jackmang wrote:
Note: This post is specific to the Windows 8 G75 model, it don't think it applies to Windows 7.

I bought the G75 with windows 8 installed last week. It came with a 750GB drive and I intended to replace with an SSD. I bought a Samsung 840 Pro and proceeded to attempt to clone the 750GB drive to it since there is no recovery media included with the WIndows 8 distribution (and no way to create the media as there was in previous Windows 7 models). I do have my own Windows 8 media available from a previous computer, but not from ASUS. I used the free version of Macrium Reflect and cloned all partitions except for the 😧 partition which was empty anyway.

After the clone I removed the old drive and booted the SSD. Awesome, no problems apparent. SUPER FAST BOOT process. Later I decided to test that the recovery partition would boot properly. I rebooted and pressed F9. Doh! It immediately crashed to a screen saying something similar to the below:
Recovery
Your PC needs to be repaired\
A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed.
Error code: 0xc0000225

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for Start-up Settings
Press Esc for UEFI Firmware Settings

Pressing Enter or F8 resulted in additional clarification of:
The application or operating system couldn't be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors.
File: \Windows\system32\winload.efi
Error code: 0xc0000225

I figured no big deal, just reboot normally. Nope, it did the same thing saying I needed recovery. No efforts I tried would enable it to reboot. I was ready to reinstall the 750GB and start over when I found this post:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-system/i-get-your-pc-needs-to-be-repaired...

It wasn't exactly the same scenario, but I followed the suggestion to boot from the install CD (remember, I had one from a previous system):
Boot from a Windows 8 Recovery Media...
Trouble Shoot -> Advanced Options -> Command Prompt
CMD> bootrec /scanos
CMD> bootrec /rebuildbcd
CMD> bootrec /fixmbr
CMD> bootrec /fixboot
Reboot.

I tried this procedure and it was magically fixed! Awesome, but clearly the F9 recovery method was non-functional. I still have not determined how to properly fix my system so that the recovery partition will boot on F9. It appears to me that when you press F9 it must remap the boot process temporarily to launch recovery (failing in my case). I would guess that when that is working properly it will remap the boot back to C:, but this isn't happening since the recovery partition doesn't actually launch. This is just my guess and could be completely wrong. I did press F9 again to ensure that it was the cause of the problem and it happened exactly the same and I fixed it again with no problem other than wasted time.

I do have a functional system, minus the recovery functionality, but I have this fear of mistakenly recreating the problem somewhere down the road and being without a handy recovery DVD to perform the fix.

So, my questions:
1 - Has anyone successfully imaged/cloned a Windows 8 G75 and been able to retain the recovery functions? If so, what did I do wrong?
2 - Does anyone know how to fix what I am describing so that the recovery partition actually works?
3 - Does anyone understand what exactly F9 does to remap the boot process?

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jackmang wrote:
Note: I used the free version of Macrium Reflect and cloned all partitions except for the 😧 partition which was empty anyway.