System Image Recovery - Restore Image on Computer in Windows 8

How to Do a System Image Recovery in Windows 8 and 8.1​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to restore the contents of your Windows 8 or 8.1 PC back to how it was at the time a system image was created if your hard disk or entire computer ever stops working.

   Warning

• You can only do a system image recovery to a HDD or SSD that is the same size or larger than the one(s) included in the system image when it was created. You will not be able to do a system image recovery to a smaller HDD/SSD. If the HDDs/SSDs are larger, then you will have "unallocated" space afterwards that is left over from the difference that you can extend into.
• When you restore your computer from a system image, it is a complete restoration. You can't choose individual items to restore, and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced with those on the system image.
• If your system image is on an external or removable device (ex: USB drive), then make sure it is connected before starting. If it's a USB device, then make sure that you also have your BIOS settings (ex: Legacy USB) set to allow USB devices to be recognized at boot.

Here's How:


1. Boot to the System Recovery Options screen, and click/tap on the System Image Recovery option. (see screenshot below)

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2. If prompted, choose the OS (ex: Windows 8) that you want to do a System Image Recovery with. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You will usually only see this if you booted from a Windows 8 installation DVD or USB thumb drive, or ISO file if in a virtual machine.

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3. If prompted, select and click/tap on an administrator account on the computer that you are doing a system image recovery on. (see screenshot below)

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4. Type in the password for the selected administrator account, and click/tap on Continue. (see screenshot below)

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5. Do step 6 or 7 below for which system image you wanted to use.

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   Note

If you get a Windows cannot find a system image on this computer message, then see:

   Note

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How to Load SATA Drivers in Windows 8 System Image Recovery​

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6. To Use the Latest Available System Image

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A) Select (dot) Use the latest available system image, click/tap on Next, and go to step 8 below. (see screenshot below)​

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7. To Select to Use Another System Image

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A) Select (dot) Select a system image, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot above)​

NOTE: This is if the system image that you want to use is not listed here, and/or is saved at another location that you wish to choose from instead. If you saved your system image to a set of DVDs instead of a HDD/SSD, then insert the last DVD from the image set first.​

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B) Select the location of the system image for the computer that you want to restore, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshots below)​

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   Note

To add a image from a network location, click on the Advanced button, and on the Search for a system image on the network option.

   Note

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If the drive cannot be seen to select a system image from, then you may need to use the tutorial below to load your SATA or RAID drivers before it will be seen. You would click on the Advanced button, and on the Install a driver option.​

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SATA Drivers - Load in Windows 8 System Image Recovery​

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C) Select a system image with the date and time that you want to restore, click/tap on Next, and go to step 8 below. (see screenshot below)​

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8. Do step 9, 10, or 11 below depending on what options you have and would like to do. (see screenshots below)

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   Note

Format and repartition disks box:

   Note

NOTE: Special thanks to MJF for this addition.​

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1) Grayed out and selected​

You are forced to have the whole disk formatted and repartitioned to match the partition structure of the disk the image was made from. This can occur when restoring an image to a new disk or the original disk with a modified partition structure. Data on other partitions on the disk you are restoring to will be lost.​

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2) Grayed out and unselected​

You are not given the option to format and repartition the disk. This will occur if you are restoring Windows from a partition on the same disk.​

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3) Not grayed out and unselected​

Here you have the option to select format the whole disk and repartition or not. In this case the disk the image was taken from has a matching partition structure to the disk you are restoring the image to. By not selecting the format and repartition option your image will be restored and other partitions untouched such as valuable data partitions.​

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9. To Do a Full System Image Recovery
NOTE: Use this option if you want to delete any existing partitions and format all disks on this computer to match the layout of what was included in the system image when it was created.

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A) Check the Format and repartition disks box (if not grayed out) and uncheck the Only restore system drives box (if available), and click/tap on Next. (see screenshots below step 8)​

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B) Go to step 11 or 12 below.​

10. To Only Restore System Drives from System Image
NOTE: Use this option if you want to format and restore only the drives from your system image that are required to run Windows. If the system image included that you moved anything like your page file, user folders, or user profile to another drive location than the default C, then that drive location(s) will also be formated and restored to how it was in the system image. If you have separate data drives, they will not be restored.

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A) If an available option, check the Only restore system drives box, click/tap on Next, and go to step 12 below. (see bottom screenshot below 8)​

11. To Exclude Restoring Specific Drives when Doing a System Image Recovery
NOTE: This option will allow you to exclude specific disks from the restore process to make sure that these disks will not be formated or repartitioned.

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A) Check the Format and repartition disks box (if not grayed out), and click/tap on the Exclude disks button (if not grayed out). (see screenshots below step 8)​

NOTE: If the Exclude disks button is grayed out, then the HDD that you are restoring to is empty, or you do not have any disks in the system image that are able to be excluded from being restored.​

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B) Check the disks that you want to exclude from being restored from the system image, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)​

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C) Click/tap on Next, and go to step 12 below. (see screenshots below step 8)​

12. When finished selecting what you want to restore from the system image, click/tap on Finish. (see screenshot below)

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13. Click/tap on Yes. (see screenshot below)

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14. You will now see this screenshot below.
NOTE: If you have the system image on DVDs (step 7A), then have them ready to insert them as prompted.

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15. When it is finished, click/tap on the Restart now button. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You will have 60 seconds before the computer restarts automatically.

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Manually Extract System Image Files Using Disk Management in Windows 8
• How to Load SATA Drivers in Windows 8 System Image Recovery
• How to Create a System Image in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Refresh Windows 8
• How to Refresh Windows 8 Using a Custom Recovery Image
• How to Reset Windows 8
• How to Restore Files and Folders from a Backup in Windows 8
• How to Do a System Restore in Windows 8
• How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 8 without Losing Anything

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

I hope I don't mess this up, as I'm going to try to respond to both Shawn and Hoody in the same post.

Thank you to both of you for your speedy and easy to understand replies. Hoody: I actually spent several years working on a bespoke software helpdesk with Users who had no interest in how the software worked, they just wanted to get on with their job. But I always had techies on hand to deal with the difficult hardware and OS questions. I hope I've found some friendly new techies here as I do inevitably have a few more questions and would appreciate comments from you both...

Specific questions are in red to make sure they don't get lost in my narrative

I noted the comments from both of you on using System Images (more below on this) but I do also like the idea of having the ability to revert to factory state in case all else fails (or I decide to give a laptop away lol).

I read the tutorial on creating the USB recovery drive using Windows (Is this the same as a WinPE boot disc mentioned by Hoody?).

At one point in the tutorial it states:

This is not the same as an OEM factory recovery USB flash drive that is used to do a factory recovery/restore of your preinstalled Windows 8.

Later in the tutorial it states:

If you have a store bought OEM computer that came with Windows 8 preinstalled, then you could also check the Copy contents from the recovery partition to the recovery drive box to be able to use the recovery USB flash drive to do a factory restore/recovery of Windows 8.

These seem to contradict one another. If I copy the recovery partition when creating this USB does this mean I am in fact creating the equivalent of an OEM factory recovery USB as well as a bootable USB?

If they are the same thing then I am thinking of replacing my current Dell Backup & Recovery (DBR) created Reinstallation USBs with new ones created through Windows. One reason for this is that I have not yet created any factory restore media through Dell and would need additional USBs to do this, while it seems that creating a recovery USB through Windows could give me everything I need in a smaller package (the USBs are 16gb). But would I be missing anything if I did not also have the Dell USBs? And BTW the USBs are FAT32 while Windows uses NTFS. Does this matter?

Actually I'm not sure whether I have created any factory restore media or not. I know I haven't used this specific option in DBR but my Reinstallation USB (called SYSRECOVERY - why can't people stick to the same terminology???) has the following on it:

Folders: Boot, EFI, Preload, Recovery

Preload includes folder Part0001 with file called Base.wim
Recovery includes folder WinRE with file WinRE.wim

Files: Autorun, Bootmgr, Bootmgr.efi, Master, Media

So to me this looks like it contains some sort of Windows Images. But the Dell site talks about creating this USB AND a factory image, and I can't find out what the difference is. Forum posts seem to use several terms interchangeably which makes it difficult for me to understand if they are talking about the same thing or something different sometimes.

And I am assuming that I can still create a factory backup despite the laptops now bearing no resemblence to their original factory state?

(I hope I haven't sent either of you to sleep yet )

Moving on to System Images.

Using a Custom System Image if I want to refresh the OS is something I will think about. I have read the tutorial and think it should be fairly simple to use my latest Image in this way - just need some discipline to remember to do it! In the past I have found the idea of throwing the laptop out of a window refreshing, shame it wouldn't have the same effect though.

I do actually have Macrium Reflect free and did create a bootable DVD with this and tried to create a System Image (this was Plan A after I read about problems with both Dell and Windows options). The plan was to alternate my backups between 2 external hard drives but unfortunately the System Image failed, I think because one hard drive is FAT32. I do still like the idea of having an alternative to Windows so am considering buying 2 new hard drives purely for backups and trying Macrium again. The idea would be to create System Images using both Windows and Macrium. Not quite as over-kill as hoody but definitely getting there!
I am assuming that I only need 1 Macrium bootable DVD that will work on both laptops - is this correct?

And do you have any other comments or advice on my plans?

Thank you

 

[Brink]

Answers inline.

I read the tutorial on creating the USB recovery drive using Windows (Is this the same as a WinPE boot disc mentioned by Hoody?).

At one point in the tutorial it states:

This is not the same as an OEM factory recovery USB flash drive that is used to do a factory recovery/restore of your preinstalled Windows 8.

Correct. This would not be a factory recovery drive without the recovery partition (below) copied to it. It will be the same as WinPE.​

Later in the tutorial it states:

If you have a store bought OEM computer that came with Windows 8 preinstalled, then you could also check the Copy contents from the recovery partition to the recovery drive box to be able to use the recovery USB flash drive to do a factory restore/recovery of Windows 8.

These seem to contradict one another. If I copy the recovery partition when creating this USB does this mean I am in fact creating the equivalent of an OEM factory recovery USB as well as a bootable USB?

If you copied the recovery partition, then you could use it to reset Windows back to factory conditions if that option is supported by the OEM.​

If they are the same thing then I am thinking of replacing my current Dell Backup & Recovery (DBR) created Reinstallation USBs with new ones created through Windows. One reason for this is that I have not yet created any factory restore media through Dell and would need additional USBs to do this, while it seems that creating a recovery USB through Windows could give me everything I need in a smaller package (the USBs are 16gb). But would I be missing anything if I did not also have the Dell USBs? And BTW the USBs are FAT32 while Windows uses NTFS. Does this matter?

I would recommend to keep the Dell USBs. That would be Dell's supported method to use to do a factory restore with.​

And I am assuming that I can still create a factory backup despite the laptops now bearing no resemblence to their original factory state?

Yes. Creating a factory backup would have nothing to do with your current state of Windows. It's only to create the USB to use to do a factory image later if needed.​

Moving on to System Images.

Using a Custom System Image if I want to refresh the OS is something I will think about. I have read the tutorial and think it should be fairly simple to use my latest Image in this way - just need some discipline to remember to do it! In the past I have found the idea of throwing the laptop out of a window refreshing, shame it wouldn't have the same effect though.

A Custom Recovery Image is not the same as a System Image.

A system image is backup of the complete image of everything on the selected hard drives that can restore them back to how they were.

A custom recovery image is a backup of only Windows and not the hard drive. More details in that tutorial.​

I do actually have Macrium Reflect free and did create a bootable DVD with this and tried to create a System Image (this was Plan A after I read about problems with both Dell and Windows options). The plan was to alternate my backups between 2 external hard drives but unfortunately the System Image failed, I think because one hard drive is FAT32. I do still like the idea of having an alternative to Windows so am considering buying 2 new hard drives purely for backups and trying Macrium again. The idea would be to create System Images using both Windows and Macrium. Not quite as over-kill as hoody but definitely getting there!
I am assuming that I only need 1 Macrium bootable DVD that will work on both laptops - is this correct?

And do you have any other comments or advice on my plans?

Thank you

Yep, the drive needs to be NTFS to save a system image to it.

It's never overkill to have a few backup images. You'll wish you had them if needed because the other failed.​

 

[HOODY]

Well looks like Brink got there and pretty much gave you your answers

You seem to be wrapped up a bit in this "backup" stuff to a point that is clouding your senses lol, its not all that hard, just make sure to have the OEM restore usb/disks to restore the system back to the way you got it if you intend to give it away later and want to have it "cleaned" as close as possible (although just remember any sensitive stuff could still be recovered, but it would take more than the usual user) the only way to be sure your "stuff" would never be accessed if you wanted to get rid of the unit is to pull the HD completely and replace it, and destroy the HD yourself, and than do a restore on a clean HD, but I doubt you'd need to go that far.

Once you have your "original" system recovery USB/Disks, all you really need from that point on is a good Image backup program, to Image the partition as you have it set up at the time you did the backup, that's all your really concerned about while you own the unit, why would you want to go back to say W8 after you go through the updating and programs installing and settings you have to date?, makes no sense, you want your unit recovered to the point you had it working to your liking.

MR is good as far as I know, I don't use that one, try out AOMEI backerupper 2, or EASEUS 6.5, both have a free version, however the boot disk you get is a linux based disk, not the winPE, to get the WinPE enviroment, you need the Pro version, I'm not sure but maybe you can d/l EASUS home trial and see if it will make you the WinPE boot disk during the 30 day trial, if so that disk will always work later, or sometimes sharewareonsale has it free at times.

As for the rest Brink has posted on your questions so nothing else to say there.

Anyway your much more in tune with "tech" stuff than most , maybe even more than me lol I'm sure you'll be fine.

btw I was up till 0530 this morning myself re doing a neighbors laptop lolol,

good luck.

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

Thank you both again.

I agree Hoody - I think my senses may be a little clouded but the advice from you and Shawn is definitely helping to clear things up for me. Just need to acquire some new USBs and hard drives to get everything sorted now.

I will definitely be back here if and when I get another challenge

Maggy

 

[David Bailey]

What is the simplest method?

In my opinion----

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

I use the paid version.
Very good way to image your system.

edit--- Looks like others posted while I was in the process of posting.

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

What is the simplest method?

In my opinion----

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

I use the paid version.
Very good way to image your system.

edit--- Looks like others posted while I was in the process of posting.

Thank you anyway, another positive vote for Macrium is additional confirmation of my plans.

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

Well I said I'd be back...

Just to clarify something Shawn said:

I plan to creat bootable Windows recovery USBs for each laptop that includes my recovery partition. Looking in disk management I can see 3 recovery partitions: 500mb, 350mb and 8.31gb respectively (all of which are apparently 100% free space).

Would all these 3 partitions be copied onto my recovery drive?

I believe that most USBs are FAT32 so would I need to reformat a USB to NTFS to take that 8gb partition?

Or am I confusing my files and partitions?

I am looking at buying Kingston USBs. Would these be suitable if I need to do any formatting?

Thank you again

 

[Brink]

If you check the box to copy your recovery partition, then they should be included. Those USBs should be fine as long as they are large enough.

Since this is for a Dell PC, I would recommend to create a reinstall disk (rescue disk) using their method to have handy if needed in the future.

Dell Backup and Recovery | Dell US

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

Just thought I'd give an update - and of course a new question

Thanks to all the help I've received here I now have a Windows recovery USB for each laptop plus 2 new external hard drives to use purely for backups. One of these has the most recent System Image for each laptop on it, the other has a slightly older one. Plus I have free-ed up a lot of space on my original external drive for all my data.

So now I am pretty happy with my setup.

I already had Dell recovery USBs and, following advice on the Dell site, also created factory back-ups on USB. These appear to be exactly the same thing as the recovery USBs, given the size and file structure, so I posted a question on the Dell forum to find out if this was correct. Sadly, there hasn't been a response yet (not as keen as you guys here ).

I also wanted to use Macrium Reflect free edition to create alternative System Images and cover all bases. I have successfully created a recovery DVD with Macrium, but have not been able to create the System Image. I get the following message:

Backup aborted! - Unable to read from disk - Error Code 23 - Data error (cyclic redundancy check).

I looked on the Macrium site and this suggests the above could be suggestive of a hard disk on its way out (I sincerely hope not after just 10 months). I did a check disk for errors and found none (I ran the check even though no errors found). QUESTION COMING UP: So I'd appreciate some advice on what to do now regarding the Macrium backup please. Should I keep trying in case it was a one-off (though it has happened twice now).? Or should I forget Macrium and trust that I have enough Windows and Dell based options? Thank you

 

[David Bailey]

Have you tried this---



See this link---

http://www.eightforums.com/software-apps/48312-using-macrium-reflect.html

Hope this helps.

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

I did choose the option to image all local drives, not the one to image what is needed to restore Windows. I'm not sure which option I chose the first time I tried this, as it was at the beginning of June. I haven't made any changes to the laptop (partitions for example) as I don't really understand these and don't know why I would need them, so I don't know if the 2 options would be any different in my case .

I read your tutorial. I have created the Macrium DVD and checked that it can be used to boot the laptop but I haven't added the boot menu option for Macrium or changed the boot menu in any way.

I wasn't sure whether I should just change it to boot from a USB or DVD first (can I do both?) or just rely on using F12 to get into the boot options if I actually need to do any repair or recovery.

 

[David Bailey]

The Macrium boot environment will save you a few headaches.

 

[HOODY]

Check out this new program, it may be something your looking for.

One Key Recovery - Create a Factory Restore Partition with AOMEI OneKey Recovery

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

Check out this new program, it may be something your looking for.

One Key Recovery - Create a Factory Restore Partition with AOMEI OneKey Recovery

Thank you Hoody. Not sure I'm up to using something that's still at the beta stage but I will keep this in mind.

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

The Macrium boot environment will save you a few headaches.

I have looked at the information on the Macrium site about the boot option, and to be honest I'm not sure what exactly this would add to what I have already. See screenshot below:

It seems that the boot option allows restoration of the system without the need to use a CD. However at the bottom it advises to also create the CD in case of disk failure or to upgrade. So presumably the boot option is not for all situations. Is that correct?

And if I am unable to successfully create a System Image through Macrium then I guess it doesn't matter whether I have the boot menu option and/or the CD as neither will be of any use to me . And short of keep trying to make the System Image and hoping it will succeed at some point I'm not sure what to do now as regards Macrium.

 

[EduPuixa]

Hi everyone!
I recently bought new ultrabook (just a week ago ) and also switched to Win 8.1 Pro on my desktop PC. And I'm little frustrated about system restore over network. I created system image for my ultrabook through network on my PC. Then I tried to restore, but couldn't get to correct directory (there is no browse functionality when booted from USB for recovering). I guess I get the dirrectory, or part of it, right, cause I was asked for "Network Credentials" and that's where I'm stuck right now. I just don't know what username and pasword I need to provide. While I created System image I was asked for user and pas, but it is not working. And my Mycrosoft account username and pas also doesn't work. And when I try it, it changes the Domain
BTY, I can easily acces Image directory when I login to windows.

I have read many articles about Recovery/Restore and I think I can handle the process, but information about restore through network is scarse and hart to find. This tutorial was really helpfull and I hope I can get some more clarification from someone with more expirience in this process.

Edu_Puixa

 

[David Bailey]

The Macrium boot environment will save you a few headaches.

I have looked at the information on the Macrium site about the boot option, and to be honest I'm not sure what exactly this would add to what I have already. See screenshot below:

It seems that the boot option allows restoration of the system without the need to use a CD. However at the bottom it advises to also create the CD in case of disk failure or to upgrade. So presumably the boot option is not for all situations. Is that correct?

And if I am unable to successfully create a System Image through Macrium then I guess it doesn't matter whether I have the boot menu option and/or the CD as neither will be of any use to me . And short of keep trying to make the System Image and hoping it will succeed at some point I'm not sure what to do now as regards Macrium.

The boot option really helps to restore easily.

After you format your usb as NTFS & make your image you just insert the usb & restart to get the Macrium boot environment where you select the inserted usb & proceed to restore your computer.

With maximum compression I can make an image on a 32 GB usb.{around 21 GBs}

Your screenshot is out of date---



See this link---

http://www.eightforums.com/software-apps/48312-using-macrium-reflect.html

& this link---

http://www.eightforums.com/software-apps/51665-how-i-use-macrium.html

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

The boot option really helps to restore easily.

After you format your usb as NTFS & make your image you just insert the usb & restart to get the Macrium boot environment where you select the inserted usb & proceed to restore your computer.

With maximum compression I can make an image on a 32 GB usb.{around 21 GBs}

Your screenshot is out of date---

View attachment 51038

See this link---

http://www.eightforums.com/software-apps/48312-using-macrium-reflect.html

& this link---

http://www.eightforums.com/software-apps/51665-how-i-use-macrium.html

Thanks for this, David.

My out of date screenshot was from the Macrium site. When I created my recovery cd it was Windows PE 5.0.

I haven't done anything more with Macrium because I never resolved the problem with it working on my second laptop, but your information is helping to add to my knowledge. Interesting that you are backing up over 50gb onto a 32gb usb. My backups are around 80gb so I think an external HDD will probably work better for me.

Do you have your recovery media (as recommended in case of hard disk failure) on the same usb? And do you overwrite the image with a new one, or use a different usb.

I watched your video and saw you were working on it at 5am on a Monday morning. What's wrong with sleeping?

 

[David Bailey]

Do you have your recovery media (as recommended in case of hard disk failure) on the same usb? And do you overwrite the image with a new one, or use a different usb.

I watched your video and saw you were working on it at 5am on a Monday morning. What's wrong with sleeping?

I have it on a separate usb.

When making a new image I format the usb first.
That wipes out the old image & makes room for the new one.
I keep 2 images at all times.

I'm retired.
My sleep habits vary.
I can stay up or sleep as I wish.

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

I watched your video and saw you were working on it at 5am on a Monday morning. What's wrong with sleeping?

I'm retired.
My sleep habits vary.
I can stay up or sleep as I wish.

Well sort of: not old enough to retire but not working. But I seem to sleep more. Fortunately my headaches with my laptops don't stop me snoozing well into the morning