Cannot make a recovery disk with recdisc.exe
I tried to make a recoevery disc with recdisc. exe but I get an error "There is no media in the CD\DVD drive The parameter is incorrect (0x80070057)"This happens to me with a writeable CD or DVD loaded.
March 7th, 2009 3:58pm

I got exactly the same thing. I am reporting it via the Send Feedback link.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 10th, 2009 1:49am

I am getting a simular message with Windows 7 RC 7100: "System repair disc could not be created- Error: 0x80070057.Tried both RW-CD's and DVD's.
May 11th, 2009 4:06am

Got a feeling that the System repairdisc setupis not a feature in the beta versions.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 11th, 2009 5:08am

I think I know why: drive letter. I think the System repair disc application is set up to run on theD: drive. If you have more than one HDDconnected during the install ofWindowsthen your CD/DVD will not wind up as drive D:. You'll have to re-configure all your drives so that your CD/DVD is the D: drive.
May 12th, 2009 3:31pm

I haven't yet tried that feature in build 7100 but it certainly doesn't work at all in Windows Vista, so it not working in Windows 7 is no surprise.John Barnett MVP: Windows XP Associate Expert: Windows Desktop Experience: Web: http://www.winuser.co.uk; Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org; Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org;
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 12th, 2009 5:07pm

If you do have a problem with it the likely reason is because (I'm almost 100% sure) the System repair discutility issetupto work with the CD/DVD = D:, maybe even E:....maybe even both since it does give you a choice of 2 drives.When I installed Windows I did so with only one HDD hooked up (I have 3 additional internal and 1 external HDD's). Afterwards, in Windows, and before I hooked up my other HDD's, I used the System repair disc utility to make up a disc and it worked. However, after I plugged my other HDD's back in I got back into Windows where I reconfigured all of my drives as such:C:----> HDDD:----> HDD2E:----> HDD3F:----> HDD4G:----> HDD5(external)H:----> CDI:----> DVDWhen I ran the System repair disc utility again I got H and I for my choices of drives and I also got the ensuing popup that the parameters were incorrect when I clicked the start button. I haven't re-configured my drive again so that my CD and DVD are reading D and/or E yet. But, again, I'm very sure when I do the System repair disc utility will work.
May 12th, 2009 6:21pm

David,I have just this minute tried to create a recovery disc with RecDisc.exe and i have to say, on my system, it works perfectly. I can even go as far as to dispel your drive letter theory. My DVD drive is H and when I created the recovery disc the recovery disc window showed my DVD-ROM as H. i inserted a blank CD, clicked the 'create disc' button and the disc was created.John Barnett MVP: Windows XP Associate Expert: Windows Desktop Experience: Web: http://www.winuser.co.uk; Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org; Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org;
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 12th, 2009 9:26pm

Derosnec,OEM's supply their own recovery disc so in answer toi your first question the answer would be 'Yes' it probably will be disabled. As for your second question I cannot image there will be a chnage in policy from Windows Vista and that Complete PC Backup will more than likely ship only on the 'higher' end versions of Windows 7. I personally don't think much of Complete PC Backup, I certainly will not be using, prefering instead to stick to Acronis True Image.John Barnett MVP: Windows XP Associate Expert: Windows Desktop Experience: Web: http://www.winuser.co.uk; Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org; Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org;
May 12th, 2009 9:31pm

RECDISC.EXE does work.2 methods:1. Boot up with the Windows 7 installation disc. When it gets to the main setup window, click on Repair in the lower left-hand corner. You'll then come up on the main Repair menu. Click on Command Prompt at the bottom. At the command prompt type in recdisc, then ENTER. You'll get the same popup as in Windows for choosing which drive letter. Have a clean CD/DVD in the drive, press start and in a few minutes you'll have a System repair disc.2. If you only have 1(one) hard-drive on your system you shouldn't have any problems making a disc. However, you may want to check to make sure that your CD/DVD is assigned letter D or E. For those who have multiple hard-drives: you're more inclined to have issues because (my theory is)the default drive assigned to make the disc is D and/or E. So all you have to do is reconfigure your drive to either D or E. UPDATE: Sorry folks. I was wrong. Reconfiguring the CD/DVD back to D or E doesn't work: just tried it on my system a moment ago. It worked earlier when I only had one HDD hooked up for the Windows 7 install.UPDATE: Sorry folks. I was wrong. Reconfiguring the CD/DVD backto D or E doesn't work. It worked earlier after a fresh install of Windows 7 and I only had one HDD drive hooked up.But the first method I described does work.>...
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 12th, 2009 9:36pm

Okay. Different installation of Windows 7 this time. I did a little experiment. I deleteda folder in the C:\Recovery folder after I had previouslybacked it up someplace else. I went back and tried to make a System repair disc and I got the 0x80070057 error message. After that I replaced the saved folder back into the C:\Recovery folder. Went back to make a System repair disc and it worked.Luckily, I had cloned this personal rendition of the Windows 7 installation where I didn't do very very much of anything totweak or delete unwanted folders andfiles. However, the latest clone was of a different rendition. I had made a few more tweaks and deleted quite a few more unwanted folders and filesincluding the folder in the C:\Recovery folder. I had deleted it thinking it was a restore point folder when in fact it is the the folder that containsall the information to make a System repair disc. I have since replaced that deleted folder with a copy of the same folder as described in the above paragraph and now the System repair disc creator works on this rendition too.If I had not saved that folder from the C:\Recovery folder the only other simple solution would be to reinstall Windows 7 all over again.
May 16th, 2009 9:41am

In case anyone's interested, this happens in the RTM. I've three hard drivers in my machine (C, D, F), with the CD/DVD as E, and I get the same error. I really can't believe in this day and age that we're tied to a fixed drive. I haven't tried the console route yet, but frankly I shouldn't have to.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 10th, 2009 11:09am

I can report success with recdisk.exe using build 7100. However, I did notice that--in my case--that I had to use a CD-R. Although I have two dual-layer DVD burners, recdisk.exe does not like to see DVD-R or DVD+R. Using any recordable DVD media yieled a dialog box that read, "System repair disk could not be created. There is no media in the device (0xC0AA0202)."It would be nice if the System Repair Disk dialog box made specific mention that a CD-R is is needed.Otherwise, all worked well.
August 10th, 2009 7:32pm

This was done on a machine running Windows 7 Build 7100. I also suffered from the error0x80070057 when creating a System Repair Disc. My DVD+-RW has the drive letter D: assigned to it. I tried writing to DVD and CD, same result. Then I tried to update the device driver, but the apparently generic driver from Microsoft dated 2006-06-21 seems to be the most recent. Then, in desperation, I decided to update the DVD firmware. After that I had no more problems creating a System Repair Disc! However, updating the firmware for the DVD includes a reboot, so I will never know if it really was the firmware update or just the reboot that did the trick.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 28th, 2009 10:52am

What's the difference betwean the recovery disk and the repair option on the windows 7 installation disk?
August 29th, 2009 6:59am

I had this same problem, with a final version of Win 7 64-bit. I did an "upgrade" from Vista with Home Premium. Everything worked fine, except for this error when trying to create a repair disc. Using Option 1 of David Lee Davis' suggestion, I succeeded, with one caveat: The windows installation disc was required to copy files for the repair -- it gave me a screen saying my installation did not have the files needed to create a repair disc! I don't know why this is happening, but (without any evidence) suspect it has to do with upgrading my HP PC with HP's OEM repair partition (no longer usable, as it's Vista) still on the system and somehow still directing Windows to look to it for this information. I have separately created a backup image of my installation, along with the newly created repair disc and so have solved the problem with this workaround. I suspect that Microsoft and HP are going to hear of this problem again and again as users upgrade to Windows 7.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 27th, 2009 7:03pm

Alternate method to make a recovery disk.1. Copy the contents of the install media to your desktop. You will see program files , souces, etc.2. Go in to the sources folder and delete the file "install.wim". You won't need it because the rest of the folders and files contain the same repair files as the recovery disk.3.Make a bootable disk ofthe folders you have on the desktop as you see abovewhich include "bootmgr" "boot" and "sources". "efi" is there for 64 bit disks and bootngr.efi will be there if it is a 64 bit disk as well otherwise just "bootmgr", "boot"and "sources". Support you can delete and you can also delete ugrade. You can delete autorun.inf becouse repair disks only work from bootup. You can delete seteup.exe for the same reason as autorun.inf. The result will be a repair disk which is the same as the one you would make with recdisc.exe except it will still give you the option to install windows and of course that won't work becouse the only data on the disk is the same as the recovery disk so that is the only difference but you will have all of the repair options as the repair disk. This will fit on one cd.Just make a bootable copy of your install dvd but don't include the file "X\sources\install.wim"
October 27th, 2009 10:39pm

Here's the correct way to fix this problem for Windows 7 (and probably Vista too!)... Open a command prompt. Type bcdedit /enum all You will see an entry (probably several) that says C:\Recovery\(some long string)\winre.wim,(same long string) Make the following directory based on the value (some long string) that is shown above. For example purposes only: md c:\Recovery\0b3447fa-c429-11de-afd2-bdec487c77bb If folder already exists, great :) Insert your Windows 7 install DVD and cancel any autorun prompts. Assumption is that D: is your CD/DVD drive - change accordingly ;-) copy d:\sources\boot.wim c:\Recovery\0b3447fa-c429-11de-afd2-bdec487c77bb\winre.wim (or just open in explorer and drag d:\sources\boot.wim to the folder on your HDD and rename it to winre.wim - this is the all important part! copy d:\boot\boot.sdi c:\Recovery\0b3447fa-c429-11de-afd2-bdec487c77bb copy d:\boot\bootfix.bin c:\Recovery\0b3447fa-c429-11de-afd2-bdec487c77bb Remember, the folder "0b3447fa-c429-11de-afd2-bdec487c77bb" will probably not be the same on your machine...run bcdedit /enum all and find the correct name of the folder from the list (which will have "C:\Recovery" and "winre.wim" in the entry) Ruin recdisc.exe and voila you can make your recovery CD/DVD ;-) Also, this may also fix problems booting to the recovery partition (100MB) using "F8" (W7 only) - at least it did for me :)
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 5th, 2009 9:25pm

I have discovered an easy solution to this bug that works for me. I've had the same problems and I'm running the finished product; Win 7 x 64 Pro. and also have the CD drives on E: and F: and neither one will create the repair CD, so I really don't think it's an issue of drive letter, at least not for me. CPU magazine has an article coming in there new issue Feb., 2010 under Software Tips and Projects which gives the following link for Tweak7. www.stardock.com/products/tweak7 I downloaded and installed and went to the Misc Tweaks \ Systems tools tabs and used the "Create a system repair disk" and it worked for me. Please let me know if this works for anyone else.
January 2nd, 2010 2:29am

Excuse me Clint, oops, I mean Harry, did this disc work?
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 7th, 2010 12:15am

klickster - YOU DE MAN! I battled this for 3 hours now and your solution worked perfectly without any glitches!
April 1st, 2010 9:35pm

I downloaded Tweak7, and tried it but still get the same error , can anyone help ?
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 28th, 2010 10:36pm

Here's the correct way to fix this problem for Windows 7 (and probably Vista too!)... Open a command prompt. Type bcdedit /enum all You will see an entry (probably several) that says C:\Recovery\(some long string)\winre.wim,(same long string) Make the following directory based on the value (some long string) that is shown above. For example purposes only: md c:\Recovery\0b3447fa-c429-11de-afd2-bdec487c77bb If folder already exists, great :) Insert your Windows 7 install DVD and cancel any autorun prompts. Assumption is that D: is your CD/DVD drive - change accordingly ;-) copy d:\sources\boot.wim c:\Recovery\0b3447fa-c429-11de-afd2-bdec487c77bb\winre.wim (or just open in explorer and drag d:\sources\boot.wim to the folder on your HDD and rename it to winre.wim - this is the all important part! copy d:\boot\boot.sdi c:\Recovery\0b3447fa-c429-11de-afd2-bdec487c77bb copy d:\boot\bootfix.bin c:\Recovery\0b3447fa-c429-11de-afd2-bdec487c77bb Remember, the folder "0b3447fa-c429-11de-afd2-bdec487c77bb" will probably not be the same on your machine...run bcdedit /enum all and find the correct name of the folder from the list (which will have "C:\Recovery" and "winre.wim" in the entry) Ruin recdisc.exe and voila you can make your recovery CD/DVD ;-) Also, this may also fix problems booting to the recovery partition (100MB) using "F8" (W7 only) - at least it did for me :) Good solution because this is nine times out of ten why the error message if the recovery folder is missing - the only thing preinstalls don't come with installation media or the win 7 DVD, so no way to create the folder but if you can dig around the companies recovery partition or factory restore disks you may find winre.wim although you may have to mount a split install image (.swm) files and it should be there. Besides, why create a recovery disk from the windows 7 DVD since it has the recovery tools on it to begin with.
May 29th, 2010 7:06am

unfortunately, the laptop did not come with win7 CD so any other solutions
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 29th, 2010 10:43am

Anyone else getting this error, as someone said above- first try using a CD rather than DVD if you are. That worked for me. Sometimes things are not so complicated.
July 15th, 2010 4:45pm

O.K. You can use WAIK http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=696dd665-9f76-4177-a811-39c26d3b3b34&displaylang=en to make a recovery disk. When you create the PE directory just slip in a recovery .wim instead of PE. It works.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
July 15th, 2010 9:21pm

I entered the command like you said but didn't see any entry that said C:\Recovery\(some long string)\winre.wim,(same long string) I have an HP G72 250US notebook running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. What else can I do to create a repair disc or to create this file using your method?
January 6th, 2011 7:22pm

The backup software DOES NOT WORK!!! Microsoft DOES NOT CARE!!!!! Obviously Vista and Windows 7 can't support backup. Microsoft has failed and ripped me off twice . I have spent weeks of time dealing with the consequences. Search the Internet and you'll find soo many people on all types of computers with fresh clean installations that have this problem. Vista's backup failed and NEVER worked. MS support tried to work with me and after 3 months of every level of tech support could not fix the problem, they told me the answer was to wait for Windows 7 for the fix. My Vista system had many major meltdowns. Having no backup or repair disk I was not able to recover and every few months I needed to spend a day rebuilding the operating system. I resisted paying $100 for an upgrade to fix a problem that should have worked in Vista. Desperation must be Microsoft's marketing plan. I broke down and bought Windows 7 Pro, installed all the updates and ran the backup "Create a system Image". It backed up to a Blu-Ray disk. At the end of the backup, Windows asked if I wanted to create a "System Repair Disk"? I selected to create one on a DVD in the Blu-Ray burner. It FAILED giving me the error number I will remember as long as I live, 0x80070057. I tried this again on the DVD burner and the same error occurred. Has anyone used a backup software that has restored Windows 7 or Vista from a major corruption? I tried Acronis and it backed up but would not restore Vista. I've considered Retrospect, has anyone used it? Thanks Nick Brown nickb201 AT gmail DOT com
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 9th, 2011 5:15pm

I found a solution at http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/ The neosmart website has Windows 7 and Vista sytem recovery disk downloads that worked for me. 1st download the uTorrent software and use it to download the Windows Vista or 7 ISO file. 2nd You'll need a disk burning software to build a disk from an ISO file. I used BurnAware. 3rd I placed the disk in my DVD drive and rebooted. Upon start-up the bios will hang for a short time asking if you want to boot from the CD DVD. Select this. 4th I was able to backup to a Blu-ray disk in Windows 7 Pro. I placed the backup Blu-Ray disk in the BD drive. When repair asked for permission to rebuild I selected the BD disk drive as a source and the repair disk software found the backup file. I was more than happy to donate for the system rebuild disk.
May 9th, 2011 11:43pm

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics