HELP: W8 “Repair Disk” – “Recovery Drive” oddity

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re-post due to previous thread theft by me… my apologies

I am attempting to put in place a backup and recovery scheme that works for me.
My concerns are: 1) restoring an OS Image to my PC in the event that the existing OS install fails or becomes corrupted.
2) Perhaps of more concern is using the OS image as an OS install on a new system disk in the event that the PC’s current system disk expires.

In an attempt to create a bootable W8 USB Recovery Drive and a bootable W8 Repair Disk Iencountered the following:

>I followed the steps in Mr. Thurrott’s instruction. I made a USB Recovery Drive AND a CD Rescue Disk for W8, each as instructed.

Incomplete Result:

>I can boot from both media,
>I can drill down through the Troubleshoot screen to Advanced Options.
>However, the Advanced Options Menu only has 4 of the 5 Advanced Options available.
>The Startup Settings option is *missing!
>I am not sure I would *not need this option in the event that I could not access my current W8 install, or worse; my system disk.

Has anyone experienced this odd behavior?
How can it be fixed”

thank you

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BFB,

Why not take the easy route. Download Macrium Reflect Free.
You can easily create a Windows PE boot disk/usb using the wizard in the program.
Test that you can boot from the media.
Once booted do a complete image backup of your system. Make sure to use the Advanced options link and select the Auto Verify function to insure your image is good.

Reboot into windows.
Start Macrium
Mount the disk image you just took and look around. If it mounts properly the image is good.
UnMount the image.

You’re good to go. Have at your upgrade knowing you can get back to your starting point by just restoring the image.
You can read the Macrium FAQ on their site for a more complete explanation of the program. HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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BFB,

Why not take the easy route. Download Macrium Reflect Free.
You can easily create a Windows PE boot disk/usb using the wizard in the program.
Test that you can boot from the media.
Once booted do a complete image backup of your system. Make sure to use the Advanced options link and select the Auto Verify function to insure your image is good.

Reboot into windows.
Start Macrium
Mount the disk image you just took and look around. If it mounts properly the image is good.
UnMount the image.

You’re good to go. Have at your upgrade knowing you can get back to your starting point by just restoring the image.
You can read the Macrium FAQ on their site for a more complete explanation of the program. HTH :cheers:

That’s good stuff, RG! Very clear and easy explanation.

I think I’ll try it myself.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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>I followed the steps in Mr. Thurrott’s instruction. I made a USB Recovery Drive AND a CD Rescue Disk for W8, each as instructed.

Incomplete Result:
>I can boot from both media,
>I can drill down through the Troubleshoot screen to Advanced Options.
>However, the Advanced Options Menu only has 4 of the 5 Advanced Options available.
>The Startup Settings option is *missing!
>I am not sure I would *not need this option in the event that I could not access my current W8 install, or worse; my system disk.

Has anyone experienced this odd behavior?
How can it be fixed”

Mr.Thurrott’s “Windows 8 Tip: Create Recovery Media” page is confusing. The final screenshot is from within Windows (perhaps to accompany the final sentence), not CD/USB.

Here’s what you should see from the Recovery Drive or Repair Disk (no Startup Settings): Be ready to use the Windows 8 Recovery Drive

Have you decided not to upgrade from Windows 8.0 to 8.1 for some reason?

Bruce

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thank you for link to tech republic; now I know and I can work with that.

I am running W8Pro.
I looked at using W8 File History and, at this moment, it was not that inviting.
When I looked at W7 File Recovery it was exactly what I needed for now.

I know it has my data covered.
The system image it made is 47GB, and it appears I can use the image to recover my OS by way of the now accepted ‘Repair Disk’ or ‘Recovery Drive’.

One thing I need to confirm and be sure of is using the W7 File Recovery image, stored on one drive, to startup and run on a “new” replacement drive after a system drive failure. (I blame the corporation that owns Western Digital for all these ?!#$*% hard drives available today -anyway)
I wonder about the existing OS permissions, security settings, drive configuration stuff, etc. on the new drive?
I am not sure the W7 image and a clone of my existing sytem drive are the same thing.

To those that recommend and seconded Macrium software, once I am comfortable that I am *covered, I will look at Macrium; by then I should be better informed…
thanks again.

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Mr.Thurrott’s “Windows 8 Tip: Create Recovery Media” page is confusing. The final screenshot is from within Windows (perhaps to accompany the final sentence), not CD/USB.

Here’s what you should see from the Recovery Drive or Repair Disk (no Startup Settings): Be ready to use the Windows 8 Recovery Drive

Have you decided not to upgrade from Windows 8.0 to 8.1 for some reason?

Bruce

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I made a USB Recovery Drive AND a CD Rescue Disk for W8,

Have you decided not to upgrade from Windows 8.0 to 8.1 for some reason?

Bruce

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Macrium Reflect USB Rescue Options

Thumbs up for the Macrium rescue/image recovery disk.
Above is the tutorial.

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I have used Acronis True Image 2013 since it came out. I have not upgraded to 2014 so I cannot speak of the new version. Iused 2010 and 2011 before that. I also skipped 2012.

I have created, then restored from the created Image on 2 PCs without a single glitch since early in the Win 7 cycle. I have probably restored my PC 20 to 30 times (I tend to play with my OS and make mistakes, my bad). Acronis has NEVER failed to restore my Image.

When I create an Image, I turn right around and immediately restore that Image. This is proof positive to me that my Imaging app and my Images restore successfully. Some people just open the Image to check files, I go further and Restore it, on both PCs. I create a new Image at least once per month after patch Tuesday so my Images are quite up to date.

I have read that Macrium Reflect will do a suitable job as well, but I have not used it since Acronis works so well for me.

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An Image and a Clone are not the same thing. An Image is a compressed file that holds the entire HD as it was when you created the Image. It has to be restored using the Rescue disk from the app you created it with. You can store several Images in the same storage media up to the number that will fit in the available space.

A clone is a copy of a HD onto another HD in the same size as the original. It is not compressed. You can only have one clone on a HD at a time. Generally clones are used to make an exact duplicate of a HD for use in replacing the original HD with a new HD.

In most cases Images or Clones can be used successfully if you have the space to save a Clone.

If you made a USB Recovery Drive AND a CD Rescue Disk for W8, these should be able to be used to restore Win 8. You will have to make another set when you install Win 8.1. That’s another reason why I like the 3rd party Imaging apps, as if you install the same version of the 3rd party app on both OS’s, you only have to create one Rescue Boot Disk.

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thanks for the info on drive IMAGES vs. drive CLONES.

You stated, “A clone is a copy of a HD onto another HD [in the same size as the original -??]. It is not compressed. You can only have one clone on a HD at a time. Generally clones are used to make an exact duplicate of a HD for use in replacing the original HD with a new HD”.

Apparently, I will *not be able to use my W8 “W7 File Recovery” Image to clone a ‘new’ system disk in the event that I needed to install a new drive after a mechanical failure of my existing system drive.

I want to have the ability to ‘re-place’ my existing OS, applications, +OS settings on a replacement system drive should the need present itself.
So, it looks like using “W7 File Recovery” feature included in W8, will not give me the “backup” protection I need and want.

Some Backup, Restore, and Recovery applications seem to include the ability to make a system recovery Image as well as a system-drive Clone or Image in case one wants to use a copy or an image on an-other (or different) system drive. I guess that is what you were referring to when you commented on “3rd party” Imaging applications.

CopyingCloning the entire system drive would be a storage space issue that demands consideration.
I had thought, wrongly, that a Clone drive-copy would only be the size of (or as-large-as), only the combined drive space occupied by the Installed OS and other Applications. For me that is currently 64GBs of 160GBs.

I lost my first HDD to mechanical failure earlier this year, after using a PC at work and at home daily for the last 18 years.
Even though I strictly segregated my OS from my data files by using partitions, the notion of a mechanical HDD failure was foreign to me. Not any more.
Data recovery is *Very expensive. Losing data is even more costly.
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An Image and a Clone are not the same thing. An Image is a compressed file that holds the entire HD as it was when you created the Image. It has to be restored using the Rescue disk from the app you created it with. You can store several Images in the same storage media up to the number that will fit in the available space.

A clone is a copy of a HD onto another HD in the same size as the original. It is not compressed. You can only have one clone on a HD at a time. Generally clones are used to make an exact duplicate of a HD for use in replacing the original HD with a new HD.

In most cases Images or Clones can be used successfully if you have the space to save a Clone.

If you made a USB Recovery Drive AND a CD Rescue Disk for W8, these should be able to be used to restore Win 8. You will have to make another set when you install Win 8.1. That’s another reason why I like the 3rd party Imaging apps, as if you install the same version of the 3rd party app on both OS’s, you only have to create one Rescue Boot Disk.

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I have used Macrium Reflect Free and Acronis Boot 2014 and they both work well and do a dependable job.

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