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.
View 5 RepliesI 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?
If you have a recovery drive - that includes the recovery partition - made on one computer, but have a toshiba laptop with a bad drive (but the recovery partition is ok), can you replace/copy the partition on the recovery drive with the recovery partition from the bad laptop HD?
My friend's laptop would not boot, and would not factory recover, reset, or refresh. I tried to clone the hard drive before I started messing with the disc. It would not clone, but I was able to copy the recovery partition to a USB drive.
He never make recovery discs, so could not re-install, but I can borrow the recovery drive that my aunt made for her laptop.
I just purchased an Asus R510CC notebook with windows 8 and I bought a SSD drive to replace the current one.
I used Recovery Drive in Windows to create an USB boot drive with the recovery partition on it. I then installed the SSD and booted from the USB. When I get to the option to reset my computer I encounter an error with the following message: "Unable to reset PC. A required drive partition is missing". I already did a bit of research and BIOS tweaking but I can't install Windows onto my SSD.
I have a brand new system with an OEM version of Windows 8 installed (Core not Pro)
ASUS CM 6870
2 TB HD
16 TB RAM
ASUS P8H77-M Pro Motherboard
The new system works well but I have also purchased an OCZ Vector 256GB SSD and intend to install it as my primary hard drive.
ASUS didn't and will not supply a recovery disk.
ASUS provides an activation key for a downloadable version of Acronis True image. I tried that but their version is not compatible with Windows 8. I managed to get a newer version but it didn't recognize that the SSD was installed.
Next, I used Win 8 to make a recovery drive USB drive thinking that I would be able to do a clean install of Win with it. I had the 2TB HD disconnected and the SSD installed but the recovery drive refused to install Win 8. I either got the message "The drive where windows is installed is locked. Unlock and try again." or "The drive is too small to format" (the wording on the last may not be exact)
I was able to "find" a Windows 8 ISO file. I burned it to a DVD and was able to install Win 8 but it was not a UEFI installation. There were only 2 SSD HD partitions: 1. System Reserved - 350 MB NTFS. 2. 238.13 GB NTFS Healthy.
I then deleted these volumes and followed the UEFI installation instructions in the thread:
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with
Windows installed but it was not a UEFI installation. I got the same partitions as above. At step 6, I only saw the 2 partitions. I tried this process twice with the same results.
The USB stick was prepared using the instructions in this thread:
UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows
I think that the USB drive should have had 4 partitions on it but it only has one:
7.47 GB FAT32 Healthy.
My Acer Aspire A7600U-UR24 came with windows 8. I made a recovery drive by choosing "create recovery drive" in windows 8. After making the drive i installed windows 8.1 from DVD. Some time later I tried to restore it back to factory with my recovery usb. Every time I try I get "windows cannot find a system image on this computer" even though my flash drive is plugged in. I tried booting from the drive, doesn't seem to work. Not sure if my windows 8.1 version not being activated has anything to do with it (I installed 8.1 on 2 computers from the same dvd didn't realize i couldn't do that) . but I think I should still be able to boot from the drive.
I was thinking if the problem is my flash drive, can I somehow transfer the system image from one flash drive to another?
Here's the screens: at this point there should be an option for windows 8 but there's not.
I recently did an update of my machine from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1. The update process did not show any errors or warnings and by the time it finished I was under the impression that everything went smooth.
After the update I was testing the environment and discovered that one of my desktop applications stopped working, I went to the developer's website and indeed I found there is a known issue with their software on 8.1 and to solve it, I had to completely uninstall the software and then install it once more. So I went to Programs and Features in order to do so and to my surprise the Uninstall button was missing from the interface. Right-clicking an item and selecting uninstall from the menu gives a warning message suggesting that the application might have already been uninstalled and asks if I wanted to remove the application from the Programs list. However, clicking OK or Cancel just closes the message box and nothing happens.
So I went and tried to Refresh My PC; Once I clicked Refresh My PC the verification process started and indeed it told my that some system files are missing and that it should take care of it provided I insert my Windows disc. Now since its an OTA update from Win 8 to 8.1 I thought that MS knows that some people will not have a physical copy of 8.1 and so I inserted my Windows 8 Pro System Builder disc hoping it would work, but sadly as you might have guessed, it did not. It told me that I needed the 8.1 recovery disc.
Now I have been looking everywhere for a recovery image to download and use to fix my problem, everywhere I go it suggests that I make my own copy. But how am I supposed to do that if my Windows is faulty and has missing files. I really don't wanna go back to Windows 8 and re-upgrade to 8.1. I have a monitored internet bandwidth and I cannot go and download the 3 GB 8.1 update once more.
How can I repair my 8.1 machine?
I came across this article describing how to get an ISO image for 8.1 with a Windows 8 product Key. However, entering my Windows 8 Pro System Builder (OEM) key in the box fails and tells me that the key I entered is not for this product.
I purchased a Lenovo laptop with Windows 8 Pro preinstalled. It came with 500 GB HDD. I changed the DVD Rom with SSD/HDD tray to use for additional drive. I put an SSD in there and installed Windows 8 on it using a USB Recovery Drive, which I don't have anymore. So my current setup looks like this:
After upgrading to Windows 8.1, the license of some software I'm using got messed up and I couldn't manage fixing it, so the only option I've got left is to reinstall/reset Windows. But since the Recovery partition is on another drive, when I go about creating a Recovery Drive, the option "Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive" is greyed out. I've got stuff on my HDD, which I can't currently backup so I don't wan't to format that drive. I'm perfectly fine with formatting the SSD, that's what I want.
How can I reinstall/reset my Windows? The only option I see is to install Windows on the Hard Drive (by doing a backup and formatting it first), and then create a usb recovery drive and reinstall again on the SSD, but that's a lot of hassle and I'd need to find an external hard drive for the backup.
I intentionally left the Hard Drive in the original bay (as Disk 0) because of the better protection against falling compared to the added bay in place of the DVD drive.
I need to delete a recovery partition off my second hard drive. I've seen this link: Delete and Remove to Unlock EISA Hidden Recovery or Diagnostic Partition in Vista - My Digital Life but it's for Vista and the final command "delete partition override" doesn't work in diskpart. It comes up saying "The specified command or parameters are not supported on this system"
Yes, I really do want to delete the recovery partition because it's on my secondary HDD, I still have the recovery partition on my C: so I'm really not losing anything ....
just upgraded to 8 from XP. I have a recovery drive for XP. Can I reformat this recovery drive so I can use it to install & recover Windows 8 instead if I have a problem in the future?
View 1 Replies View RelatedI bought a brand new Acer Aspire xc600 today and it had Windows 8 installed. First thing me and my husband did was to try to install win7 (as we dislike Windows 8 for many reasons)... When it didnt work with just putting in the cd and install, we (stupidly without making recovery discs as we thought we would never need it) formated the drive and made it completely clean before installing win7 (which works now). This means we have no Windows 8 recovery disc or E-recovery management program and therefor cant do factory reset and return this piece of crap pc... (We play world of warcraft and my 7year old pc has only been updated once when it comes to graphic card to geforce 9800 and still perform better outside the game).
The performance test of the whole system give the graphics a lousy 5.0 which is worse than my husbands 3yr old graphic card as well! Only numbers that have increased is the RAM and CPU.
I feel disappointed as the graphics card should be better than mine or my husbands and have better performance even if its the "laptop sized card".
So to the issue, is there a way we could restore/reinstall the computer to factory settings with Windows 8 and Acers drivers as it was when we started it up earlier today?
Basically at the moment i am using Windows 7 Home and will be upgrading to Windows 8.1 in about a weeks time. I currently have Windows 7 installed on a 60Gb SSD and i have a secondary 500Gb Seagate Barracuda for other files. What i am wondering is if i clean install Windows 8 onto the SSD only will i still be able to use the 2nd drive in Windows 8? Basically this drive has a fair amount of music / videos etc and i would like to make to make sure i can use these. I would like to do a clean install and not an upgrade btw.
View 3 Replies View RelatedHow to clean up the windows containing hard drive from everything but the system files, because I upgraded my windows and not installed it to a clean hard drive. I have a lot of unneeded files. How to do it, without reinstalling windows.
View 3 Replies View RelatedHave just bought a laptop which is installed with Windows 8.
How to go about making some recovery discs. What files need to be downloaded and how many discs do I need.
I have a Lenovo Z710 laptop(see spec's)and want to make a recovery USB and also setup a backup system. This is a new machine and I don't want to make a mess of it.
I have a 32GB USB drive to make the Recovery on.Lenovo refers me to this method to make a Recovery USB :Methodology to create Recovery Media and reload a Lenovo Think system with Microsoft Windows 8 preload
Is this a good way to do this or is there a better way ?
I also need to setup a backup system, what is the best program to use for this, paid or not ?
I have a 1TB HDD in an external enclosure with 3.0 USB cable to use for the backup's.
I'm not sure how far reaching this is but I just noticed that when I select a folder and type a file name in the search bar on the right of the address bar, files are found on my backup drive, which is attached by USB to the PC, this drive is attached because it contains other partitions for file storage.
The folder in this case was on the desktop and it shows that it is on C: Drive, but files were found on the H: Drive which is where I run my backup to.
When I un-attach the H drive the files found do not respond to left or right click.
My system: dell inspiron 14R 5421
O.S. Windows 8.1
Dell Backup and Recovery 1.7.1.2
All software updated
Dell Backup and Recovery software has not been able to detect or use "the second dvd blank disk" on my computer.
I built my own PC last year and I've done several OS upgrades in that time frame. First I started with windows 7 basic which I then promptly upgraded to 7 ultimate because my university offered upgrades for $7. I then upgraded to 8 when it first came out and then 8.1 too. I put a new SSD in my PC and copied all my 8.1 data on to it I then turned the old SSD in to a second boot drive for OS X. I'm having problems with 8.1. I wanted to create a repair drive to hopefully root out and fix whatever is causing windows explorer to crash. It's not a virus I've made sure of that. I have a feeling whatever caused this happened when I upgraded to 8.1 and then copied over the SSD. What my product key is for 8.1 pro i just found the email microsoft sent me with my windows 8 key but i have no disc.
when i followed the instructions to make a recovery drive it told me that some of the required files are missing and to use a windows installation disc or media which is a problem because all my windows 8 upgrades have been done online.
also my PC currently doesn't have a disc drive i removed it because i only ever used it to install windows 7 basic.
Tonight I used a program called Windows Hotfix Downloader to integrate the 3 updates for Win 8.1 with success. However it gave me folders and not an .iso. I was able to make an .iso with Power Iso but it says non bootable image. In the past I know I used a program to do this with XP,Vista,and Win 7. I tried to follow Power Isos instructions to do it but what to select when it asks for add boot info and wants a source what to put? I just can't remember what easy program I used in the past to make a bootable iso from files. It's not rufus or yumi...they will make a bootable USB. I was able to manually make a UEFI Bootable USB manually and copying the folders over to the flash but still want a bootable iso for archive.
View 7 Replies View RelatedI am trying to create recovery discs from "Dell backup and Recovery application" however when i was asked to insert the second DVD,the optical drive keeps rejecting the DVD. The application will not continue to burn the second DVD and appears to be frozen. I tried with different brands/makers of DVD and also -/+ R. Unfortunately .Issue remains. I was able to find this article 593906 Published on 2013-01-21 ( relative link [URL]... ).
Although i have done the updates ,i am still not able to create recovery discs !! Current Issue: after inserting the 3rd Disc application gives the following message "Dbr.exe -No disc found" and stays there and rejects the DVD. I spoke with Dell's Greek Support team. I was told that warranty does not cover sw support even if my unit is less than a week old. Furthermore i was informed that although "Dell backup and recovery" application says DELL is not actually a Dell product thus they can't support it. They suggested my to use windows 7 file recovery instead (which needs at least 8 DVDs !).
(Model : inspiron 15 3521) .
what it really means to "back up" your data. I got a Seagate drive for making backups. Before I install it I need clarification.
The more I read about backups, files, settings and disc images I get more confused. I see that if I don't do it right and my computer crashes, I may have not saved what I needed.
First should I use the software supplied with the Seagate drive? Or use Windows?
Do all my files need to be in the libraries folder to get saved? Like documents, music, pictures and videos?
Do I need to make a system disc also? This is just to boot up the PC if it fails?
I was trying to install Kali linux as a partition on my windows 8, and was using EasyBCD to add Kali linux to the boot entry. Somehow I ended up deleting the Windows 8 boot entry, not deleting the Windows 8 drive but deleting the boot entry meaning I can't boot into it. I have tried MANY MANY MANY solutions to fix it. I've tried using a recovery disk but that just shows the windows logo and reboots and reboots and does the same stuff.
Eventually I just gave up and thought I'm just gonna get rid of this windows 8 which by the way came pre-install with my Toshiba L855-149, and just install windows 7. Of course I NEEDED my files so just an hour ago, I removed the hard drive from the laptop, put it into HDD Docking thing I have which allows me to add the hard drive as an external drive to my other win7 desktop PC. I started copying all my files which I am still doing now. I was thinking is there a way to make some sort of restore point from the hard drive or something? Is there another way to boot up windows 8?
Is it possible not to have the partition "recovery"?
Because if you look at the two tutorials:
- UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums
- UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with
In the tutorial to install Windows 7 in UEFI, there is not that damn partition recovery, while in the tutorial for Windows 8, we can see it.
When I install Windows 7 (MBR mode), I avoid this partition "recovery" by creating a partition with a name before installation. I install the OS on it and everything is fine, no partition "recovery" But here, since one must delete all partitions, If I create a GPT disk with a partitioning tool before installing, is that it might be appropriate?
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..!
I've a weird issue with Windows 8.1 and my mechanical hard drive. I've a 2TB Western Digital hard drive that's partitioned with one of the partitions being a Media partition (H) containing over 107 gig of images, mostly tiff files ranging from 80-700 meg. I'm a photographer who tends to edit it layers.
Anyway for some odd reason when I access a folder containing these files, my hard drive goes into a frenzy and starts making loud vibration noise as though the drive is thrashing rapidly. Additionally I get a green bar going across the address bar as though it's establishing access permission. I've checked the drive and initially it just had "Everyone" listed so I added Administrators, and myself. But it still acts as though it's seeking permissions...
Interestingly enough no other folder or partition goes into this frenzy; just the folders under H partition containing the tiff images.
My initial thought is it's a caching issues as the PC is trying to cache and display the thumbnails for these files but I'm not sure. And if it is, how do I fix?
BTW this is a replacement drive as I thought my other drive was defective since it was doing the same and had it RMA'd.
Also this is basically the same partition/orginization structure that was under my Win 7 machine and I never had this issue.
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).
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)...
My Asus laptop does not give me an option to make recovery CD's it only shows USB as the only option. The laptop has no built in CD-DVD but I have external drive..... Can I make recovery CD's.... I did make a recovery USB but would like CD'S also,
View 9 Replies View RelatedHow to Backup Windows 8.1 ? I can not find the option to repair disc and system image .
View 9 Replies View RelatedI have just bought an AIO Asus desktop with 1 Tb of storage. The c: (Windows)drive is allocated 100gb and the d: drive 931gb. I just want to transfer all the data from my old computer. This was pretty much all in the folder c:>Users>Myname, but when I try to transfer it all into the same folder on the new computer, obviously with 100gb there is not enough space.
View 2 Replies View RelatedWhen i try to install 2. OS on my PC , I deleted to win 8 and recovery partitions. How can i install new win 8 ?
I couldn't install because serial problem happen. Although i have a serial i can't enter. Win 8 use embedded serial and so I can't enter another serial. What can I do ?