I recently got a TF600T. Sadly, I lost its password! So it's practically useless, as I can't get pass the lockscreen. There are some ways to recover the device: factory reset and re-flashing. Unfortunately, factory reset failed me for some reasons, while re-flashing wouldn't work as I didn't back up the original image.
After spending 2 weeks trying to understand Windows RT recovery system (most of the regards go to xda-developers forum), I've finally figured out how to restore my TF600T! :)
This post summarizes what I learned and provides the steps to recover your TF600T. Hope you can benefit from this
Important Notes:
- You can restore your TF600 even if you forgot to make a recovery image. For this, you'll have to use someone else's image. And fortunately, it's available here.
- You may not be able to use TF600TG or other variants' images on TF600T. How'd you check if you're using a proper image? Just try it! If it's incompatible, your device will simply refuse to boot with a certain error code. I spent a week to realize I was using a wrong image! The tricky part is that you'd still be able to enter recovery mode even with an incompatible image! Looks like the recovery image uses some kind of generic drivers?
- The USB drive that you would use for recovery has to have GPT partition table and is formatted to FAT32. I personally used GParted on Linux for this. How'd you check that you do this properly? Try getting into USB recovery mode. If you can't, chances are you didn't format your drive correctly.
Different modes and how to enter them:
1. Normal Mode:
a. Push power button
2. USB Recovery Mode:
a. Plug in a properly partitioned USB drive that has a proper image
b. Press and hold vol-down button when powering the device on. Keep holding the vol-button down until ASUS logo is shown. If you do this correctly, you'll get to a screen that prompts you for a language. If you don't see this, maybe there's a problem with your USB drive or the image on it.
3. Recovery Mode:
a. You can only go here if you have a proper installed OS
b. Push power button
c. Wait until you get to login screen
d. While holding the "Shift" keyboard-button, tap the power icon, and select restart
P.S. Recovery Mode is useful if you have a working operating system and also a recovery image specific to it. In this guide, we'll be using USB Recovery Mode to restore the device.
Steps:
1. Download the image that apatcas (from xda-developers) generously provided:
http://www.alexpatcas.com/vivort.rar
or from my mirror:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7ufsmtTr_EjbVdQbVVJS19wX1U
2. Prepare a recovery USB drive
a. The image from (1) is 4.2GB, so you need at least that much of space
b. Format and partition your drive as GPT. If you're using Linux, I suggest using GParted. Instruction is as follow:
- Open GParted
- Select your USB drive from the dropdown on top right.
- Select "Device" -> "Create partition table" -> "GPT"
- Format the partition to FAT32 filesystem
c. Extract and paste the image from (1) onto the drive. You should see "boot", "sources", and "efi" directories on the top-level directory.
3. Prepare partitioning script to be run on your TF600T "USB Recovery Mode"
Save the script below as "X:\recovery.txt" (change X to your USB drive):
select disk 0
clean
convert gpt
create partition primary size=350
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows RE tools"
assign letter="T"
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
create partition efi size=260
format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
assign letter="S"
create partition msr size=128
create partition primary
shrink minimum=3072
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
assign letter="W"
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery image"
assign letter="R"
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
list volume
4. Enter "USB Recovery Mode" on your TF600T
5. Select English, select "Troubleshoot", select "Advanced", and select "Command Prompt"
6. Type: "diskpart"
7. On diskpart terminal, type: "list volume".
8. Remember the letter for your USB drive, on this tutorial, we'll refer to this as "X".
9. Quit from diskpart terminal by pressing "ctrl+c"
10. Format and partition your TF600T properly. Type: "diskpart /s X:\recovery.txt" (replace X with your USB drive)
11. Flash the image on your USB drive onto your TF600T:
- Type: "dism /apply-image /imagefile:X:\sources\install.wim /index:1 /applydir:W:"
- Grab a cup of coffee or two while waiting.
- Type: BOOTREC /FIXMBR
- Type: BOOTREC /FIXBOOT
- Type: BOOTREC /SCANOS
- Type: BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD
- Type: bcdboot w:\windows
14. Boot to windows normally! Enjoy!
Where I originally post this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=60536721&postcount=127