Recover Lenovo One Key Rescue after Resizing Partitions

If you have use EaseUs Partition Master to resize your Windows 8 partitions, you might have problem to create Windows recover drive, fail to backup or recover to factory with pre-installed recovery tool.

I just bought a Lenovo C440. It comes with Windows 8 and OneKey Recovery. My experience is based on the combination.

Because the default partition size is too small for my C drive, I use EaseUs Partition Master to re-size. Then I cannot launch to OneKey Recovery for backup or recovery. I also fail to create a USB recovery drive using [Recovery] in [Control Panel].

It took me several days to figure out what’s going wrong. In short, it’s all related to the partition type which EaseUs Partition Master cannot handle properly. I will show you how to solve these problems.

The Factory Partition List

Launch cmd.exe and run as administrator. In command prompt, type diskpart and run this program.

In interactive mode, use LIST DISK to view all disk numbers in your computer. Then select you disk by SELECT DISK=0 if this is your only drive.

Use LIST PARTITION to view partition information. Below is what it should be by factory default:

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset 
  -------------  ----------------  -------  ------- 
  Partition 1    Recovery          1000 MB  1024 KB 
  Partition 2    System             260 MB  1001 MB 
  Partition 3    OEM                500 MB  1261 MB 
  Partition 4    Reserved           128 MB  1761 MB 
  Partition 5    Primary            390 GB  1889 MB 
  Partition 6    Recovery           390 MB   392 GB 
  Partition 7    Primary             48 GB   392 GB 
  Partition 8    Recovery            24 GB   441 GB

More detail command document may be found in DiskPart Command-Line Options.

EaseUS Partition Master change Partition Type without Messages

After resizing by EaseUs Partition Master, you will lost all diag flag in partition which may be identified as diag in GParted. You need to manually change these value.

Here is a partition list of my disk after resize partition. Those marked by red color should be repaired.

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset 
  -------------  ----------------  -------  ------- 
  Partition 1    OEM               1000 MB  1024 KB 
  Partition 2    System             260 MB  1001 MB 
  Partition 3    Primary            500 MB  1261 MB 
  Partition 4    Reserved           128 MB  1761 MB 
  Partition 5    Primary            390 GB  1889 MB 
  Partition 6    Primary            390 MB   392 GB 
  Partition 7    Primary             48 GB   392 GB 
  Partition 8    OEM                 24 GB   441 GB

To help you compare my partition to yours, I also LIST VOLUME for your reference:

Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
Volume 0     E                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
Volume 1     C   Windows8_OS  NTFS   Partition    390 GB  Healthy    Boot
Volume 2     D   Backup       NTFS   Partition     48 GB  Healthy
Volume 3         SYSTEM_DRV   FAT32  Partition    260 MB  Healthy    System
Volume 4                      NTFS   Partition    390 MB  Healthy    Hidden
Volume 5         PBR_DRV      NTFS   Partition     24 GB  Healthy    Hidden

Recover Partition ID

I use DETAIL PARTITION (select a partition before use this command) and compare partition ID. Here is a reference list of partition type and ID. You need to manually SELECT PARTITION then SET ID for the damaged partition type.

• Recovery is DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
• System is C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
• OEM is BFBFAFE7-A34F-448A-9A5B-6213EB736C22
• Reserved is E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE
• Recovery is DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
• Primary is EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

You cannot update the partition with type Reserved.

In my case, I need to change partition 1, 3, 6, and 8 respectively to type Recovery, OEM, Recovery, and Recovery. You may save below DiskPart commands as a text file and use /s to execute as whole.

For example, I save following commands as c440.txt and use diskpart /s c440.txt to batch execute.

SELECT DISK=0
SELECT PARTITION=1
SET ID=DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
SELECT PARTITION=3
SET ID=BFBFAFE7-A34F-448A-9A5B-6213EB736C22
SELECT PARTITION=6
SET ID=DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
SELECT PARTITION=8
SET ID=DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
EXIT

Enable Windows Recovery Environment

Now, last step is to enable your Windows Recovery Environment, or WinRE for short, partition again by:

reagentc /disable
reagentc /enable

You may tell if your WinRE partition is back by reading the output message. In Windows RE status and Windows RE location, it will show you whether or not it found the partition and enable.

If you don’t have a WinRE Partition, you may check the Move Windows RE to Separate Partition section to create your own. I have successfully create a WinRE custom image but fail to use it with [Recovery] in [Control Panel].

After reboot, you shall be able to create a recovery drive and OneKey Recovery successfully.

If you still have problems to restore to factory default, please reference Reset your Lenovo Computer with Windows 8 for more help.

Reference

1. EaseUs Partition Master
2. Lenovo C440
3. Microsoft: Create a USB recovery drive
4. Introduction to Lenovo OneKey Recovery 8.0 for Notebooks
5. Wiki: Partition type
6. Wiki: Extended boot record
7. GParted
8. Microsoft TechNet Library: DiskPart Command-Line Options
9. Microsoft: Diskpart Batch File
10. TeraByte: Repairing the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)
11. superuser: Windows 8 Advanced Recovery Options are missing
12. sepago: Windows Recovery Environment (RE) Explained
13. Reset your Lenovo Computer with Windows 8