup is what I will be able to use in the future to re-image my current drive also if it fails and I need to replace it? And the USB stick is the only way as the Samsung manual did not make it clear unless I missed something?
Many thanks

 

Yes, you got those right!

OK, there IS one other, undocumented way to backup Recovery (using a so-called Admin Tool and manually backup files and folders from the SAMSUNG_REC2 partition). But it is much, much more work -- and when you restore, it only re-creates Recovery, you still have to install (or factory restore) Windows afterwards. The bootable Factory Image USB backup does everything for you.

3rd party image partitioning tools (Acronis, Paragon etc) generally destroy Recovery when they restore, so I don't recommend those for Recovery backup (see here). As the sole exception (that I know) member go45cvi was able to clone his disk and preserve Recovery with Clonezilla (in Linux) by imaging the entire drive instead of the Recovery partitions individually (see here).

For all practical purposes, I would say the USB backup is the only way. And it is a great backup to have in any case.

 

Great! Thanks for confirming this. I'll follow the steps you suggested and get back to you. It may take a while though.
Cheers

 

Hi,

I'm back with a question about a USB stick. I went to a high street shop to ask about the stick and they recommend Sandisk! They say they create bootable USB drives on the laptops they sell on a daily basis and that it works perfectly fine. I believe it's SanDisk SDCZ51-032G-B35 32GB Cruzer Edge USB 2.0 Flash Drive that they showed me. I'm really not sure what to do because if it does not work I don't think they'll take it back and at the same time how can I be sure that a different randomly selected brand will work? I would expect some people have already created those drives, tested them and can advise which one will work?

 

The store guys are right that any USB stick (including SanDisk and including USB3) can be made bootable in general (say, to be used for Windows installation).

But the issue here is not about general bootability, but rather a specific incompatibility between Samsung Recovery Solution when creating bootable backups, and USB flash drives that behave as fixed disks instead of as removable drives. And I can almost guarantee you that those store guys know nothing about that

Unfortunately SRS doesn't even warn about it, it just fails 60% into the backup, or (far worse) completes but produces a corrupt backup.

It is not the SanDisk brand that is the problem, but the fact that some new USB sticks are designed to behave as fixed disks instead of as removable drives -- and SanDisk has been leading that effort and trying to push other vendors to adopt it too. It is possible that some of SanDisk's older USB2 sticks still work, but I am afraid I cannot tell you which ones. So far we have had positive reports about PNY and Kingston sticks.

So my advice is to avoid SanDisk and avoid USB3 for the best chance of a successful backup.

 

Thanks for the reply. Just to expand a bit on my visit to that shop; I understand the issue and I'm not keen on selecting SanDisk in particular at all; it's just that it was the only USB stick they had of that size apart from smaller sizes and another Sandisk in metal casing or something. I actually mentioned the issue to the guy I was talking to and he said that they show as removable, not fixed drives! He said they create them a lot and they use this Sandisk and the case I mentioned must be an isolated incident. Could the issue be only with Samsung Recovery then? And it works fine with other laptop brands?

They are a huge high street retailer and although I did not see and Samsung laptops on display, I know they had them as I bought my own from them and at that time they had plenty. In fact they offered me for an extra charge to create a USB bootable drive on my purchase. Assuming that they make a lot of them, it's hard to believe they would never have issues... and if they had why would they not want to mention them?

I don't really want to continue this discussion and waste anybody's time it's just you cannot test one before you buy one so that's why I was looking for a tested model.

Anyway, my question is: how can you tell if the drive is recognised as removable or fixed? Is it just what you see in Properties or do you need to check somewhere else? I checked a few that I have and they all show as removable in Properties, unfortunately, the largest I have is only 8GB.

 

I understand. And don't worry, it is OK to discuss here, since this is a unique Samsung issue that many members will encounter.

Your experience with the store is not uncommon. Check member zirdaj's story here.

Once again, the problem is unique (a flaw, really) to Samsung Recovery Solution (SRS), which is a proprietary recovery software only used by Samsung. Very few people outside of this forum are aware of the issue. Most experienced tech people will create an image backup of their drive (or just the Recovery partitions) using traditional partition imaging tools, and expect to be safe. But once they restore such an image, they will find that Recovery doesn't work. The only backup guaranteed to re-create working SRS is that specific bootable Factory Image backup, created on a 32GB USB stick using SRS itself. And unfortunately SRS has that incompatibility where it only works with USB2 sticks that act as removable drives, when Create Boot Disk is enabled.

You can read more about this issue in the thread linked below:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...actory-image-usb-flash-thumb.html#post9421601

I think it is quite possible that an older SanDisk USB2 stick WILL work. But unfortunately I cannot tell you which models will and which models won't. I don't doubt the general expertise of the store guys, but it is irrelevant unless they have experience SPECIFICALLY with Samsung laptops, and have created that SPECIFIC type of SRS backup we are discussing. Until they try it themselves, they likely won't believe you. Tech people are often like that (myself included )

Having 30+ years of technical PC experience, I learned this lesson the hard way when I first got my Samsung laptop, because I approached it like other PCs and made traditional partition image backups -- and found that I lost Recovery after restoring. I wanted to return that particular unit, and it took me several days of surgery to get Recovery working (it IS possible, it just takes a lot of hacking).

After Samsung began adding that bootable Factory Image backup feature to SRS (which they didn't have originally) it has become a lot easier -- but only if users know to make that backup. And unfortunately Samsung doesn't warn or nag users to make it.

As for seeing whether a USB stick works as a Removable Drive or a Hard Disk Drive, look under Computer in Windows Explorer: Removable drives are listed separately. If the store guys are so certain, just ask them to show that the stick they recommend shows up that way (and make sure it's USB2) and you should be fine. Or bring your laptop and create the backup in the store while they watch.

In any case, make sure to test the backup afterwards to see that it boots and recognizes the factory image (it probably shows the HDD as source if it detects the Recovery partition on the HDD). Just don't restore anything from it unless you need to re-image your drive.

 

Hi

I'm back with an update. I got a 32GB Kingston USB stick and created a bootable backup as per your instructions. It took about 46 min as shown by SRS and 15GB of space. Then I did F10 and selected the removable drive to boot from and this took me to Recovery. After clicking 'Agree' the next screen was
'Recover' with only one option button at the bottom 'Recover' which I understand is to re-image the drive from the USB stick ['All contents of C: Dirve will be deleted'] so it all seems fine, but this screen lists HDD as 'source' and that is only what SRS says, not does, I hope? I mean I think I followed all the steps correctly and was actually at the stage where you wipe the HDD clean and re-image from the USB stick?

Anyway, if everything is fine; that's great and at this stage it seems to be the case, but this still means all I can do is believe/hope that my backup will work if the drive fails as there's no further testing the bootable backup apart from actually proceeding with Recovery and deleting the drive? I know it sounds like a silly question, but if the backup is corrupt, I will only find out after I replace the hard drive and start recovery?

Next, I'm going to try Recovery again to see if it deletes the unwanted partitions so please let me know if I can proceed and I'll be happy to answer any questions.
Many thanks again

 

Excellent, thank you for that update.

Others have reported about that Source: HDD display when they run Recovery from the USB stick. I don't know if it's just a display error, or it means that Recovery detects the Factory Image which is still on the HDD (but won't be when running on an empty or wiped disk). It is normal in any case.

And no, you are not silly for having that concern. Well, maybe you are, but then that makes two of us

I think it's very logical concern: If that restore fails while re-imaging your disk, you have nothing!

Here is what you can do to further safeguard against that (beyond testing that the USB stick can boot, as you already did):

1) Create a regular, non-bootable Factory Image backup on an external HDD. Disable Create Boot Disk on this one. If re-imaging should fail, you will have an extra backup of the Factory Image itself. You still need a Recovery to restore it, but it appears the software on the the 32GB stick is working and intact.

2) If you have a spare 1GB USB stick somewhere, create a so-called USB Admin Tool in Recovery Management Mode, as described in this post. It can be used to re-create working Recovery on your HDD, then restore the Factory Image from the external HDD. That's how we backed up Recovery with older Recovery versions (see this post for overview). 512MB was enough for SRS5 Admin Tool, but I am not sure with SRS6.

If you do both of these, you really are very safe. Even if your new 32GB bootable Factory Image backup should fail, you can start from scratch with that Admin Tool (using this post) and restore the Factory Image form the external HDD. But let me know first if it gets to that...

 

Hi,

I have created a non-bootable Factory image on an external hard drive, and I'd like to create a USB Admin Tool which I understand will let me re-image from the external hard drive in the future if need be, so it will be my secondary backup to the Bootable USB stick I have already created. I did look at the posts you refer me to, but to be completely honest, I can't really extract from them how to create the Admin Tool. Is there any chance for guidance on how to just create the Tool? My understanding is I have SRS6, but I'm not sure where I find a Management Mode?
Many thanks

 

No problem. I realize it's a lot of links I have been scattering.

How to CREATE a USB Admin Tool

1) Boot into Samsung Recovery (F4).

2) From the main Recovery screen, press CTRL-ALT-F10 to enter Management Mode. Password is secclx (SECCLX) for SRS5/6 and secos for SRS4.

3) Insert a USB2 flash drive, preferably in a USB2 port (black). 512MB is big enough for SRS5, maybe for SRS6 as well. 1GB is definitely big enough, since that's the size of the entire partition that contains the SRS6 software.

4) In Management Mode, locate the option to create an Admin Tool. This will wipe the USB stick and create a bootable Admin Tool on it.

5) Close Recovery and power off. Keep the USB Admin Tool safe.

6) Take note of the size of your original Recovery Data partition (SAMSUNG_REC2, the big one) and keep that note with the Admin Tool.

How to USE a USB Admin Tool

To use the Admin Tool, disable Fast BIOS/Fast Boot in BIOS settings and boot the USB stick (F10 on newer models, Esc on older models). SRS5 Admin Tool wants to be booted from a USB2 port (otherwise it just launches regular Recovery off the HDD). I believe SRS6 Admin Tool can be booted from either USB2 or USB3 ports.

Admin Tool is NOT the same as running normal Recovery from the HDD or from a bootable Factory Image backup. It has a number of utility functions (such as resetting the Purchase Date in BIOS and various repair features) but it's main function is to re-partition a disk and create fully functional Recovery partition(s) on it, and insert a working F4 link into the partition table. SRS5 and earlier have a single Recovery partition, whereas SRS6 has two: One for SRS software (Boot) and one for the Factory Image (Data), potentially even on different drives.

Any existing partitions on the disk (including previous Recovery partitions) will be wiped in the process. This newly created Recovery on the disk will have no Factory Image (it's an empty Recovery) but it should be able to restore a previously backed up Factory Image.

During the process of creating the Recovery partition(s), Admin Tool can also copy a so-called Initial image from a backup, which will then become the Factory Image. In SRS5, this Initial image must be backed up in Management Mode to a USB flash drive. In SRS6, I would assume that it can read a backed up Factory Image from an external HDD, but I have not tried that myself.

Following are my recommended settings of the options when running SRS6 Admin Tool:

Select Disk: Disk 0 (destination HDD/SSD)
Disk Partitioning (Boot): Check (creates SAMSUNG_REC boot/software partition)
Size of Recovery Boot Partition: 1.0GB (size of SAMSUNG_REC)
Position: Last (make SAMSUNG_REC the last partition on disk)
Disk Partitioning (Data): Check - Select Disk 0 (creates SAMSUNG_REC2 data partition)
Size of Recovery Data Partition: 24GB (enter size of original SAMSUNG_REC2)
Install Recovery Area: Check (creates working Recovery)
MBR Fix: Check (to make or repair F4 link)
Copy init image: Check to copy Initial (factory) image from backup
Install Windows: UN-check (will run Windows Setup after completion)
Fix init date: UN-check (reset Initial Date)

There is more discussion of those options here.

You probably will never need this (since you have a bootable Factory Image backup). But I include the information for completeness in case someone Googles this discussion and decides to give it a try.

 

Thank you for providing the instructions. I followed the first part and created a bootable Admin Tool. After that I got the message:
'Complete.
Boot from the USB drive and then test it.'

Well, I did not test it and left it at that point because it seems to be successful and as you say, I hope I never need to use it I used a 1GB USB stick for it and it shows some 800MB of used space now so for anyone else, 512MB might not be enough.

Next I booted Recovery with F4 and did a Factory Restore with Partition settings 'on' which gave me a message:

'when the partition is set all the data in all the drives will be deleted'

This made me a bit uneasy as it's not clear how to interpret it? Logically, I would not expect SRS to delete itself and all factory/recovery partitions so I proceeded and it all went well! Now in Disk Management I no longer see those two Windows 8.1 partitions so it's all back to where it should be. It looks like the 'partition setting on' deletes only user created partitions and thankfully also Windows 8.1 recovery ones. Had I known about this setting I would probably have never come to this forum, but I'm glad I did as I seem to have learnt more and now have a proper recovery backup so thank you again for your help and guidance :thumbsup:

I would have one more question though; what would be the best way of making a backup image of the C: Drive using SRS so in the future I can go back to my system setup rather than start from scratch? Would it be an export/import image option to an external drive?

Many thanks

 

Thank you for that update. Excellent job getting it all working!

And particularly thanks for confirming about the SRS6 Admin Tool requiring a 1GB flash drive.

I could have sworn we already discussed trying a factory restore with Partition Settings=on -- but my memory is not what it used to be. In any case, it does exactly what you say: A complete restore to factory state, including wiping partitions, but of course maintaining Recovery itself. (SRS5 users have to choose Complete Restore to do the same).

And yes, you can use SRS to make a backup of your current state, as described in this Samsung guide. Or you can use a 3rd tool to save a partition image of the Windows partition (and any data partitions you may have). I use an imaging tool from Terabyte Unlimited, but many members here like Acronis. There is also a built-in Windows control panel (in Win8 oddly named Windows 7 File Recovery) which can be used to backup and restore images.

Once again good job. I'd say you are now in the 1% percentile of most safely backed up (and informed) Samsung owners

 

Will someone please upload and share the factory settings image?
These are the init. Wcl and woo files.

I lost the factory settings when I upgraded my hard drive and I want to get it back.
Even though I have the images backed up, Samsung recovery doesn't work.

I'm also having trouble creating a new image.
After booting from the backup disk, I tried running the SRS admin tool.
I'm almost there but I'm missing something.

 

RESTORING SAMSUNG RECOVERY WITH F4 LINK AFTER HARD DRIVE SWAP – NP550P5C-S05in
(Windows 8 upgraded to Windows 8.1 via the Windows Store)

Let me begin by saying that I did try looking for options online and researching through the various forums available but none of them were either successful, many recommended going to a Samsung service centre, most gave up or entailed reformatting the entire hard disk and starting the set up from the beginning.

Well, fortunately for me I was successful and wanted to share my success with the others.
To go to procedure just scroll down and skip the jabberwocky.

SCENARIO and SYMPTOMS:

I recently upgraded my stock hard drive to an SSHD.
I first used Samsung’s Recovery software to create a clone and then proceeded to swap the hard drives. This was extremely easy and required no operator intervention except for swapping out the hard drives.
Unfortunately for me, Windows 8.1 started crashing repeatedly and my laptop was rendered useless. Basically, I think, something went wrong with the copy process.
Fortunately, I had created a Windows System Image and a Windows Recovery Drive, therefore all I did was boot from the recovery drive, select the “Restore Windows System Image” option and I was good to go.
I also reformatted the new hard disk using the slow format process and disabled secure boot.
Although this brought back a stable windows, the Samsung Recovery Partitions didn’t restore correctly leading to loss of the Samsung Recovery program in entirety.
Thus began my quest to restore the Samsung recovery partitions and the F4 link.
Now most people would actually give up at this point on the point that it would not be worth it and I even know a friend who sacrificed his recovery options for a new SSD. Most of the forums even recommend this.
But, there is a benefit from this. You get a clean copy of windows with your laptop as it came from the factory. There is a quick and easy way to purge all your personal data when you are selling the computer and so on.

What follows next is the procedure to restore the Samsung Recovery Partitions and the F4 link.

PROCEDURE:
WHAT I HAD/REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS TO WORK:

1. A bootable Samsung Recovery USB drive.
I exported a copy of the factory image to an external drive and made it a bootable disk using Samsung Recovery. This was before I attempted the hard drive swap and I believe was the only saving grace. I intend to upload the contents of this drive as ISOs so that others can download and create the recovery drive.
2. A wonderful free (and a little buggy) program called EaseUS Partition Master without which I’d be stumped.
3. A USB key to create the Samsung AdminTool – this can be created using the bootable recovery drive.

WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW because the information available out there is really misleading.
Samsung Recovery requires two partitions – SAMSUNG_REC AND SAMSUNG_REC2
SAMSUNG_REC is the boot partition for Samsung Recovery to load. This partition is 1 GB in size.
SAMSUNG_REC2 contains the factory image and in my case was 19.68 GB.

WHAT I DID and WHAT HAPPENED
1. Boot from the Samsung recovery drive – I first disabled Fast Boot, then selected the external disk in the first boot option and restarted.
2. The Samsung recovery environment loaded and entered the Recovery Management Settings by pressing ctrl+alt+F10. The password I used was “secclx” (“secos” is another password if the former doesn’t work)
3. Imported the factory settings from the external drive in the “Image” option. This will overwrite the image on the disk (which in my case was corrupted, even though present).
4. Created the USB AdminTool. This option was previously not available as the factory settings were corrupt, like I mentioned before. After importing the factory settings, this option became available.
5. Restarted the computer and tried to load Samsung Recovery by pressing F4 – this did not work.
6. Booted into windows, ran Samsung Recovery from windows where I got the dreaded “Recovery partition does not exist” error.
7. Plugged in the USB AdminTool, navigated to \Winclon and ran Admintool.exe. This brought up a set of options and of key concern is the option to “Finalize Recovery Setting”. None of the other options worked and after execution, a prompt with a small procedure appeared along with file “RecoverySettingsSV.exe” that appeared on the desktop and a set of instructions.
8. I ran the “RecoverySettingsSV.exe” file using administrator privileges, from which a command prompt and a set of commands started to run.
9. I tried running the Samsung Recovery program again from within Windows and presto! Recovery loaded successfully.
10. However, when I restarted and tried to get into Samsung Recovery using the F4 – that didn’t work.
Normally I should have let it go at this point, but I was just not happy with it.

Here comes the complicated part.
11. I figured that the recovery partition itself was corrupted and decided to clone the boot partition from my external bootable drive and copy it onto the hard drive. I used EaseUS for this and although it wasn’t all smooth – firstly the partition size was too small which needed to be extended, then the GPT attributes and IDs went wrong because EaseUS just changed them at random. I had to set all of this right and try again. Still no luck.
12. Then I attempted to boot from the USB AdminTool and recreate the Boot Partition and Data partitions. This turned out to be a disaster because I lost windows all over again.
13. Started from scratch with my trusty windows recovery drive and then using the system image restore option.
Normally, I would have let it go at this point at least, right? HELL NO!
14. So I started all over, THIS TIME, when I booted from the USBAdmin Tool I didn’t create new partitions, I just checked the “Reinstall the recovery partition” which reinstalls recovery on the same partition and I got a surprising error – that the partition was too small, despite being 1GB in size.
15. Back to windows and using EaseUS, I shifted the partitions on the hard drive to create enough space to extend the SAMSUNG_REC partition to 1.1GB. Once again, all the IDs changed and I had to change back the GPT attributes to their original.
16. I tried again, using the USB AdminTool – reinstall recovery WITHOUT creating new partitions, Fix MBR and set init date.
17. This solved EVERYTHING!

Samsung Recovery environment works through windows and through F4 flawlessly, like it used to.

Moderator note:

We have way too many Recovery threads repeating the same information, so I am closing this thread. Please follow this thread where member Gulfmaster posted the same guide. Or read the guide linked below, which is our main summary on Samsung Recovery issues:

Backing up and re-creating Samsung Recovery Solution