Emergency repair disks for Windows: Part 1

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	TOP STORY Emergency repair disks for Windows: Part 1
	By Fred Langa When your PC won’t boot from its hard drive, you might be dead in the water — unless you’ve created a bootable emergency repair disk or drive. Repair disks don’t simply get PCs started; they also include tools that might fix what’s wrong with the system. And creating a repair disk takes just minutes.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/emergency-repair-disks-for-windows-part-1 (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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	TOP STORY Emergency repair disks for Windows: Part 1
	By Fred Langa When your PC won’t boot from its hard drive, you might be dead in the water — unless you’ve created a bootable emergency repair disk or drive. Repair disks don’t simply get PCs started; they also include tools that might fix what’s wrong with the system. And creating a repair disk takes just minutes.

---

The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/emergency-repair-disks-for-windows-part-1 (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

[/tr][/tbl]

Two weeks ago I bought my stepson a new Samsung laptop with Windows 8 installed. It did not come with any support disks, or a backup partition. I added Norton’s ghost32.exe to the Hirems CD, and then backed up the licenced Windows 8.1 onto an external USB hard drive. Now, if disaster strikes, I can quickly restore his operating system. Ghost32.exe is old, but still works.

Regards…George

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Two weeks ago I bought my stepson a new Samsung laptop with Windows 8 installed. It did not come with any support disks, or a backup partition. I added Norton’s ghost32.exe to the Hirems CD, and then backed up the licenced Windows 8.1 onto an external USB hard drive. Now, if disaster strikes, I can quickly restore his operating system. Ghost32.exe is old, but still works.

Regards…George

Hi George,

Have you tested your Ghost backup by trying to restore it? The reason I ask is because I did the same as you (i.e. used Ghost32.exe from Ghost v11) when Windows 7 came out and found that, although Ghost32.exe created the backup with no apparent problems and the backup appeared to restore OK, my Samsung R7 laptop would not boot into Windows after the restore. It’s a couple of years now and I can’t remember the exact error message. All I remember is that I also tried with 2 HP laptops and the results were the same… not able to boot into Windows after an apparently successful restore. I have no idea whether this was because it was Win 7 instead of XP or because it was SATA disks instead of IDE.

After trying many times (and failing) to carry out a ‘disk to image’ backup then ‘image to disk’ restore I gave up on Ghost. I now use the free utility Redo Backup running on a USB stick to backup my Win 7 (and Linux Mint) PC’s and laptops to an external hard disk. Redo Backup doesn’t have the granularity of Ghost (it has just 2 buttons – ‘Backup’ and ‘Restore’) and only does disk backups, not partitions, but… it works! (Clonezilla also worked but I wasn’t too impressed by the interface… I just like simple.)

Hope this helps… I would hate to think you rely on the Ghost backup only to find that it doesn’t restore successfully when needed.

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Hi George,
Have you tested your Ghost backup by trying to restore it? The reason I ask is because I did the same as you (i.e. used Ghost32.exe from Ghost v11) when Windows 7 came out and found that, although Ghost32.exe created the backup with no apparent problems and the backup appeared to restore OK, my Samsung R7 laptop would not boot into Windows after the restore. It’s a couple of years now and I can’t remember the exact error message. All I remember is that I also tried with 2 HP laptops and the results were the same… not able to boot into Windows after an apparently successful restore. I have no idea whether this was because it was Win 7 instead of XP or because it was SATA disks instead of IDE.

I have been using Ghost for many years, through many Windows beta test programs and many crashes. It has never failed me.

When I got a new laptop with Windows 7 32-bit Ultimate on it, I upgraded to Ghost 12 and proceeded to image my C: and D: partitions as before, to an alternating pair of USB drives.

Last year I had a hard drive crash. I replaced the drive and then it was finger crossing time. My first restore did not boot. Uh, oh. I tried again, with some setting changed. Perfect restore of C: and D:, and it was like nothing had changed.

I wish I had written down what the setting mistake was. I do remember it was something that seemed obvious at the time, and was probably in the basic Ghost instructions for a restore that included a boot sector.

I have no idea about Ghost with Windows 8. That won’t be an issue for me. I’m waiting for Windows 9 before I upgrade (?) or get a new machine.

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Does each system need its own windows repair disk because it contains files specific to that system and its hardware and software or will one repair disk work for for all systems that share the same OS as the system where the repair disk was made?

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Does each system need its own windows repair disk because it contains files specific to that system and its hardware and software or will one repair disk work for for all systems that share the same OS as the system where the repair disk was made?

Yes, each system can have unique System Driver Files, among other unique system-level files.

Update: I misread. I was replying here to Recovery Disks, not Repair Disks. Sorry.

-- rc primak

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Yes, each system can have unique System Driver Files, among other unique system-level files.

And yet, according to Fred in Part 2, a Windows 8.1 Enterprise Evaluation DVD (burned from an ISO download) can be used as a repair disc for ANY Windows 8 edition/version.

Bruce

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I recently purchased a Dell XPS with 8.1 (HOME). I made a recovery USB disk with no problem. Today I upgraded to 8.1 PRO and I can no longer create a new recovery disk. The “Copy” check box screen is enabled but the following screen, the one that warns me to have an eight GB or greater drive, displays with the Next button grayed out. Is this because of the upgrade? Is there a way to create a new recovery partition on the OS drive?

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And yet, according to Fred in Part 2, a Windows 8.1 Enterprise Evaluation DVD (burned from an ISO download) can be used as a repair disc for ANY Windows 8 edition/version.

Bruce

Actually, this is not inconsistent. Windows 8, and 8.1 have changed the entire game in doing restorations and repairs, as I am sure you are well aware. Under Windows 7 and earliier, you had to create Restore Disks which were often manufacturer-specific. Under Windows 8/8.1 the claim has been made (though I cannot personally verify this) that any Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation Disk can be used to repair any Windows 8/8.1 system.

I also think the article may have been only addressing making very general Windows repairs. What some folks in this thread may be concerned about, is whether you can fully reinstall a complete, functioning system from the repair disks. The term recovery disk (which does have to include system drivers) is not the same as the term repair disk (which does not need to include system drivers), as we all shold be aware.

So if the post I was replying to said repair disks, no, these are not system-specific. If the post said recovery disks, these could well be unique to the system.

No, for repair disks, you do not need to make a different copy per each computer or device. Yes, for recovery disks, you do need the correct set for your specific computer or device.

I hope this makes the distinction and requirements clear. If I posted otherwise or was unclear as to which disks I was referring to, I apologize to the person to whose post I was replying.

-- rc primak

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We have a number of very similar windows 8.1 machines (some with same basic hardware, some with slight differences). Do I need to create separate Win8 ‘recovery drives’ for each one or can I just make one which I could then use (if I needed it) on any of the machines?

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A couple of points:

My Windows 8 computer has a UEFI “BIOS”.
This has made it so secure that it is actually insecure in that you cannot easily repair things or recover from virus attacks.
I believe the manufacturer has set it so that even if you set the “BIOS” to be able to boot from CDs and USB they will still not boot.
As it is a security issue the manufacturers Help Desk say they cannot reveal anything about how the user is supposed to deal with restores via UEFI.
I doubt if many of the repair CDs , USBs in your article will actually boot at all on UEFI BIOS’s.

On Windows 7 I used to make OS images that were easy to run and reinstall your system within half an hour.
In Windows 8 I have no confidence that any of those restore methods will actually work should the time ever come.

If I create a Windows 8.1 recovery flashdrive I hope that the UEFI BIOS will actually run it as the UEFI security will presumably look for a Windows signature.
The flash drive needs to be 16GB to include the OEM original recovery partition. That partition is for Windows 8.0 so of limited use.
Will Part 2 tell you if you can make /include a recovery “partition” for Windows 8.1?

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Fred: Great article as usual, but it did not mention an oddity that I have encountered on several different computers, some using 32 bit and some 64 bit Windows 7. Specifically, the “rescue disk” utility allows me to make a disk, and then a second disk, but no more. I discovered this when I wanted to demo this utility to a friend; Windows would not made a third disk but instead gave me an error dialog box. I don’t imagine that most of us would want to make more than one rescue disk, and surely two is enough, so this is not a major issue. I do wonder, though, if this “restriction” is a deliberate intention on the part of Microsoft, or a bug in the software.

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I make Win 7 repair discs when I first got my machine. Since then, lots of updates have come by. Would new repair discs reflect these updates?

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When theres a new service pack, new repair discs are a good idea. Repair discs are designed to get the system running but they don’t typically contain an image. If they do, it will be a default recovery image, not your current build. Usually you use a 2 tiered approach – repair to get things running and a regular system image to restore.

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Not to sound cavalier, but I’m not going to allow any one-click ‘find it and fix it’ program to make changes to my PC. These ‘solutions’ are often worse than the original problem.

Instead, I have scheduled backups running in the background. If my PC fails due to a system software problem, I can be – and have been – back in business in minutes. If my PC fails due to malware – which has not happened so far – I will boot from my anti-malware programs’ boot disks and let the software do its work.

Disc imaging is a powerful technique. Maintaining a history of images almost guarantees that you’ll be back to work in short order. Do corporate IT departments send their desktop techs out with a collection of discs containing hundreds of repair tools? No – because they don’t have time to waste. Unless malware is the culprit, they are more likely to re-image the disc.

And if you’re savvy enough to keep your data on a separate partition, restoring an image won’t affect your data.

Diagnostic utilities certainly have value: It can be worthwhile to find out exactly why your computer went down, so you can avoid the problem in future. But when I need to get back to work in a hurry, I image first and ask questions later.

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Not to sound cavalier, but I’m not going to allow any one-click ‘find it and fix it’ program to make changes to my PC. These ‘solutions’ are often worse than the original problem.

Were any one-click solutions being discussed here? :confused:

Disc imaging is a powerful technique. Maintaining a history of images almost guarantees that you’ll be back to work in short order.

Fred said, “Even if you’ve diligently made system-image backups, you might still need an emergency disk at hand to restore the most recent image“.

Bruce

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Fred said, “Even if you’ve diligently made system-image backups, you might still need an emergency disk at hand to restore the most recent image“.

Bruce

If you’re familiar with disc imaging programs you know that an integral part of the software is the boot disc or USB flash drive that you need to create in order to re-image a system partition. The boot disc/drive doesn’t otherwise offer to repair your system. (Of course, I don’t know every imaging program out there.)

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Unless malware is the culprit, they are more likely to re-image the disc.

If malware is the culprit, this is when they would reimage the disk. Otherwise, simpler repairs are often possible and take less time.

And if you’re savvy enough to keep your data on a separate partition, restoring an image won’t affect your data.

If your disk becomes unbootable, your data partition is just as pwned as your system partition.

Diagnostic utilities certainly have value: It can be worthwhile to find out exactly why your computer went down, so you can avoid the problem in future. But when I need to get back to work in a hurry, I image first and ask questions later.

For my Linux, due to the small footprint and quick performance of CloneZilla Live Raring (not that hard to get used to!) I agree. But Windows imaging and restoration take much longer. And I have had some restores fail to boot for any of a number of reasons.

In answer to a couple of other posts:
BTW, it is not UEFI which prevents successful USB Boot on Windows 8/8.1. It is Secure Boot, which is a BIOS or hardware setup. This is meant to prevent non-approved Operating Systems from being installed and booted. I have UEFI on Win 7 and had it on Win 8. Both could be set in the BIOS to boot from USB or CD. The trick is getting into the BIOS at all, as UEFI allows little or no time to hit F2 or whatever during startup.

How Secure Boot is implemented may vary by manufacturer, just as whether you can burn DVDs from the Hidden Recovery Partition will vary. But the general practice in Windows 8/8.1 is by default not to allow disks to boot which are not Genuine Windows Disks.

Secure Boot can be turned off.

-- rc primak

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If malware is the culprit, this is when they would reimage the disk. Otherwise, simpler repairs are often possible and take less time.

If your disk becomes unbootable, your data partition is just as pwned as your system partition.

Not if you store your data on a separate physical drive, as I (and many others) do. And certainly not if your data is backed up elsewhere.

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Not if you store your data on a separate physical drive, as I (and many others) do. And certainly not if your data is backed up elsewhere.

True. I don’t recall that being specified in your previous post.

-- rc primak

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	TOP STORY Emergency repair disks for Windows: Part 1
	By Fred Langa When your PC won’t boot from its hard drive, you might be dead in the water — unless you’ve created a bootable emergency repair disk or drive. Repair disks don’t simply get PCs started; they also include tools that might fix what’s wrong with the system. And creating a repair disk takes just minutes.

---

The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/emergency-repair-disks-for-windows-part-1 (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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My Win 7 machine allowed me to create emergency repair “disks” on USB. The article doesn’t include that option. Will USB work or do I need to create disks?

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“If malware is the culprit, this is when they would reimage the disk. Otherwise, simpler repairs are often possible and take less time.”

Not in my experience, although YMMV. If a PC in a network has been compromised by malware, it’s probably spread throughout the network by the time the user makes the call. IT will want to analyze that computer to see what they’re dealing with (again, this is only my experience.) Re-imaging the infected machine won’t help IT identify or eradicate the virus that is running rampant through their network.

Believe me, I’ve tried the repair disc method. Couldn’t get enough of ’em, and the more repair utilities the better. It takes time to figure out which repair to try, run the diagnostics, cross your fingers and hope it works, otherwise on to something else, and all the while taking the risk that you’ll only make things worse and end up having to do a wipe and re-install.

Now, unless I’m very sure I know what needs to be fixed and I have the proper tool at hand and I’m sure I know how to use it – which is often not the case – I sit back and enjoy a nice cup of Darjeeling while Macrium Reflect makes my troubles go away.

If, on the other hand, you’re someone who enjoys all the technical details – and what’s wrong with that? – and you’ve got the time to spend, a good repair disc with lots of utilities is the way to go.

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”If malware is the culprit, this is when they would reimage the disk. Otherwise, simpler repairs are often possible and take less time.”

Not in my experience, although YMMV. If a PC in a network has been compromised by malware, it’s probably spread throughout the network by the time the user makes the call. IT will want to analyze that computer to see what they’re dealing with (again, this is only my experience.) Re-imaging the infected machine won’t help IT identify or eradicate the virus that is running rampant through their network.

Believe me, I’ve tried the repair disc method. Couldn’t get enough of ’em, and the more repair utilities the better. It takes time to figure out which repair to try, run the diagnostics, cross your fingers and hope it works, otherwise on to something else, and all the while taking the risk that you’ll only make things worse and end up having to do a wipe and re-install.

Now, unless I’m very sure I know what needs to be fixed and I have the proper tool at hand and I’m sure I know how to use it – which is often not the case – I sit back and enjoy a nice cup of Darjeeling while Macrium Reflect makes my troubles go away.

If, on the other hand, you’re someone who enjoys all the technical details – and what’s wrong with that? – and you’ve got the time to spend, a good repair disc with lots of utilities is the way to go.

You posted “reimage”. I think you mean “image”. Reimaging means wiping the drive and restoring a previously made image. That’s the dictionary meaning of the term. Imaging is the term for making the clean image to which reimaging will return the drive.

-- rc primak

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i wish

my pc has NO cdroms. at least that is what msconfig says.
i know i had cdroms. i still have cdroms. they still work.
but no repair disk is going to tell windows that they exist.

while repair disks are a good thing to have and may solve most problems.
a full pc fixit kit is going to need a lot more than a bootable disk.

i lost the cdroms according to windows when a failed install deleted something.
my bad it asked if i really wanted to do it and i trusted the install program.
dont remember what it deleted but the cdroms are gone from windows belief system
the usb ports are gone too. and the monitor was stuck at low rez.

now if there were a fixit kit that backed up all the key information then perhaps i could type it in and edit the registry or something to make the cdroms come to life to use a repair disk.

please add a final chapter to this article that includes a list of ALL the other info you may need and how to make it easily available for use in case of a failure.

	TOP STORY Emergency repair disks for Windows: Part 1
	By Fred Langa When your PC won’t boot from its hard drive, you might be dead in the water — unless you’ve created a bootable emergency repair disk or drive. Repair disks don’t simply get PCs started; they also include tools that might fix what’s wrong with the system. And creating a repair disk takes just minutes.

---

The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/emergency-repair-disks-for-windows-part-1 (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

[/tr][/tbl]

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Fred, when I downloaded the repair software from Ultimate Boot CD, it was loaded with spyware (over 200 hits from Malawarebytes). I have not seen an infection like that in years, and that was someone else’s computer.

Just FYI!

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Fred, when I downloaded the repair software from Ultimate Boot CD, it was loaded with spyware (over 200 hits from Malawarebytes). I have not seen an infection like that in years, and that was someone else’s computer.

Just FYI!

False Positives. Note that it’s not a definite Malwarebytes warning that these are infections. It’s a probability from their heuristics or a declaration of “PUP” — which means potentially unwanted programs. Nir Sofer’s utilities (also not malware) get the same warnings from MBAM. MBAM is a great program, but they do flag stuff which is (in good hands) not only safe, but useful in recovering a sick computer.

-- rc primak

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Hi, I’m on Windows 7. I found the place to create a repair disk but when I click “Create a Disk” a pop up window says “System Repair Disk could not be created. The Parameter is incorrect (0x80070057). Any ideas what this means?

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Hi, I’m on Windows 7. I found the place to create a repair disk but when I click “Create a Disk” a pop up window says “System Repair Disk could not be created. The Parameter is incorrect (0x80070057). Any ideas what this means?

Here is a thread that discusses the issue.

It could also be a permissions issue. Here is a posting I made quite a long time ago:

I had the 0x80070057 error, too. I just got the SP1 update and still got the error. I thought it was an access issue but even using my default administrator account made no difference. This is the account that Windows 7 forces you to create upon installation or first use. The solution for me was to activate the hidden (also called “built-in”) Administrator account. Log on to that account and I could create both a repair CDROM and repair DVD. Go back to my default administrator account and I get the old error message. Note that switching users from your regular account to the Administrator acccount does not work. You must initially log on as Administrator. For information on activating the hidden Administrator account, see (among many sites) http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/507-built-administrator-account-enable-disable.html Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit, SP1

Most recently, I had the same problem due to an installation of Acronis backup software. I had long ago uninstalled it but the uninstall routine (even using Revo Uninstaller) left a registry parameter that prevented Windows backup and repair disk functions from working. Fixing it was not very easy. Afterwards, all is working correctly. I have to run as an admin, but not using the hidden Administrator account described above. Best not to activate that account if you don’t need to.

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Thanks a lot, RandySea. The thread you sent me to held the answer. In Googleing this I had run across mention of “dismounting TruCrypt” but had not idea what that meant until this thread explained it simply meant turning off Sugarsync. Problem solved.

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Thanks a lot, RandySea. The thread you sent me to held the answer. In Googleing this I had run across mention of “dismounting TruCrypt” but had not idea what that meant until this thread explained it simply meant turning off Sugarsync. Problem solved.

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Wow..Hiren has pirated software, so I am surprised that you recommend it!!! While a lot is useful, their minixp is clearly illegal in the US.

Also, no mention of reboot.pro ??? Check it out.

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Wow..Hiren has pirated software, so I am surprised that you recommend it!!! While a lot is useful, their minixp is clearly illegal in the US.

Didn’t XP just become abandonware?

(The Dutch and UK governments would probably disagree for another year.)

Bruce

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Didn’t XP just become abandonware?

(The Dutch and UK governments would probably disagree for another year.)

Bruce

End of Life or end of support does not mean end of intellectual property rights. The licenses may expire, but the patents, trademarks and copyrights live on forever in the US. Don’t know about Euro-Zone.

-- rc primak

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End of Life or end of support does not mean end of intellectual property rights.

That was the reason for the smiley with a wink after “abandonware”. Sorry if that was too subtle for you.

The link I provided states, “Those who do not own a copyright cannot merely claim the copyright abandoned”

The licenses may expire,

Windows licenses do not have an expiration date.

but the patents, trademarks and copyrights live on forever in the US.

Patents and copyrights do not live forever, even in the US:

Term of patent in the United States

List of countries’ copyright lengths

Don’t know about Euro-Zone

I only mentioned NL and UK governments because they’re still paying (a lot) for XP (support).

Bruce

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Based on the writeup, I actually purchased Neosmart’s version to use on my Win 8.1 main system, which has a SSD boot disk, two other internal SATA drives, and a USB3.0 external drive.

After it boots, it tells me that I don’t have any harddrives. I tested in on my wife’s non-SSD desktop an dit works fine there.. The company does NOT reply to support emails.

IF you have a modern system, don’t bother with this waste of $40.

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Been using Hiren’s CD for years (literally) when my boss introduced me to it back in 2005 (did PC repair between 2005 and 2010). It use to be all dos like applets until they added the limited XP (and afterwards Linux too) boot aka Winternals (who sold out to Microsoft; their XP boot disk was fantastic too). This disk is a must have if you need to do recovery work and such and I personally highly recommend it. As Fred said, trying to find the link is a challenge (and it’s been so for years; use to be almost impossible to find the link but last few years they made it more easy to find but still you need to know what you are looking for). I think they do this to keep the novice from getting it since it’s that powerful and could cause problems if used by those that think they know what they’re doing but don’t. I use to question even the legality of the disk since it contained som many useful and cool utilities but it’s still a tool that should be in your arsenal if you are serious about repairing computers. No longer am in the PC repair business, but still do so for friends. Only a few weeks ago did I actually download 15.2 (cool to see Fred use that as his example; lol).

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Interesting point that was not highlighted – Windows 8.1 doesn’t offer to make optical disc recovery tools. Perhaps due to the number of discs required and the price of USB drives. Not to mention that many touch devices don’t have optical drives.

A great medium for long term storage but I wonder if this is the beginning of them becoming an external option.

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Interesting point that was not highlighted – Windows 8.1 doesn’t offer to make optical disc recovery tools.

It was mentioned indirectly:

Windows 8.0 and 8.1 both include the built-in Recovery Media Creator. This tool lets you easily set up a flash drive or an external USB drive as a bootable recovery/repair disk. The Windows 8.0 version of the tool can make bootable CDs or DVDs as well.

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As DavidFB already mentioned “Windows 8.1 no longer supports being able to create a system repair disc CD/DVD” and the check box in FredLanga article, for making a CD/DVD is now permanently disabled (grayed out). I had made a copy of Windows8Pro(32bit) SystemRepairDisc in May of 2013, which is to be used with a previously created SystemRecoveryImage/Backup that is in one of my externally connected USB HDDs. Since my system has been upgraded to Win8.1, I don’t think this SystemRepairDisc will be of any use to me.
While I was going thru some of the recovery CDs/DVDs I have accumulated over the years, it turns out that I have:
*An older UltimateBootDiskV5.11 of 2011 vintage
*An older Paragon HardDiskManagerPro V10 of 2012 vintage
*An older Hiren’s BootCD V15.1 of 2012 vintage
*An older Active@ BootDisk V8 of 2013 vintage
But these disks (and many older versions) have been mostly used to repair other people’s problematic computers.
For my own personal/family systems, I rely wholly on the Acronis TrueImage software that I have paid dearly (out the nose) for all these years.
I have been reading WindowsSecrets active discusssions on and about File History and Recovery options but for some reason, I continue to utilize Acronis TrueImage as a proven solution that has saved my bacon too many times. Since the introduction of the 2014 version of Acronis TrueImage I have been debating whether to upgrade. In the interim, I have even tried some of the FREEware solutions like the Macrium Reflect and TRIALware Paragon imaging solutions. Yet just yesterday, I completed my Acronis TrueImage backup that I do every 3 months. It turns out that Seagate (and possibly WesternDigital???) provides a slimmed-down version of AcronisTrueImage V2013 for owners of their HDDs.

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As DavidFB already mentioned “Windows 8.1 no longer supports being able to create a system repair disc CD/DVD” and the check box in FredLanga article, for making a CD/DVD is now permanently disabled (grayed out). I had made a copy of Windows8Pro(32bit) SystemRepairDisc in May of 2013, which is to be used with a previously created SystemRecoveryImage/Backup that is in one of my externally connected USB HDDs. Since my system has been upgraded to Win8.1, I don’t think this SystemRepairDisc will be of any use to me.
While I was going thru some of the recovery CDs/DVDs I have accumulated over the years, it turns out that I have:
*An older UltimateBootDiskV5.11 of 2011 vintage
*An older Paragon HardDiskManagerPro V10 of 2012 vintage
*An older Hiren’s BootCD V15.1 of 2012 vintage
*An older Active@ BootDisk V8 of 2013 vintage
But these disks (and many older versions) have been mostly used to repair other people’s problematic computers.
For my own personal/family systems, I rely wholly on the Acronis TrueImage software that I have paid dearly (out the nose) for all these years.
I have been reading WindowsSecrets active discusssions on and about File History and Recovery options but for some reason, I continue to utilize Acronis TrueImage as a proven solution that has saved my bacon too many times. Since the introduction of the 2014 version of Acronis TrueImage I have been debating whether to upgrade. In the interim, I have even tried some of the FREEware solutions like the Macrium Reflect and TRIALware Paragon imaging solutions. Yet just yesterday, I completed my Acronis TrueImage backup that I do every 3 months. It turns out that Seagate (and possibly WesternDigital???) provides a slimmed-down version of AcronisTrueImage V2013 for owners of their HDDs.

Macrium Reflect Free with the WinPE download makes a Boot Disk which has a lot of the program’s features fully implemented. I have booted dead PCs with it several times and restored them from USB Hard Drive Reflect Images. The resulting restorations have never failed to boot, even on my dual-boot laptop. If the Partition Tables need to be cleaned up, gParted on a Linux Boot CD does the job nicely. Or just go over to my installed Ubuntu Partition and do it from there.

The trickiest part was getting UEFI Boot to let me into my BIOS to change the Boot Order.

-- rc primak

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Interesting point that was not highlighted – Windows 8.1 doesn’t offer to make optical disc recovery tools. Perhaps due to the number of discs required and the price of USB drives. Not to mention that many touch devices don’t have optical drives.

A great medium for long term storage but I wonder if this is the beginning of them becoming an external option.

Optical Drives and their disks are becoming less and less common, like Floppy Disks and drives a few years ago, or VHS Tapes and now DVDs over the past few years.

Windows 8 is directing folks down the road Tablet users have gone for years. The device Restores or Resets instead of being reimaged from backup media. At least for System and App recovery, this seems to be the preferred route these days. Data get the Cloud Backup treatment.

Yes, the days of hold it in your hand recovery media may be going the way of Analog TV.

The USB option seems to be the closest we will have to the Install or Recovery DVDs. Drivers will have to be downloaded for each system restore, I guess.

-- rc primak

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I’d agree that testing recovery is a useful exercise – especially if you use old tools not designed for 64-bit environs. I can recall a study of business backup solutions that found the majority failed when properly tested. It’s the last thing you want to assume on.

It’s also an important point that having a disc image alone does not allow recovery if the system won’t boot. You need the software environment to allow the recovery to run. Writing a recovery disc for your imaging software may not be an obvious required step for everyone. The software may not insist.

It’s also worth noting that a Windows recovery disc may not help you for a different brand of imaging. You will need the recovery disc for that imaging tool to actually do a recovery.

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How do I know that the recovery disc will work? Can I test it and how?

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I made a repair disk and tried booting up from it. It did boot and located my OS on drive C:. Then it gave me a strange error message:

Recovery disk
Repair Windows Boot Manager
Add startup option: Windows Recovery Environment (repaired)

These were my only choices. I could not get to the Recovery Console or other menu without accepting the repair.

Right now, nothing is broken. I am afraid if I let the new disk make a “repair,” it may really give me a problem. What to do?

Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit. I had not made a repair disk before because I had installed Acronis backup, which prevented it. It was only yesterday that I found the registry edits needed after uninstalling Acronis.

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I was surprised no one mentioned Bart PE. I haven’t need to make one of his recovery discs for a long time.
It appears from his website that the project is no longer being maintained. There is no discs past XP.

I have used a Linux recovery disc, and that seemed to be a great solution. I’m sure there are others, but watch what you are downloading! See my post above!

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I was surprised no one mentioned Bart PE. I haven’t need to make one of his recovery discs for a long time.
It appears from his website that the project is no longer being maintained. There is no discs past XP.

I have used a Linux recovery disc, and that seemed to be a great solution. I’m sure there are others, but watch what you are downloading! See my post above!

BartPE is for Win XP. WinPE is for Win Vista/7/8. WinPE 5 is explicitly made for Windows 8 64 bits. The Macrium REflect Recovery CD is based on WinPE 4 or 5 these days. The download is actually from Microsoft, but it happens through the Reflect Program while you are within Windows. WinPE can only be obtained from Microsoft. (Even Macrium Reflect redirects the download to Microsoft.) The only direct download is the massive WAIK ISO. From that you would have to use a program which extracts the WinPE files for use on a Boot CD. Best to leave that heavy lifting to someone else; hence my use of Macrium Reflect Boot CDs.

-- rc primak

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WinPE 5 is explicitly made for Windows 8 64 bits.

WinPE 5 supports Windows 7 and has a 32-bit version:

What’s New in Windows PE

Windows PE 5.0

Bruce

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WinPE 5 supports Windows 7 and has a 32-bit version:

What’s New in Windows PE

Windows PE 5.0

Bruce

I didn’t mean WinPE 5 won’t run on 32-bits or on Win 7. Only that the program is optimized for Win 8. The interface for example,is pure Win 8.

Thanks for the clarification.

-- rc primak

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Hi Fred

When I attempted to run the directions you posted for Windows 8.1 I received the error message that files required to make the drive were missing. It was recommended I use the Windows 8 disk to recover my system.

Since I had already made a USB backup some time ago, in addition to weekly images, I felt ok. I would offer the following links for viewer’s who like me may need an alternate path.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/18309-windows-8-windows-8-1-iso-download-create.html

http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/33164-how-download-windows-8-1-iso.html

As always, great column.

Regards

Vince

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Like some others mentioned here, I purchased NeoSmart Technologies’ Easy Recovery Essentials..on Fred’s recommendation (not blaming Fred!)………………what a waste of $40 and over 5 days….they are real bad with email answers, average 2 days and they refuse to refund any money……caveat emptor. DO NOT BUY.

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Optical media (CDs/DVDs) are referred to as discs (Compact Disc, Digital Video/Versatile Disc), the screenshots of dialog boxes even confirm this, but the article writer incorrectly uses disk (especially poignant that the dialog boxes in screen shots use the conventional ‘disc’). Disk tends to refer to magnetic media (hard disks, legacy floppy diskettes [typically shortened to floppy disk], etc.) by convention.

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I really appreciated Fred’s articles on Windows Repair Disks but was disappointed that he didn’t recommend a way to create a repair image on a USB flash drive. And I thought I found some good article On getting ISO file on USB ( http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/operating-systems/how-to-create-a-windows-rescue-usb-stick-984726 ) but it links to the Neosmart page which I found very confusing and no direct reference to a solution for USB drives.
I was trying to find a way to do this myself ( e.g., get ISO file and burn it to USB) but again too many questionable sites with bogus/questionable download links. Anyway, at this point, I am willing to pay $20 or whatever for a commercial solution, so a good link to how to get the ISO file and burn software for the USB will be appreciated. Thanks ….

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Fred,
Even though I’ve made recovery discs that Vista allows me to make, I thought it would be a nice exercise to make the Emergency Recovery Disc that your recent column in WS recommended.

I went through all the steps including learning how to “take ownership” of a file/folder, etc. and download and replace the recdisc.exe on my computer.

When I got all the way through to the point of actually making the disc, I started recdisc.exe only to find that Installation Discs were required to use the program. My computer is an HP which had NO installation discs included. As I stated I have the recovery discs that Windows allows you to make once but no installation discs. It may be that I could get installations discs from HP, but maybe not I haven’t asked. However at this point I am dead in the water with respect to making the Emergency Recovery Disc recommended in your column. Not even the Vista Support Forum’s admin and chief guru could help me past this point.

Having said all that I’ve learned quite a lot about my computer as a result of the exercise.

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