This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair.

You may run into the following error when trying to boot on a Windows Recovery disc.

“This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of windows.”

Here are the steps to fix this error message.

Step One: Find out if your motherboard supports both UEFI Mode and Legacy Mode. Restart your computer and enter your BIOS settings. (Most Intel Boards are F1 or F2 ; Gigabyte DEL )

Step Two: Find your DVD drive in the BIOS settings. It will vary where your DVD drive is located, but it should be under the peripherals tab or boot devices.

Step Three: Make sure the DVD drive is set to whichever mode Windows was installed. If Windows was installed using UEFI make sure you set the DVD drive to UEFI. If Windows was installed using the Legacy mode make sure the DVD drive is set to Legacy.

Step Four: Ensure sure your hard drive is ranked higher in your SATA ports than your DVD drive. (Ex. Hard drive – Port 2; DVD Drive – Port 4 ). Reboot your computer once you have the changes saved.

From my experience once I had my DVD drive set to the correct mode, I was able to boot onto the Windows Recovery disc and get my computer repaired.

What if it still gives me the “This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair” error ?

The following tip worked for me one time as well. This was a RAID configuration.

Tip: Unplug one hard drive and then boot on your recovery disc. Repair your computer.

I was able to get this trick to work for me on one computer but I wasn’t able to get it this trick to work on another one. Try at your own risk.

This was posted by techspeeder. Please leave a comment or follow me on Twitter if this helped you out.

Thanks for the tips Microsoft Forums.

14 thoughts on “This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair.

  1. Amin

    This definitely helped to get into recovery options. The problems happened after Windows update. Thanks a lot for your help! I set my boot devices in order; win boot helper, windows actual disk, DVD drive uefi. And then the rest

    Reply
  2. A Wilson

    I found this very helpful too. After an abortive windows 10 tech preview installation which apparently rendered my main boot option inaccessible, I was eventually able to get it back – needed to disconnect the offending drive first though and even that initially failed to allow me to resurrect my Win 7 disc.

    Reply
  3. John

    I had this problem while working on an HP p7-1234 laptop computer with UEFI. Changing the BIOS settings did not help. The solution for me was to create a Windows 7 installation USB flash drive using Rufus. The flash drive must be created using the setting: GPT partition scheme for UEFI computer. I was then able to boot from the flash drive and launch the System Recovery Options without a problem.

    Reply
  4. Phil Stanton

    This post is great! After three days of struggling with a UEFI computer, the guidance presented here solved my problems in a few minutes. I had cloned a Windows 7 system (twice) to a second hard drive and to an SSD. I planned to delete the two HDD copies once I was sure the SSD copy was operational. The cloning process involved shrinking the original Windows partition smaller than allowable due to “unmovable” files. The cloning actually went pretty well. But then, I couldn’t convince the computer to boot the SSD. It preferred the HDDs. The Gigabyte motherboard BIOS settings were complicated and unclear. And then there was the matter of the “Windows Boot Manager”. And I couldn’t get the Windows 7 installation disk to cooperate and repair the boot record on the drives. Steps 3 and 4 of your procedure enabled me to straighten out the boot process. I first disabled the two HDDs and booted the SSD, using the install disk to repair the boot record and establish the SSD as the C: drive. Then I rebooted with one HDD re-enabled and later with both HDDs active. Now all is well and I can delete some or all of the HDD content. The SSD is crazy fast. Boot times are under 12 seconds!

    Reply
    1. theFriz

      That fixed it for me. The setting the CD drive to UEFI. Now I will make a recovery CD’ more often or at least make sure it boots.

      Reply
  5. Mike B

    Make sure you’re running the proper architecture.. x86 or x64.. I was being a dummy and loaded x86 when the unit is a 64bit. Fixed it and also used bootable USB via poweriso. Flawless victory

    Reply
  6. JaxPlanet

    Unfortunately, this was no help to me. I have a Dell Optiplex 380, which does not have UEFI so that is not the issue. I am using the same USB drive I used to install WIndows 7 for recovery and go the error 0x80070057. Then I created a System Recovery disk, which gives me the incompatible version error. The Dell-branded installation disk has the same version error. Could it be that I made the image from a SSD and I am trying to restore to a HDD?

    Reply
  7. JaxPlanet

    Please disregard my last post. I just tried to clone instead of doing an image restore to the new disk and found the source disk is GPT. I will follow John’s recommendation above.

    Reply
  8. Dave R

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! AUgust 2019 microsoft updates caused this issue, YOUR article fixed my boot/recovery option! I can now run recovery, and I only move the DVD sata connection up to the next Sata number on the board! I can’t thank you enough!

    Reply

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