Restoring a System Image of Win 8.1

[j52c]

I wonder if someone could help please. You cannot now make a System Restore disk in Windows 8.1 instead you have to make a bootable USB Recovery Media. When I first installed Win 8 I did make the System Restore disk and I would like to know if I can still use that disk to restore an Win 8.1 system image. Some info I have found by searching says that you can't. I have made the USB recovery media but of the 2 sticks I have used neither support being made bootable. I used to use Acronis 2013 version but that does not work properly on Win 8 and I was thinking of upgrading to the new 2015 version, so, if I did use 2015 after installation would that allow me to recovery my 8.1 system image after making an Acronis recovery disk. Thanks for any answers anyone can come up with.

[Ken W]

Originally Posted by j52c

I wonder if someone could help please. You cannot now make a System Restore disk in Windows 8.1 instead you have to make a bootable USB Recovery Media. When I first installed Win 8 I did make the System Restore disk and I would like to know if I can still use that disk to restore an Win 8.1 system image. Some info I have found by searching says that you can't. I have made the USB recovery media but of the 2 sticks I have used neither support being made bootable. I used to use Acronis 2013 version but that does not work properly on Win 8 and I was thinking of upgrading to the new 2015 version, so, if I did use 2015 after installation would that allow me to recovery my 8.1 system image after making an Acronis recovery disk. Thanks for any answers anyone can come up with.

One problem is using Acronis that you need Windows to be installed to run Acronis! I made a USB to create my system recovery disk. There are two methods of recovering from a System recovery is go to the Control panel in Windows. If Windows is not running System recover the system image you need to go into BIOS to start the Windows recovery. On my ACER to recover the system image you need to go into BIOS to start the Windows recovery. I hope that helps Ken

[alanbjames]

Ken the only reason u can do a system recovery in Bios is ur laptop\PC proberbly has a hidden partition with backup OS on it.

[Ken W]

Originally Posted by alanbjames

Ken the only reason u can do a system recovery in Bios is ur laptop\PC proberbly has a hidden partition with backup OS on it.

Now if Windows is not running perhaps because it is corrupted is to go into the computer BIOS settings and use the recovery option there so that you can do a system recovery from your system recovery USB or DVD. Ken

[Taf]

Does win8 not have the RSTRUI.EXE option at command prompt?

[j52c]

Thanks everyone but I have got nowhere with this problem.

I have Windows running but shortly I will be buying a new hard disk and I was going to restore the win system image I have got on my Nas drive.

It has always been easy before with the first Win 8 but now with Win 8.1 you can make a system image but you cannot make the system restore disk.

Win 8.0 cannot be used to restore win 8.1 and visa versa.

Easeus Backup have tried to help by sending me 2 iso files to burn and try but they did not work, one disk did start from boot but nothinh came up on the screen so that was no good.

I made the USB media restore but that will not boot at all, so I am well and truly stuck.

[Ken W]

Originally Posted by j52c

Thanks everyone but I have got nowhere with this problem. I have Windows running but shortly I will be buying a new hard disk and I was going to restore the win system image I have got on my Nas drive. It has always been easy before with the first Win 8 but now with Win 8.1 you can make a system image but you cannot make the system restore disk. Win 8.0 cannot be used to restore win 8.1 and visa versa. Easeus Backup have tried to help by sending me 2 iso files to burn and try but they did not work, one disk did start from boot but nothinh came up on the screen so that was no good. I made the USB media restore but that will not boot at all, so I am well and truly stuck.

There will be a option in your BIOS to allow it to boot from a USB device.

Ken

[Taf]

Have you gone into BIOS and made the USB stick the first boot drive?

[j52c]

Originally Posted by Taf

Have you gone into BIOS and made the USB stick the first boot drive?

Yeah, set that but it doesn't boot from it it loads directly from hard drive. Windows 8.1 upgrade came out in April, I have system images I made on the 10th April and the 15th of May, I should be able to restore either of those with the system restore disk I made at that time. Not that bothered about the latest upgrade anyway as nothing much changed.

[Taf]

Do you have System Restore active on that machine ?

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/window...-windows-8.htm

[j52c]

Hi. I have sorted it out, I don't have to go into the bios to change boot order. On my Asus MB all I have to do is plug in the usb drive and then press F8 while booting, this brings up a Menu asking which drive you want to boot from, I just selected the Sandisk Cruzer Blade and next thing up came the Windows 8 logo and then the screen for selecting the repair tools I wanted. You learn something everyday. I always disable System Restore because it doesn't always clean things up, if anything goes wrong it's just easier restoring a system image, I keep 4 images and when I do a new one I delete the oldest. Thank you to everyone who contributed to my problem

[Taf]

Glad you found the solution (I noticed a while ago that my boot screen has an option to select boot device with F8, but completely forgot about that in your case).

[j52c]

Thanks.

I should have know about the F8 button, I have built enough systems in the past.

Using F8 you don't have to enter the bios to change boot order and then go in afterwards and change the boot order back.

I have just done system image restore to try the usb stick method and after 15 minutes was up and running again.