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linuxubuntuwindows-8windows-8.1

Restoring Windows

I have been trying to get Ubuntu to work on my laptop for the last few days. I have been extremely unsuccessful in doing so.

My laptop came pre installed with Windows 8. My laptop

All I want to do at this point is to get Windows back.

I have an exact copy of all the files that were on my Windows partition before I tried to remove everything and install Ubuntu using the installer (which failed).

I have tried using my other Windows computer to create a recovery USB and using it to reset my laptop, but it gives me an error saying a required partition is missing.

I can no longer even use an Ubuntu USB as it will not boot from it.

One thing that I think is key is that at one point when I used the Ubuntu USB to check disc for errors, it said 2 files had errors. I used GParted to try to get rid of what Ubuntu partitions were installed and came across three left. One was a long name that started with "/dev/" (about the size of my ssd, 128GB), and the other two were "/dev/sda/" and "/dev/sdb/", which were about 45 GB each. I removed all partitions from the large one and the two small ones had errors saying that GParted did not recognize the name or something. Somehow, through me messing things up, the big one disappeared.

When I boot my computer in Legacy mode, it shows a quick menu saying press ctrl+i to edit and it shows 2 things that I think are what the "/dev/sda" and "/dev/sdb" are. Pressing ctrl+i takes you to an intel RAID system editor. You can create a RAID system or delete one, but only the option to create one is available for me.

How can I recover Windows?

Solution

  • First, I would see if anything under Recovery Volume Options has any tools to restore Windows 8 for you.

    If that turns out not to be useful, then I would recommend reinstalling Windows 8 from scratch. If you don't already have reinstallation media, you may be able to get set up with these instructions. Note however that you will need access to another, working Windows computer to follow them.

    Finally, a tip for the future: I recommend doing a full-disk image backup with something like the free Clonezilla before performing operations like this. That way, you can get your hard drive back to the exact state it was in before if something goes wrong.