Help! System Recovery fail?

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I regularly make system recovery disks and today had a use for them. System boots with rescue disk in CD drive, then Windows files load from disk, then MS progress bar chugs along, then first screen with Windows background appears behind “System Recovery Options” box that asks me to “Select a keyboard input method.” It suggests “US” as appropriate, but the two buttons — “Next” (highlighted) and “Cancel” — are not responsive to any key, and no mouse cursor with which to click on either button is present. I’m using a Microsoft keyboard and mouse, which the BIOS sees before loading Windows Recovery! This occurs with all the recovery disks I’ve accumulated. Something else I might do? Is there a soft keyboard to call up and use?

Windows 7 Pro SP1 64-bit, up to date.

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… but the two buttons — “Next” (highlighted) and “Cancel” — are not responsive to any key, and no mouse cursor with which to click on either button is present

What happens if you disconnect and reconnect the keyboard and mouse at that point?

Do you have a different set (different brand) you can try?

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This is one reason why I use a 3rd party app for my Imaging chores. I always seemed to have problems getting Windows Backup and Restore to work properly.

The Windows System Recovery Disks are not the same as Images. I believe these will only help with system files. Making more than one System Recovery Disk seems counter-productive as they do not contain all the updates and apps you have made. They are made to allow you to boot into Windows to gain access to the Recovery Console. For restoring the entire system use Imaging tools like Backup and Restore. As stated I prefer the 3rd party Imaging apps as they are much more full featured and allow much more diversity in your backups.

In your case you could try a Repair Install from the Recovery Console. These basic recovery features are all that are available from the System Recovery Disk. It should also give you access to a command prompt.

Open the command prompt and type sfc /scannow (notice the blank space between sfc and /) This might find and fix some system files.

I repeat though that this will not restore your system to a pre-failure state. It might restore some system files, but not the whole system. An Image will restore the entire system including all customizations, user files, apps, everything. An Image is basically a snapshot of the entire system of the moment it is created.

There is much info in the Maintenance forum on Imaging.

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Update: with help from someone with greater tech knowledge than me and a couple hours’ troubleshooting, ended up reflashing the BIOS, which got us the keyboard and mouse back. This allowed us to get to the repair console and machine going again. And I’ll shift to imaging strategy described by Medico.

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Imaging is considered the Gold Standard to many users when it comes to backups. I consider Imaging so important that after each patch Tuesday I reimage my systems. I also back up data more often than that because my data changes more often than once per month.

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