Well, let me explain where I'm now at (still a little frustrated):
(1) Yes, he said Windows Boot Manager remained first, followed by the CD option. Although I only have one CD/DVD player, there were two CD options.....one was SATA6 and the other was UEFI. He said go with the SATA6, which I did. But he was talking pretty fast and my ears ain't what they use to be, lol.
(2) I created a System Repair Disk from Windows Backup/Restore screen. With it in the CD player, I boot up and keep pressing any key for a long time and I bypass the BIOS setup screen, to arrive at a small screen telling me to press F8 for menu of available options.
(3) So pressing F8 gets me to a long menu with many options; top of the list is Repair, followed by some Safe Mode & Network stuff, and ending with Start Windows normally.
(4) When I click on Repair, I get the standard System Recovery Options screen, so at this point I think all is going well.
(5) I select US keyboard and press Next
(6) Then I get an error that doesn't make sense to me. It says "This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows that you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible".
(7) I click OK and the system goes into a normal Starting Windows mode.
(8) So I'm dead in the water again. I'm going to try creating a bootable USB flash drive and see if that will work.

But now I have a really dumb question. If I have a valid Win 7 Pro install disk, doesn't it contain all the needed recovery tools? Do I really need this System Repair Disk that Microsoft strongly suggests that I create and store in a safe place?

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

It should be on your install disc - it would be if it were a retail disc. I don't know about an OEM disc, which is likely what you have. Not sure.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Okay BB

First, yes based on what I just tried with my Win 7 disk, you can indeed boot to it, and get to the repair function. But it would be much better to use the repair disk.

Assuming you made the disk at the system image menu in the control panel I'd suspect the disk is good.

Based on what you said about boot order do this.

Insert the disk in the CD drive, and just boot the computer. If indeed the boot order is as you describe, it will bypass the boot manager as you have nothing in it, and then should try the cd next. If it finds a bootable CD/DVD it should just boot to it. Try it first with the disk you made, and then try it with the Win 7 disk and report back.

Based on what happens we can go from there.

Pete

PS. Have ever restored on the other machines with the repair disk

Morning Pete - OK, in answer to your questions and directions, here is what I did:
(1) First, Jay was absolutely correct about CD drive needing to be #1 in boot order priority, with Windows Boot Manager #2. So I went into BIOS and made that change before I did anything else. I must have misunderstood the Velocity tech yesterday.
(2) I then put my System Repair Disk in the CD drive and rebooted. I got the error about it being a non-system disk that I needed to remove/replace.
(3) I then put my Win 7 Pro install disk (the OEM copy Velocity provided) in the CD drive and rebooted. I then watched as Windows loaded some files, and this time I arrived at the standard Install Windows or Repair Your Computer menu. I chose Repair, and everything went as expected.....I arrived at the menu where I could elect to Use Recovery Tools or Restore from Latest System Image. I selected Restore and after a few seconds the system correctly presented the latest image it found on my computer.
(4) At that point, I backed out of the menus, removed the Install Disk, and booted into Windows like I normally do.

CONCLUSION - After making my CD drive #1 in boot priority, the system recognized my Win 7 Install Disk but not the System Repair Disk that I created (I had actually created two such disks, and they both failed).

To answer your question - Yes I have successfully restored from a Repair Disk on my two older Velocity computers (both currently running Win 7 Ultimate).

Here's what I'm going to try next, along with any suggestions you or others might have:
(1) I'm going to take one of the Repair Disks that failed to be recognized on my new computer and try it on one of my old Velocity computers. That should tell me whether the Disk itself is good.
(2) I'm going to try using a Repair Disk that I created for one of my older computers and see if it works on my new computer, but I'm not optimistic.
(3) When I made my CD player #1 boot priority, I had the choice of SATA: CD/DVD or UEFI: CD/DVD. I chose SATA but will try UEFI and see what happens
(4) Create a bootable flash drive and try it, after first going into BIOS again to make that USB drive #1 boot priority.

Any other ideas (and thanks for your help)?

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

Hi BB

I'd remake the CD from the system image section in the control panel. If your bios shows CD #1 and USB #2 it should automatically boot from the USB(assuming it's bootable)

1. Make your usb flash drive bootable

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lib ... 00124.aspx

Then make the repair disk to the USB drive

Pete

Jay, you were absolutely correct about CD drive needing to be #1 in boot order priority, with Windows Boot Manager #2. So I went into BIOS and made that change.....I must have misunderstood the Velocity tech. As discussed in a post above, I can now get the system to recognize my Win 7 Install Disk, but not the System Repair Disk.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

One thing I have found, BB, is that some Optical drives don't like certain brand of media, or you may have a bad bunch. That's why I always go with a top brand like Philips or Sony or Verbatim. No cheapo Office Depot or Memorex. That's just one more possibility.

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Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Hmm. Never used Office Depot, but I've been using Memorex CD's, DVD's for over 5 years. Not one single failure. But I use their best.

To make a long story short, here's what I found out and it is something I can live with:
(1) Any System Repair Disk created on my new Win 7 Pro computer will not work on either this computer or my old Win 7 Ultimate computer (both are 64-bit). I tried three different CD brands and nothing worked.
(2) Any System Repair Disk created on my old Win 7 Ultimate computer will work on both the old and the new computers (so I just used my old computer to create a 2nd Repair Disk to keep with my new computer).

So I can live with this and probably won't bother creating a USB bootable flash drive. At least now I can boot from my CD drive and I have a bootable Repair Disk (plus my Win 7 Install Disk, which also got me to the repair/recovery options menu). Thanks to all for help and suggestions.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

I actually tried 4 different brands........Memorex, Office Depot, Sony, and HP. But I will purchase/try some Verbatim and Philips. I figure it must be something about my drive, or another quirk of the UEFI BIOS that I don't understand. But like I said earlier, I can live with what I now have.....a CD drive that I can boot from, a Repair Disk that works, and an Install Disk that gets me to recovery if need be.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

I agree with Patty about the type of CD used, I had the same problem on my desktop. I'd tried a few and they wouldn't work so what I did was phone the manufacturer and asked what make they used, very helpful man told me they used Datawrite so I bought CDs and DVDs that make and haven't had a problem since.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

For me just one brand of cd/dvd will do: VERBATIM. After 12 years not a single failure. But good luck finding them.

Many companies contract out to who-knows-where to have discs made. Verbatim makes their own.
Acadia

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The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution. -- Emerson

BB, no hurry - but I would go ahead and make that USB boot stick. Always good to have another fall-back. You might need it some day.

_________________
Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

Patty, I plan on doing that just for the experience, but that may be a project for next week. I will probably need to again change my UEFI BIOS to boot from a USB drive, but that's no big deal now that I know how to do all that stuff, lol.

Actually, I thought I had created a bootable flash drive. I found this neat little program called Koala 1.1 whose sole purpose was to do just that from the Win 7 Install disk. But the program automatically formatted the USB drive in NTFS and my UEFI computer requires Fat32. So I need to burn my own Windows ISO and try again (Jay told me the program he uses for burning ISO's).

This new computer has really been a learning experience, primarily due to my lack of knowledge about the UEFI BIOS, as well as the nature of these big 4K drives.

_________________
BB
http://barrypatch.net

I must also chime in on the different brands of CD/DVD. When I put in a new drive I will try several different brands and go with what works best.

But there is another factor. Not all optical disks of the same brand are the same. For instance Maxell DVDs work the best on my Blu-ray burner but not all Maxell optical disks are the same. Maxell disks are made in both China and Taiwan. The ones produced in Taiwan have proven to be more reliable than those produced in China.

While not relevant here, if burning video, I have found that DVD-R tends to work better then DVD+R.

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I'm curious. With the DVD drive number one in the boot order, does your computer start normally now if there is no disc in the DVD drive.
(sigh, mine doesn't)

Smitty, yes it does. But Windows Boot Manager is #2 in my boot order. Do you not have that option.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

That's the way I had it.
1. DVD
2. Boot Mgr
3. CT (SSD C drive)
When I start the computer with no disc in the DVD, I'm asked
to reboot or insert boot media. So I have to shut down and put
boot manager back in first place.

Then I don't understand why yours doesn't work. What does happen when you don't have a disc in the CD/DVD drive? And what happens when you put a disk in the drive? And which disk are you putting in - Installation Disk or System Repair Disk?

In your UEFI BIOS setup, do you have a Compatibility Support Module (CSM) Configuration line? If so, under that line mine shows:
Launch CSM.....Enabled
Boot Device Control.....UEFI and Legacy
(this is what Velocity tech had me change)

What does your show in this setup?

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

To Smitty and BB...

BB reported that once enabled he had the option to set the optical drive to either UEFI or SATA. I believe that BB set to SATA.

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You are absolutely correct, Jay........I forgot to mention that. And that's what the Velocity tech told me to do.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net

After reading what you just wrote I'm starting to get uncomfortable.
I'm thinking at this point I should talk to the VM tech.
I think I need an on the phone walk through to be safe.
Thanks guys
(by the way, my bootable media is the Win 7 Pro OEM disc which when I boot to it only gives
the option of installing windows, no repair option. And the other is a Macrium Reflect PE disc which
works just fine)

That's probably a good idea, Smitty.......those guts know their stuff.

You mentioned the Win 7 Pro OEM disc........that's what I have, but it does give me the repair option. So I would ask the tech about that, also.

_________________
BB
http://barrypatch.net

I talked to the VM tech and he said to put Win Boot Mgr first in the boot order.
To boot to bootable media, start the PC with a disc in the dvdram and hit F12 which gives a menu of available boot devices. Double click on "UEFI...DVDRAM and hit any key to boot. Next, choose Windows Setup, enter and windows loads files and comes to the 1st page of the Win 7 Pro install.
All that works properly even for my Macrium Reflect disc.
That part about not finding the repair option on the Win 7 disc was because that it is on page 2 of the disc. I couldn't navigate to page 2 because my mouse and keyboard were dead.
Had to call him back for this and he said that happens, even to them. Fix it by unplugging the USB
cords for the mouse and keyboard and re-plug them. That worked, too.
Could it be that my instructions are different because my mother board is a Gigabyte H97N? I believe you said yours is an ASUS.

Thanks for the update, Smitty. Yes, my motherboard is an ASUS Z170-P Intel, so that may be the difference. I get to the menu of available boot devices by hitting F8. I never tried F12 because my tech told me to use F8. I am surprised he told you to leave Windows Boot Manager as first in boot priority. However, I guess at this point we both need to go with what works on our computer.

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BB
http://barrypatch.net