Restored my hard drive but the Recovery Partition Doesn't Work

[treefiddy]

Hi, I've been having a lot of problems with corrupt system files on my Windows Home Premium x64 system, so I decided to restore my system to a state it was in a month ago. I better explain how I got here, boring as it is, otherwise you may wonder why I'm tackling this problem the way I am.

I had used some software bundled with an external hard drive (Nero Backitup 4 essentials) to backup the entire hard drive, but when it came to using it I found I couldn't. The boot disk nero produces refused to work, it claimed not to be able to find the installer software even though it can be found if booted up on an XP (probably something to do with x64 incompatibility?). So I downloaded Nero 10 trial version and made a boot disk expecting a current incarnation to work fine. This time the boot disk found the restore software, but the linux software still refused to work. So I decided on a hard drive to hard drive copy, Backitup 4 would not select drive D so I had to use Nero 10, but because I'd already downloaded nero onto the drive I wanted to fix, I had to try and clone on another drive. I used the same type of hard drive and it seemed to work fine, but there were boot problems which I had to fix using the win 7 installation disk and the repair computer option. This seemed to work fine, but then I noticed that the hidden recover partition (D) WIN_RE was no longer hidden, it can be seen but has its capacity bar is in red for some reason instead of green. So I decided to test the recovery partition by pressing f8 and selecting "repair computer" but I got this message "Windows failed to start, a recent hardware or software change might be the cause - status 0xc000000e The boot section failed because the required device is inaccessible" This was the same problem as the one I corrected earlier with repair computer, but repair computer only seems to work for drive C. I used the little knowledge I gained trying to fix this computer to look at the volumes using diskpart, and WINRE is listed as healthy.
Does anybody know how to correct this problem so I can use the recover partition and make it hidden again? Many Thanks

 

[theog]

Try using the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks you made.

 

[gregrocker]

Nero is bloated crapware. Use Win7 native imaging, free Macrium Reflect or Paragon 11. Or if you have a WD or Seagate HD in the mix, use Acronis' premium free version on the Support Downloads webpage for your model HD.

You can try marking the Recovery Partition Active to see if it will run or trigger it's hotkey from boot. If not you'll need the Recovery Disks, or find a Win7 installer to follow these steps for clean Reinstalling Windows 7

 

[mjf]

Agreed I'd use the OEM recovery disks you made or even have to buy (won't be expensive).

Then Windows inbuilt imaging works well for basic imaging for many including me.
But strongly recommend Macrium Reflect (free or bought) as an additional safeguard and more flexible imaging software.
Macrium is more flexible AND you can image your recovery partition and restore it to a new HDD if required.