Solved: HDD swap and preserving OKR

[joejiz]

spoke to soon!

It does the recovery, asks for reboot and then never boots to windows xp! Just cursor blinking top left hand corner!!

Darn it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Grogerf]

A big thank you!

Worked fine for me - copied original 250gig 512 byte segment drive to 'new format' 500Gig drive using Linux dd command. New disk worked properly for Windows 7, but no OKR. Your tool fixed the problem, I was concerned as the original drive was of 512byte segment size and the new one had the 'new format' 4kbyte segment size. However the tool worked perfectly once a satisfactory USB stick conversion was performed. (Had to re-format USB stick as did previous correspondent. Could have been corrupted by previous boot installation on stick.)

Thanks again

[mattbhome3]

I run the setup bat file and it run but low and behold the OKR button still does not work.

Do I need to format my HDD or something?

Please can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[justaloco]

I run the setup bat file and it run but low and behold the OKR button still does not work.

Do I need to format my HDD or something?

Please can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

The OKRFIX.exe tool will only fix the Restore partition on the S10 4231 model. This model has the hidden Windows PE restore partition, with the Partition type set to 0x12 (Compaq Diag). The S10 4333 model has a hidden Windows RE partiton and the tool won't work for that model.

Which S10 model do you own?

[coolkips]

I run the setup bat file and it run but low and behold the OKR button still does not work.

Do I need to format my HDD or something?

Please can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

The OKRFIX.exe tool will only fix the Restore partition on the S10 4231 model. This model has the hidden Windows PE restore partition, with the Partition type set to 0x12 (Compaq Diag). The S10 4333 model has a hidden Windows RE partiton and the tool won't work for that model.

Which S10 model do you own?

Where can we know he model? I have S10-2 with Model Name 20027 with Factory ID RC4. And I cannot use OneKey Rescue System button anymore. The hidden partition still there, but cannot accessed anymore. Is there any tool I can used for this problem? Thanks

[justaloco]

I'm not familiar with the S10-2 line of the computer. If it uses the Windows RE hidden partition (not the PE like the older S10 4231) you can try the following:

I assume you are very good at setting up computers, as this is not for a novice netbook user.
The goal of the following steps is to restore the Master Boot Record (MBR) from your old
hard drive to your new hard drive.

The theory here is that the MBR from your original hard drive, contains the instructions to boot the utility partition when you press the Restore Key or F11. I backed up the MBR of a S10 (4333) and when I viewed the data file with a Hex editor, I noticed the text "Select F11 to enter system restore." Therefore, I believe the MBR is what allows the hidden System Restore partition to be booted.


1) Back up your computer to a USB Drive or something that can handle all your data.

2) Make a bootable USB Key (info. available on Web)

3) Unzip and copy the tools HDHacker and MBRFix (search for them on the Web) to the USB Key
Note: HDHacker runs in Windows, MBRFix runs in DOS.

4) Review the instructions for BOTH tools.

5) Back up the first 16 sectors of your new hard-drive (The Master Boot Record) to your flash drive,
with the HDHacker tool

6) Put your original hard drive back into the computer, and back up the first 16 sectors of that drive
to your flash drive. (different file name, of course) If you have a Hex editor, you can look for the, "Select F11 to enter system restore" string of characters. If you don't see that, I'd stop here....The S10-2 is different from the S10 (4333)

3) Put the new drive back into the computer

4) Either boot to the USB Key and use the MBRFix tool, OR boot the computer to Windows and
use the HDHacker tool, to copy the MBR from your old hard drive to your new hard drive.

5) Reboot to Windows (just a test)

6) Reboot again, and try the System Restore option.

*If your system does not boot, you will have to boot to the USB Key you made in Step 2,
and use the MBRFix tool to restore the MBR that was working before you started this
adventure.

**Now you understand why I suggested backing up the computer in Step 1.

[coolkips]

I guess, I need existing MBR backup from other S10-2 user. Anybody has s10-2 and willing provide me you MBR backup please? Thanks.

[coolkips]

I'm not familiar with the S10-2 line of the computer. If it uses the Windows RE hidden partition (not the PE like the older S10 4231) you can try the following:

I assume you are very good at setting up computers, as this is not for a novice netbook user.
The goal of the following steps is to restore the Master Boot Record (MBR) from your old hard drive to your new hard drive.

The theory here is that the MBR from your original hard drive, contains the instructions to boot the utility partition when you press the Restore Key or F11. I backed up the MBR of a S10 (4333) and when I viewed the data file with a Hex editor, I noticed the text "Select F11 to enter system restore." Therefore, I believe the MBR is what allows the hidden System Restore partition to be booted.

1) Back up your computer to a USB Drive or something that can handle all your data.

2) Make a bootable USB Key (info. available on Web)

3) Unzip and copy the tools HDHacker and MBRFix (search for them on the Web) to the USB Key
Note: HDHacker runs in Windows, MBRFix runs in DOS.

4) Review the instructions for BOTH tools.

5) Back up the first 16 sectors of your new hard-drive (The Master Boot Record) to your flash drive,
with the HDHacker tool

6) Put your original hard drive back into the computer, and back up the first 16 sectors of that drive
to your flash drive. (different file name, of course) If you have a Hex editor, you can look for the, "Select F11 to enter system restore" string of characters. If you don't see that, I'd stop here....The S10-2 is different from the S10 (4333)

3) Put the new drive back into the computer

4) Either boot to the USB Key and use the MBRFix tool, OR boot the computer to Windows and
use the HDHacker tool, to copy the MBR from your old hard drive to your new hard drive.

5) Reboot to Windows (just a test)

6) Reboot again, and try the System Restore option.

*If your system does not boot, you will have to boot to the USB Key you made in Step 2,
and use the MBRFix tool to restore the MBR that was working before you started this
adventure.

**Now you understand why I suggested backing up the computer in Step 1.

Thanks for the answer. But I wonder to my harddisk MBR, because I found this result with HDHacker:

Code: Select all

3.Ž...|.P.P....|...PW...........8n.|.u.ƒ......‹.ƒ..It.8,t......‹..<.t..........ˆN..F.s*.F.€~..t.€~..t....u.€F..ƒF..ƒV...!.s......>.}U.t.€~..t......‹..W‹.....ŠV.....r#Š.$?˜Š.Š.C..‹.†.....B..9V.w#r.9F.s......|‹N.‹V...sQOtN2.ŠV.....ŠV.`..U.A..r6.U.u0...t+a`j.j..v..v.j.h.|j.j..B‹...aas.Ot.2.ŠV.....a..Invalid partition table.Error loading operating system.Missing operating system..........................................................,Dcffff..€ !.........˜/#..........x...&...........O#.?(..................U.........................................................................................................

As addition, here is my partition table from PTEdit32, still with number "12". And I never touch the partition.


And, EPM diagram as below:


Anybody has an idea? Can we used MBR backup from another s10-2 user? Thanks

[justaloco]

I'm confused a bit. First, did you upgrade the hard drive in your computer, or did the restore partition just stop working one day?

Second, when I compared the partitions of the s10 (4231) and the S10 (4333), I noticed the 4231 model had a partition type of Hex 0x12 and booted to Windows PE. The 4333 model I observed (I think) did not have 0x12 as the type, and I'm certain it booted Windows RE (Re-installation Environment) on System Restore button. The 16 sector MBR I commented on in my previous post, was from the 4333. The MBR on the 4231 did not have the text I mentioned.

Last, I performed a system restore on BOTH the 4333 and 4231 that were in my possession. I observed the process was different on each model. The 4231 was more of a system restore of a partition image. The 4333 performed an actual, traditional, Windows XP install.

I think you're best bet is to try to get an S10-2 user of a similar model to upload 16 sectors of their boot record, taken via HDHacker.