Recovery disk for windows 8.1 vs 8.0

rsdivekar

New Member
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1
Hi everybody!

I just bought a new HP laptop which has windows 8.1 installed.

1) Is it correct that win 8.1 allows a recovery disk only on a USB drive as opposed to
win 8.0 which allows both DVD and USb options?
2) How many DVDs are required for recovery disk, given that I have only the pre-loaded
software and none of my own applications?
3) If I use a USB pen drive is 16GB enough? or do i need 32GB?
4) What does "one-time" recovery mean?

Regards,
Ravindra
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
1. Essentially yes but see here Pro tip: Use an optical Recovery Drive in Windows 8.1 - TechRepublic

2. The recovery drive needs 256MB (not GB). Note that this will not fit on a 256MB drive. In windows 8 I used a 256MB SD card. In 8.1 I use a 512MB card as the formatted size of the 256MB was too small.

3. See above for recovery drive usb.

4. Not sure. HP do a one button recovery - is that what you mean?

As well as the (small) bootable recovery drive you will want to make a system image. You can do this with HP software Creating Recovery Discs or Saving a Recovery Image to a USB Flash Drive (Windows 8) | HP® Support or various others (Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download is good). Note the HP only lets you make one copy.

As for size a custom refresh image of 8.1 plus MS office and a couple of other programs took 7.5GB for me so even if HP put LOTS of software 16GB should be more than sufficient.

Hope this helps some.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
    Keyboard
    Apple
    Mouse
    Apple
    Internet Speed
    Varies
    Browser
    Various
    Antivirus
    Defender

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
1. Essentially yes but see here Pro tip: Use an optical Recovery Drive in Windows 8.1 - TechRepublic

2. The recovery drive needs 256MB (not GB). Note that this will not fit on a 256MB drive. In windows 8 I used a 256MB SD card. In 8.1 I use a 512MB card as the formatted size of the 256MB was too small.

3. See above for recovery drive usb.

4. Not sure. HP do a one button recovery - is that what you mean?

As well as the (small) bootable recovery drive you will want to make a system image. You can do this with HP software Creating Recovery Discs or Saving a Recovery Image to a USB Flash Drive (Windows 8) | HP® Support or various others (Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download is good). Note the HP only lets you make one copy.

As for size a custom refresh image of 8.1 plus MS office and a couple of other programs took 7.5GB for me so even if HP put LOTS of software 16GB should be more than sufficient.

Hope this helps some.

The stock standard recovery thumb drive is only 256 MB but on a PC with a factory OEM install you have the option to "Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive". On my ASUS laptop I needed a 16 GB thumb drive to do it. That thumb drive can do a reset or restore all by itself with no need for images or other install media. The factory recovery partition with the full system image gets copied to it so its stand alone usable.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
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