What to do if you've got an usb/boot install?

rafael1979

Member
Member
Messages
85
Location
Rio
What if something goes wrong? It's happened to me half a dozen times and the recovery options wouldn't do a thing about it. Maybe they wouldn't recognize the usb stick, I don't know. The last time around I made a Recovery Disk with my other usb stick. It only took 256mb somehow. Let's see if it works next time something goes wrong.
Have you had the same experience with the recovery modes/options? Have they worked for you?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Triple Boot Win7, Win8.1 and 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    OEM
    CPU
    FX6300 Black Edition
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte 78LMT-S2
    Memory
    8GB in 2 4GB Sticks
    Graphics Card(s)
    Onboard ATI Radeon HD3000
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate + 320GB Seagate
    PSU
    500W
    Case
    ATX
    Cooling
    TX3 Evo
    Keyboard
    Generic
    Mouse
    Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    30MB
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    None
Not sure about Toshiba but a true flash drive (usb) recovery is about 13GB. Not sure what you are creating at 256MB. These days that is barely a low level GUI.

What size usb stick are you using?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
Not sure about Toshiba but a true flash drive (usb) recovery is about 13GB. Not sure what you are creating at 256MB. These days that is barely a low level GUI.

What size usb stick are you using?

I used the "Recovery Drive" option within Windows 8.1 according to Microsoft themselves. I used the Search and typed Recovery Drive and this option came on, I clicked on it and followed the instructions, it says 256Mb is used making this Recovery Drive so I'm trusting it. I have no idea what 256Mb should or could do for me in case Windows 8.1 goes wrong but this was done according to Microsoft on their site when I searched the net for "Windows 8 Recovery USB". That's what came along. I hope it does something because 8.1's recovery options have done nothing for me so far. I suppose this is now a bootable usb stick which should take me to some recovery alternative in case things go wrong.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Triple Boot Win7, Win8.1 and 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    OEM
    CPU
    FX6300 Black Edition
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte 78LMT-S2
    Memory
    8GB in 2 4GB Sticks
    Graphics Card(s)
    Onboard ATI Radeon HD3000
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate + 320GB Seagate
    PSU
    500W
    Case
    ATX
    Cooling
    TX3 Evo
    Keyboard
    Generic
    Mouse
    Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    30MB
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    None
Hmmmm, my Acer has an Acer program than creates it. Don't know if you have a Toshiba program that does the same. I have heard, maybe wrongly, that Toshiba leaves people hanging in the wind when it comes to recovery.

Maybe what you have is simply a boot usb that accesses the recovery partition. All you can do is try it, don't have to recover, just see if it brings up a menu. Or, image first and go for the full monty and see if it works completely.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
Hmmmm, my Acer has an Acer program than creates it. Don't know if you have a Toshiba program that does the same. I have heard, maybe wrongly, that Toshiba leaves people hanging in the wind when it comes to recovery.

Maybe what you have is simply a boot usb that accesses the recovery partition. All you can do is try it, don't have to recover, just see if it brings up a menu. Or, image first and go for the full monty and see if it works completely.

In any case, I still have my main partition with reliable Windows 7 waiting for me. So if this Recovery Drive doesn't work I can always go back to it and either make me another Windows 8.1 usb stick or simply stick to Windows 7 finally.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Triple Boot Win7, Win8.1 and 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    OEM
    CPU
    FX6300 Black Edition
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte 78LMT-S2
    Memory
    8GB in 2 4GB Sticks
    Graphics Card(s)
    Onboard ATI Radeon HD3000
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate + 320GB Seagate
    PSU
    500W
    Case
    ATX
    Cooling
    TX3 Evo
    Keyboard
    Generic
    Mouse
    Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    30MB
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    None
Sounds like you really weren't looking for help, already had your mind made up. Sorry I couldn't help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
Why don't you just make frequent images. My system crashes on average once per week - that is self inflicted because I mess with the OS all the time. But with my images I always get up and running again in appr. 20 minutes.
Imaging with free Macrium - Windows 7 Help Forums
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
You mean an image of the whole hdd or just Windows 8?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Triple Boot Win7, Win8.1 and 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    OEM
    CPU
    FX6300 Black Edition
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte 78LMT-S2
    Memory
    8GB in 2 4GB Sticks
    Graphics Card(s)
    Onboard ATI Radeon HD3000
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate + 320GB Seagate
    PSU
    500W
    Case
    ATX
    Cooling
    TX3 Evo
    Keyboard
    Generic
    Mouse
    Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    30MB
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    None
Images go per partition. You image whatever you feel needs to be backed up - but at least the C partition and the EFI boot partition. Plus the data partition if you have a seperate data partition. But data and system usually need to be imaged at seperate times depending on how much they change.

Put the images on an external disk and disconnect that disk when not in use. Then you are safe.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
Images go per partition. You image whatever you feel needs to be backed up - but at least the C partition and the EFI boot partition. Plus the data partition if you have a seperate data partition. But data and system usually need to be imaged at seperate times depending on how much they change.

Put the images on an external disk and disconnect that disk when not in use. Then you are safe.

What software do you use to create these images? And how do you image the EFI boot partition?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Triple Boot Win7, Win8.1 and 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    OEM
    CPU
    FX6300 Black Edition
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte 78LMT-S2
    Memory
    8GB in 2 4GB Sticks
    Graphics Card(s)
    Onboard ATI Radeon HD3000
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate + 320GB Seagate
    PSU
    500W
    Case
    ATX
    Cooling
    TX3 Evo
    Keyboard
    Generic
    Mouse
    Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    30MB
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    None
Look at post #7 where I linked one of my tutorials. The EFI partition you image just like any other partition. You can image/restore several partitions together in 1 shot. Just check the ones you want. See picture for where the checkmarks are.

2014-03-29_0148.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
Look at post #7 where I linked one of my tutorials. The EFI partition you image just like any other partition. You can image/restore several partitions together in 1 shot. Just check the ones you want. See picture for where the checkmarks are.

View attachment 40468

Is the name of the program Macrium Reflect? By looking at the picture creating the images seems very straightforward. Then I suppose you replace those created images on your external hdd by newer ones from time to time, am I right? I'll take a look at post #7.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Triple Boot Win7, Win8.1 and 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    OEM
    CPU
    FX6300 Black Edition
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte 78LMT-S2
    Memory
    8GB in 2 4GB Sticks
    Graphics Card(s)
    Onboard ATI Radeon HD3000
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate + 320GB Seagate
    PSU
    500W
    Case
    ATX
    Cooling
    TX3 Evo
    Keyboard
    Generic
    Mouse
    Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    30MB
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    None
Look at post #7 where I linked one of my tutorials. The EFI partition you image just like any other partition. You can image/restore several partitions together in 1 shot. Just check the ones you want. See picture for where the checkmarks are.

View attachment 40468

Is the name of the program Macrium Reflect? By looking at the picture creating the images seems very straightforward. Then I suppose you replace those created images on your external hdd by newer ones from time to time, am I right? I'll take a look at post #7.

You should create a Macrium boot menu too:

screenshot_42.jpg

You insert the usb & restart & the Macrium Reflect booting options appear.

EDIT--
If you format the usb as NTFS you will end up with 1 big file.
Which makes things easier than if you format it as FAT 32.

FAT 32 can only make 4GB files.
You could end up with 5 or more files using it.
Which could be confusing. :(
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
Yes, you delete the old images when they are no more needed. I usually keep some of the first ones right after the system was installed (for a possible reinstall) and than 3 to 5 of the most recent ones. I image the OS appr. once per week and the data partition depending on changes.

I have 10 disks of several Terabyte capacity to where I image my 7 PCs. But for a single system one or 2 disks will suffice. I even make images of the systems that I run from USB flash drives. But for that you need a different program.

And then I also need to backup my 6 virtual systems. But that is a straight copy of the VMware folders. But all of that takes many Gigabytes of space.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
Yes, you delete the old images when they are no more needed. I usually keep some of the first ones right after the system was installed (for a possible reinstall) and than 3 to 5 of the most recent ones. I image the OS appr. once per week and the data partition depending on changes.

I have 10 disks of several Terabyte capacity to where I image my 7 PCs. But for a single system one or 2 disks will suffice. I even make images of the systems that I run from USB flash drives. But for that you need a different program.

And then I also need to backup my 6 virtual systems. But that is a straight copy of the VMware folders. But all of that takes many Gigabytes of space.
I've taken note of the name of the program. I'll first have to buy a large usb disk to then start making my own images. Until then I'll just have to be careful with my Windows 8.1 self-inflicted damaging, lol and also use Hiren's CD Boot to try and recover my system.

Thank you very much, you've been very helpful!

;-)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Triple Boot Win7, Win8.1 and 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    OEM
    CPU
    FX6300 Black Edition
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte 78LMT-S2
    Memory
    8GB in 2 4GB Sticks
    Graphics Card(s)
    Onboard ATI Radeon HD3000
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB Seagate + 320GB Seagate
    PSU
    500W
    Case
    ATX
    Cooling
    TX3 Evo
    Keyboard
    Generic
    Mouse
    Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    30MB
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    None
If you make the recovery drive and don't select the option to "Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive" you'll end up with a small recovery drive that will prompt for your install image when you try to do a Reset. It's a very basic limited recovery drive. To actually do a full reset with just that drive you have to check the option I mentioned above. For me it required a 16 GB thumb drive. The size of the drive needed is dependent on the size of the hidden OEM recovery partition and the image file in it.
 

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
Back
Top