How to fix recovery partition error without disk?

If the system came with Win 8.1 it was probably configured as UEFI.  The recovery image would be for 8.1 and links to it were probably overwritten by your downgrade.

The SSD and HDD run in a Raid configuration during acceleration.  If it is still in that configuration, you will not be able to see the SSD in Disk Management.

If it only happens during boot from power down there may be a driver situation not being loaded correctly.

You also may need to reset the acceleration using the Intel panel in the hidden icons on the taskbar.

But are you wanting to do anything other than get your system working again?  Are you looking to upgrade to Win 10?

The recovery partition is stored on the hard drive, which from the sound of it, has failed.

If you have not prepared a set of recovery media, you will need to call Dell customer support - they'll generally sell you a set for about $20-25 for out of warranty systems.

You'll need that along with a new hard drive to get the system going again.  The recovery media will take care of reloading the OS to the hard drive;  setting up IRST again (the cache scheme) can be done AFTER you've go Windows installed and working.

ejn63- thanks for taking the time to help. I might suspect the HD going bad as well, except it only happens on a power down, then power up. And I can get around the error just by hittiing cntl-I, then exiting and letting the boot continue. It never fails on just a reboot. I haven't had any issue once the system is running, can see all data without a problem, and all diagnostics report the drives pass (don't know if that means much). Guess I'll have to bite the bullet and buy the Win7 recovery disks.

Thanks again.

Bill

Salt- the system was delivered with Win7 installed, but licensed for upgrade to Win8 (back before win10 was free). So I didn't actually do a downgrade.

The drives are reported as non-raid during reboot(when it sees both HD and SSD). Once booted the Intel RST SW shows the drive as RAID (SATA), and reports all working properly. The storage view shows my 1.8TB disk, accelerated, and the 30GB SATA_Array Cache volume. I'd send a screen capture but can't figure how to attach an image.

FWIW, I have run all of the Dell diagnostics (stress and normal) and no errors are reported. All drives pass. All drivers up to date.

I really appreciate the help. If I never did a power down, I might not know there is an issue. Unfortunately, that is necessary every now and then.

Thanks again Salt.

Bill

You might also check for a bios upgrade for the system.

Along with that, driver updates for anything.  Microsoft continues to tweak Windows 7 and one of those updates may be involved.

Bios appears to be the latest, and all drivers up to date. Thanks though, good thought.

The first thing you should do is run Dell [F12] preboot diagnostics:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/f12-preboot-diagnostics/ 

If they pass you should then prepare Windows Installation Media (set it up for a UEFI Boot).

Next you need to Download Windows Installation Media. You have a Windows 8.1 Pro License (UEFI BIOS SLP Key) with OEM Downgrade Rights to Windows 7 Pro. This means you can either Download and Install Windows 7 Pro, Windows 8.1 Pro or Windows 10 Pro (Free Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro - recommended). For Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows 10 Pro (Windows 8.1 Pro keys act as Windows 10 Pro keys) the installation media will pickup your UEFI BIOS System Locked Preinstallation key during installation. For Windows 7 Pro you need to use OEM System Locked Preinstallation as you have no unique 25 digit product key for Windows 7, this is essentially an install with a generic product key leading to offline BIOS based Product Activation.

To Download Windows 10 or Windows 7 Installation Media from Microsoft follow my guides here:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-windows-10-oem-and-retail-iso/ 

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/windows-7-sp1-iso-download/ 

In either case you want to make installation media using the GPT partition scheme for a UEFI BIOS.  For a Windows 7 install, you should follow the instructions in the guide to update your installation media to include the convenience rollup, IE11, NVMe support and USB 3.0 support...

Once you have installation media you should ensure your SATA operation is set to AHCI. I would recommend removing the mSATA SSD and getting a 512 GB 2.5 " SSD and installing on that. This will give you vastly superior performance...

If you stick to the mSATA SSD cache drive then use Diskpart to Clean the mSATA SSD and Clean All the HDD. See here:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/cleaning-up-a-drive-format-vs-secure-wipe-ssd-and-hdd/ 

You should then modify your UEFI BIOS setup in accordance to the HDD/SSD drive configuration you have and version of Windows you are going to install. See here for details:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/uefi/ 

Philip,

I really appreciate the time you put into this response, sounds like a great plan, albeit somewhat out of my comfort zone (not an IT guy).

I will reread, have a drink, and maybe go for it. I have a full data backup, so not too worried about losing much.

The Dell Recovery and Backup program was reporting the Recovery partition was corrupt or missing. I thought about reinstalling that just to see if it would trigger something, but the installation from the Dell website was taking forever, got me worried about what it was doing, so I killed it. System still seems to be running ok, but still fails on cold boot.

Many thanks.

Bill

Yep. Ran this several times, just to be sure. Everything passed, no errors.

Thanks.

Have you run a full hardware diagnostic (including an extended test on the hard drive)?  F12 at powerup to get to the diagnostics.

Hang on a nanosec...

When was last time you replaced the motherboard battery? If this only happens during a cold boot and the battery is dead, BIOS has reverted to its default settings. AHCI is the default, not RAID so the HDD won't be seen.

So before you do anything further, replace the motherboard battery. It's a 3-volt CR2032 3-volt lithium battery, ~$2 at discount stores.

Then reboot and press F2 to go into BIOS setup. Change SATA operation to RAID and be sure to save the change before exiting setup. Allow it to boot and see if that solves the prob.

Even if it doesn't solve the prob, you'll have ruled the battery out for very little cost.

Ah, never even occurred to me. I've never needed to replace one in all my years, but another good idea, I suppose it happens.

I can at least measure the voltage or possibly change out the batt with one from another system since I don't have a spare on hand.

Ah, never even occurred to me. I've never needed to replace one in all my years, but another good idea, I suppose it happens.

They seemed to last "forever" in old  systems, but with the newer ones, maybe ~2-3 years for a decent quality battery.

I can at least measure the voltage or possibly change out the batt with one from another system since I don't have a spare on hand.

That assumes the other system has a good battery of the right size...

You can probably find one at the nearest drug store or discount store...

Checked voltage of batt in "working" older system at 2.96V (CR2032). Checked voltage of batt in the newer "problem" system at 3.21V, so I'm thinking the batt is okay. I checked in the BIOS to see if I could find a "DELAY" setting for the boot sequence after power up (thought I read that might exist), but didn't see one. So, still fails on cold start, works fine on warm start. Good idea though. Thx.

Ran the preboot diagnostics. Everything passed. The diagnostics got to 95% relatively quick. The last 5% was the HDD diagnostics, which took hours. It kept flashing a super-quick message "waiting for DST to complete", but eventually did.

I will now look at downloading the Win7 OS.

I looked at upgrading the SSD, they range wildly in price, and wonder if it's worth paying top dollar if it's only used for caching.

Still fails on cold start, works fine in warm start(reboot).

Thanks. I'll keep plugging away, just won't shut it down for now.