Setup Installation :: Backup And Restore User Settings In Windows 8.1?
Jan 13, 2014
I used to use Windows Easy Transfer to backup my settings and files before reinstalling/reimaging...etc - now that doesn't exist, and File History really doesn't cut it when it comes to apps and settings.
A system image really won't work either, as I need to reinstall windows 8.1 on a new system with different partitioning...etc.
Are there any Windows 8.1 native tools that will do it? If not, are there any freeware apps that perform the equivalent?
I have checked out Paragon Backup and Recovery (more all-or-nothing) and D7 (freeware version doesn't have automated restore - but it does create registry dumps...hmmm) but neither seems to work as simply/well as WET used to.
I have tried just saving the User profile folder, but unfortunately, that doesn't save anything that's in the registry (outlook profiles, app settings...etc).
My computer has been running fairly slow lately, and I want to do a full system restore. I've done this on my old Windows 7 computer with no problems, but I can't seem to do it with Windows 8.1.
My laptop didn't come with an installation disk, Windows 8 was already installed when I got it. And I can't seem to make a recover partition drive.
Final steps in my recovery process. I'm running a Windows 8 recovery disc off of a USB, and I'm trying to restore, refresh, reset, anything at this point.
But I go into all the troubleshooting options and advanced options and it doesn't allow me to "choose a target operating system" as nothing appears such as my Windows 8.
I'm on an Asus laptop, I've backed-up my files to an external hdd, so at this point I just want to get my laptop running again.This all started with the "automatic repair loop" to which I've used EasyRE to purchase a recovery disc, backed up my files, and now I'm at this point where I can't finalize the process.
Also how should I be booting from a USB properly?I hold F2 on start up, switch to "Boot" and set "Launch CSM" to Enabled. Then switch to "Security" and set "Secure Boot Control" to Disabled. Then restart and hold Esc for the Boot menu and boot from the USB.
I'm willing to do whatever to simply reset my laptop. Tried everything that I've found, text in that black command box (I'm really not too flash with computers) like the chkdsk and it all came out fine. It's just when I go to try to recover/restore/reset ANYTHING when I've booted from the USB it tells me there isn't an operating system to do so from.
I just bought a new Gateway laptop that's come pre-installed with Windows 8.
I've just gone through the initial setup and before I use it, need to make the initial Windows 8 and system backup incase I need to restore the system should something go wrong.
I want to do this BEFORE anything (I've not even installed any anti-virus yet)...
Have just purchased this; HP Pavilion g6-2210sa 15.6" Laptop - Red Deals | Pcworld Upon hearing that I was up for the challenge of setting it up myself, the sales assistant pointed out that the very first thing I must do is back up the OS (windows 8).
I asked, 'oh, is the OS on a hidden partition?' .. and he said no, its in the BIOS. And I only have one chance to make a back-up copy, as soon as I switch on. Also; if I have software issues after that point, but haven't backed up the OS, I can't claim it under the manufacturer's warranty as an issue.
I believe that the .. key? .. is in the bios now, so I never have to worry about losing it, but apart from that .. egad.
Is there an auto-prompt, or do I need to do a regular ol' back-up .. and where do I back it up to, a separate hard drive/dvd etc?
So. I have this shiny, new, laptop. In it's shiny, new, unopened box, right now. And am starting to wonder if I should have coughed up the £50 to get 'em to set it up for me..!
the hard disk of a Samsung Ultra 5 crashed. I have got a new hard disk. How do i restore windows 8 and Samsung drivers to the new hard disk? My friend has an exact notebook. How do i copy the recovery partition from his pc and use it on mine?
I will be receiving a new laptop shortly, namely the Yoga 13, whose SSD is partitioned into no less than 8 partitions from the factory. I suppose the first thing I'd like to do is backup the entire drive with all its original partitions before I start messing with it. I've heard good things about the free version of Paragon, so I think I will use that with their USB boot key. Questions:
1. Would I indeed be able to restore the factory SSD *exactly* the way it was prior to backing up the entire disk, partitions and all, from an external USB drive?
2. How is a backup/restore related to the GPT table of the GPT disk? In other words, if I plan to wipe the disk and re-install Windows 8 from media, doesn't this Windows 8 install write to the GPT table? And if so, would a restore of the factory disk also restore that GPT table?
My mom purchased a Windows 8 Dell laptop that was a store display. I want to reset it to factory default settings but I don't have a CD or drive...is there any way to accomplish this without the CD?
I'm currently running Windows 8 that my laptop came with. I decided to wait for the official 8.1 release in October instead of the Preview.
I have a lot of Calendar reminders on my Windows 8 Stock Calendar and I was wondering when I upgrade to 8.1, will those reminders disappear?
I'm asking this because I've been reading a lot of articles that you have to re-install your apps and settings after the update.
Although you probably can't confirm this until it has released (I guess). Has any user lost their reminders on when they switched from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 Preview?
my OS is Windows 8.1 64-bit. It boots just fine, but I suddenly found out that something wrong happened with my BCD store. Tried more workarounds but none worked. The last I found How To Restore Windows 8 Boot Options Menu ended on bcdedit error mentioned below. The problem indicates with following signs:
- bcdedit /enum prints error "The boot configuration data store could not be opened."
- bcdboot C:windows prints error "BFSVC Error: BcdOpenSystemStore failed with unexpected error code, Status
= [c000015c]"
- msconfig's boot tab shows empty OSes list (nothing on the tab is clickablle)
- the same with System Properties, Advanced tab, Startup and Restore dialog (OS dropdown has no entries)
- Trying to enter diagnostic boot by Shft + Restart doesnot seem to offer full recovery menu. It boots to GUI boot menu offering Continue or Troubleshooting, Troubleshooting submenu offers Manage UEFI options (this brings me to BIOS setup after reboot) and Shut down. No manage boot options, no other choices.
All of this point me to that my booting configuration is somehow ill (I wonder a bit that Windows still can start).
I installed Windows 8 and noticed it still had a version of Windows 7 Backup & Restore.
When I installed Windows 8.1 RTM, it looks like they removed it. I've been using it on Windows 7 x64 for a while and it has saved my skin a few times.
I did a Google search and basically found that if you install Windows 8 first, then upgrade to 8.1 RTM, it leaves Backup & Restore available. I want to install 8.1 RTM directly, is there any way to install Backup & Restore or keep it somehow?
I have a USB HDD for my laptop (About 1TB). If worse comes to worse, is it possible to restore from System Image that I create on that USB HDD, or does it have to be a USB flash drive?
I purchased a new laptop with windows 8 and used the options in windows 8 to create recovery media and chose the usb drive option. I was wondering if I would be able to copy the files in the usb drive onto my external HD; then if I ever need them I could put them back onto a usb drive and reinstall windows 8. I took a screenshot of the files on the usb drive.
My son decided to reset his windows 8 laptop to original factory settings, during the reset process his mom decided it was taking to long and turned off the laptop.
Now when its turned on it shows the message "restoring your computer", this message will then change to "diagnosing your computer", the screen will then go blank and it start all over again.
I can boot it from a USB drive, but when I click on "repair" i get an error message that it cant repair the computer. When i try to run restore from the USB I get a similar message.
is there anyway to run the system restore from the DOS prompt?
Whenever I press restart on my windows 8.1 pc. Windows thinks it needs to start a new user profile on my profile. It says its installing apps and ready to start. Then None of my apps are present and my desktop is clear and nothing works. THen If I power off and leave it off for 30 minutes it works as if nothing happened and my user profile has all the apps and icons on the desktop again.
This only happens if I press restart in windows. It does not happen when I power off. What is going on with my windows 8.1...
I'm mostly a Linux user, but I recently bought a laptop with Windows 8 on it. After a few days dual booting I decided it wasn't for me, so I decided to delete the windows partitions and usa just Linux. I would like, however, to keep the recovery partition, so to be able to easily reinstall Windows again if I felt like I needed to, but I'm not sure what partitions should I keep. Here's a picture of my hard drive partitions as of now:
Do I need more than the restore partition? Can I get rid of the boot one? What about the recovery one? And the one flagged msftres?
trying to reset to factory settings my Dell Inspiron 660s that uses Windows 8. Some how my ex had downloaded a interface to make Windows 8 look like windows 7. It has virus on it that I just want to reset it. I have tried to reset thru going thru change pc settings-to general-to recovery. It gives me an error code of 800....???. So I restart it, hit F12 brings up a boot window where my options are Boot Manger (clicking on this takes me back to my desktop) Boot Setup is the 2nd options, then Diagnostics (which I have run and says nothing is wrong then takes me to my desktop) then I forget what the last option is.
When I click photos a screen comes up that says the following "All your photo sources are hidden.to show some change your settings" What do I need to correct this so when I click photos the photos are shown?
I have dual booted my lappy with win7 ultimate and Windows 8 pro using vhd.i have installed windows8 on vhd,but due to that i can't use the fast start and system rating in Windows 8.so i want to restore my Windows 8 vhd to my hardisk. I have 4 partitions on my hardisk i can use any one of them to recover win 8.
I have Win 7 installed on an SSD with all other files on separate disks. (User files, etc) Can I also install, to dual boot, Win 8 and point everything to the same user files on the same separate disks?
I have the famous blue screen of death for the first time. I am using windows 8.1. Every time I try to boot into my rig, it says that:"windows has encountered some problems and need to restart". I am using another computer to write this message but most of all I have absolutely no clue how to resolve the issue. Restore Points were turned off in the rig to save space - Not my idea but it is what it is I have no back up - I am starting my rig and as soon as I get to the log in screen, the unit restart to a blue screen. I have a couple of options but most of them can't since I have no back up and no restore point.
When the rig restarts, I land on a blue page with 1 continue 2 troubleshoot 3 turn off your PC I choose 2 (because of tools). Then I have: 1 Refresh you PC: I need the refresh more than my PC 2 Reset your PC. It says if you want to remove all your files. Definitely not what I want to do. 3 Advanced options I choose 3 and then I get: 1 System Restore: No restore point so useless 2 System Image Recovery: No backup so useless 3 Start Up Repair: Tried that but no go 4 Command prompt: Tried that but I have no clue on how to move forward once on command prompt. 5 Start Up Behavior I picked that one and went option 1 to 4. 4 being the option that allowed to log into the unit in safe mode. Once I am in Safe Mode what should I be doing ?
I want to do a clean install of windows 8, then reinstall windows 8.1, is it possible to save my settings before the install and reinstall them after I reinstalled windows 8?
I have a HP Envy x2, with Windows 8 pre-installed. After I upgraded to Windows 8.1, I started to notice many problems such as; the tablet wouldn't start all the time, the secure boot was disabled (but I fixed that), the app store doesn't work all the time, and Windows Update can't check for updates. The HP did not come with a recovery thumb drive or DVD. And I need "recovery media" to be able to refresh/reset my PC. I have tried multiple times to create a recovery drive, but my "Key" for Windows 8.1 is not valid and I do not know where my Windows 8 "Key" is.
I would like to reinstall Win 8 on my ASRock UEFI motherboard in the UEFI mode. I have Win 7 OEM and the downloaded Win 8 Pro upgrade. I have the Win 8 Pro upgrade burned to an ISO disc. I also have the hard drive backed up to Acronis 2013 and have an Acronis WinPE rescue disc to boot with to restore.
Several questions. (1) If I convert to UEFI and format the drive to GPT, will Acronis restore to the GPT (from MBR)? (2) If Acronis won't restore, will converting to UEFI/GPT affect installing or activating the Win 7 OEM and/or the Win 8 Pro upgrade (I assume I'll have to install Win 7 and then upgrade to Win 8). (3) Will a UEFI system read other hard drives that are MBR formatted?
I have 10 computers with identical hardware that all have their own oem license. What I want is to have the same setup on all 10 computers. What I remember from previous Windows versions is that you had to activate Windows individually with its own oem key for every computer you restored with a preferred disk image. From what I read the product key procedure is a bit different in Windows 8 and that the key is stored in the bios? The activation should also be handled automatically by Windows, is that correct?
So what I really wonder is: Do I still have to activate every restored pc manually or will Windos 8 do this for me?
A second related question: Are there any imaging/cloning software that can be set up to promt me for a new computer name in the restore process?
I want to upgrade my Windows 7 home premium to windows 8 pro, but I have multiple user accounts on this PC. Will it keep all files, settings and applications for all users?
Edit: for the upgrade I will be using the Windows 8 Pro .iso file from the MSDN
