Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: [Windows 8.x] How to create your own recovery disk

  1. #1
    Banned

    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    2,361
    Thanks
    166
    Thanked 1,205 Times in 607 Posts
    Rep Power
    0
    Reputation
    16611

    Default [Windows 8.x] How to create your own recovery disk

    You bought a PC with Windows 8 OEM-version, perhaps with a copy of it stored in the Recovery Partition. You upgraded to Windows 8.1, then updated to Windows 8.1.2 and afterwards ran all Windows updates available, too. Your system is up-to-date.

    In case now your system crashes (worst scenario is always a HDD crash), you suddenly are standing in rain, because you don't have a Windows 8.1 installation DVD - remember it's a PC with a Windows 8 OEM-version, the copy of Windows OS which is stored in the Recovery Partition became absolutely useless: it's the Windows 8 OEM-version your PC originally came with. Hours you spent in upgrading / updating the original 8 OEM-version are lost, if you would decide to use this original Windows 8 OEM-version.

    So it's always a good advice to have an up-to-date Windows 8.1 installation media created by yourself (~US$120) at hand that can be used, if you won't to buy a retail version of Windows 8.1 (~US$120) - just install as usual and use your existing key - which must be updated again.

    To be on the safe side in case of HDD crash, I decided to create an up-to-date Windows 8.1 installation media by myself - which I'm futurely updating weekly. All what I needed was a 128GB SD-card (for example SanDisk SDSDQUAN-128G-G4A UHS-I Ultra Class 10 microSDXC 128GB) and/or 256GB SD-card (for example Kingston profesional SDA10/256GB) and 1.5 hours time.


    Here how to create an up-to-date Windows 8.1 installation media:

    1. Delete Recovery Partition

    These days OEMs don't provide recovery media. Often this is included as a bootable Recovery Partition on the main hard drive. While this is great a cost–cutting exercise, there is potential for problems should your system suffer from HDD failure or corruption. And, as said above, content of Recovery Partition is probably miserably outdated. Thus delete the Recovery Partition - if present.
    Windows 8 come with a handy Disk Management utility that allows you to delete hard disk partitions on the fly, without having to boot into a special disk utility or purchase additional software.
    Right click the Start screen and you can open all apps, right click Computer and choose Manage, then you can open the Disk Management. Or you open Command Prompt in administrative mode! And there enter the command "diskmgmt.msc" to open the Disk Management.
    To remove the Recovery Partition from your hard drive, you right-click or tap and hold the partition you're trying to remove and then click or tap "Delete Volume".
    Removing the Recovery Partition - if present will re-gain ~ 3.5GB up to ~ 11.5GB HDD space.


    2. Make sure your system is in a clean state

    1. Update all drivers, if not done yet - a system re-boot may be required
    2. Run an Anti-Virus program, etc,
    3. Run a Registry-Cleaner (for example free-version of "CCleaner", which also is available as 64-bit version)
    4. Delete Event Viewer Saved Logs: Note that a large number of files end up accumulating under Saved Logs. These entries remain even if you delete the original .evt and .evtx files.
      To open a saved event log, start Event Viewer. Now, in the Actions menu, click Open Saved Log and navigate to and select the Saved Log from its location. These Saved Logs are stored .xml format, in the ExternalLogs folder. which is hidden. To view this folder, first through the folder options, uncheck the hidden and system files options, and navigate to the following path: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Event Viewer\ExternalLogs

      You can delete the Saved Logs from the Actions Box. But when you delete the log from the Event Viewers’s Actions Box, you are only removing it from the console tree; you are not deleting the log file from the system. If you wish you can delete the logs from your system; you will have to navigate to the mentioned ExternalLogs folder and delete them manually. Make sure that the Event Viewer is closed when you delete these files.
    5. Reboot PC
    6. Delete all existing system restorepoints
    7. Create a new system restorepoint



    3. Create bootable USB-device (SD-card) (Courtesy to How-To Geek)

    Windows 8 allows you to create a recovery drive (USB). Hence plug the 128GB and/or 256GB USB drive into your PC.
    1. To open the recovery drive creation tool, press the Windows key and type recovery drive.
    2. Click or tap the Settings category and launch the Create a recovery drive application.

      The Recovery Media Creator opens on your desktop.
    3. Click the Next option and you’ll be prompted to select a connected USB drive.
    4. Click the Create button and the files will by copied to your USB drive.

    The USB drive now should contain the files/folders as shown next

    USB drive space used so far 288MB.
    DO NOT REMOVE THE USB DRIVE FROM YOUR PC!


    4. Create Windows OS image (Courtesy to Tom's Hardware US)

    Since the system image is exactly the mirrored copy of the OS and contains the configuration of the OS, after restoring the computer from that backup image, the computer comes back to the state at which the image was created.
    In order to create a Windows 8 system image, the step-by-step instructions given below should be followed:
    1. Log on to a Windows 8 computer with the administrator account.
    2. Click the Desktop tile from the Start screen to go to the desktop.
    3. Once on the desktop screen, hover the mouse to the bottom right corner.
    4. From the displayed options, click Settings.
    5. From the Settings pane, click Control Panel.
    6. On the Control Panel window, click System and Security category.
    7. On the System and Security window, click File History from the right pane.
    8. From the left pane of the File History window, click Windows File Recovery option at the bottom.
    9. On the Windows File Recovery window, click Create a system image from the left pane.
    10. On the Create a system image window, click to select On a hard disk radio button.
    11. Once selected, click Next.
    12. On the Confirm your backup settings page, click Start backup to initiate the backup process.
    13. Wait until the Windows 8 system image is created.
    14. On the displayed Create a system repair disc box, click No to skip the system repair disc creation process.
    15. Back on the Create a system image box, click Close.
    16. Once done, close the Windows File Recovery window.



    5. Copy Windows OS image created onto bootable USB-device

    The Windows 8 image created in my case is ~123GB of size, is located on HDD in <drive>:\WindowsImageBackup\<username>

    Now you copy this folder WindowsImageBackup\<username> onto USB drive.


    6. Done

    Unplug the USB flash drive with first clicking Safely Remove Hardware. Safely remove the USB stick from your Windows PC is really very important to ensure that Windows isn't busy reading from or writing to the USB drive when you remove it, something that could result in corrupted data or even a damaged USB drive. Then put it in a safe place.
    Last edited by jwoegerbauer; 13-02-15 at 03:36 AM.

  2. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to jwoegerbauer For This Useful Post:

    Bibliophile (13-02-15),DB44 (13-02-15),gulliver (13-02-15),mkhannah (13-02-15),tristen (13-02-15)



Look Here ->
  • #2
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Posts
    1
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
    Rep Power
    0
    Reputation
    30

    Default How to create your own recovery disk

    Great article, thanks for your sharing, i don't know how to use windows to create recovery disk. Once i used professional software to do disk backup for disk recovery. It seems called aomei backupper, do disk backup, or use its create bootable media to create a bootable CD/DVD/ISO file, after computer failures occur, it is fast and easy from the bootable disc. Once i tried its partition manager, aomei partition assistant, it supports windows to go creator for windows 8/8.1, burn disk to an USB, and you can take it to go on another computer to boot windows 8 system. This is convenient, no matter where you are. Here is one article about . Maybe this way is easier and more convenient for users. Recommend to you these three ways for creating recovery disk.
    Last edited by verachen; 13-02-15 at 01:57 PM.

  • The Following User Says Thank You to verachen For This Useful Post:

    gulliver (13-02-15)

  • #3
    Banned

    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    2,361
    Thanks
    166
    Thanked 1,205 Times in 607 Posts
    Rep Power
    0
    Reputation
    16611

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by verachen View Post
    Maybe this way is easier and more convenient for users. Recommend to you these three ways for creating recovery disk.
    Of course, many ways lead to Rome.

    The OS image created by means of Windows 8 inbuilt Windows Imaging Tool (WIB) can failsafe be restored by Windows 8. I don't care how inconvenient WIB is compared to third-party softwares - both freeware and payware, I'm only interested in a perfect restoration.

    Caveat to use a third-party program is, if you create an OS image with third-party software then you must have this third-party software available in case of restoring the OS image, because they use a proprietary format. And as I've read during last months in several forums, it became evident that all these third-party programs are equally problematic with Windows 8. People said they didn't want to throw good money after bad by buying yet another piece of software if it were going to result in the same faulty restorations. All confirmed they "can do an immediate restore with the clunky WIB and know that everything will be working exactly the way it was before."

    And what only few people know: Windows 8 also allows you to restore specific files/folders from the OS image created with WIB, not simply play back a whole partition.

  • Bookmarks

    Posting Permissions

    • You may not post new threads
    • You may not post replies
    • You may not post attachments
    • You may not edit your posts
    •