Solved Anybody else have a good working computer ?

[Mooly]

@Mooly

OK, are you using compression for making 20gigs to 12gigs in aomei or is it like that when we normally make an image?

Except for the Windows update history, there is nothing else should i bother about in aomei right?

I'm using the default settings (as I do with Acronis). When you open AEOMI there is a one click "back up all that's needed to restore" option. Just give the backup a name (or leave it at the default name if you wish), tell it where to send the backup and then click start. Job done.

 

[Mooly]

When you have made a backup you can then add to that incrementally (or a differential) whenever you want. The incrementals are small and just give the changes since the last full backup.

Its very good for a free product. Try it and have confidence in it.

 

[CountMike]

Yes, you can partition it any way you like, no data loss in advance with something like my favorite EaseUS Partition Master - Best partition manager software just do yourself a favor and name partitions you have defined now with distinctive names so you don't confuse them while doing it. Name newly made partitions too, takes less guesswork later on.

 

[visruth]

Disc back or system backup?
Will it get restored properly with system backup alone without recovery partition?
Which is advisable,
N.B.: i have my recovery disks created but not yet checked if that works, (don't know how to do that )

 

[CountMike]

As far as I'm concerned, only full system disk backup, together with all the partitions on it is real backup. That way you end up with completely same thing you stared with and you can do anything you did before backup, including recovery from recovery disks etc. In case of that system HDD failure or just change to a larger one there's no hassles, just change disk, restore the backup you have made and in short time you're ready to go.
Considering that I don't have OEM windows or computer, no UEFI and factory backup partitions I made one backup with newly installed, virgin windows so I don't have to do contortions with activation and a fairly recent backup (once a month) of whole boot disk. I don't keep any data files on boot disk, I send everything to one of two other HDDS but they are also safely backed up again on other HDDs.

 

[visruth]

As far as I'm concerned, only full system disk backup, together with all the partitions on it is real backup. That way you end up with completely same thing you stared with and you can do anything you did before backup, including recovery from recovery disks etc. In case of that system HDD failure or just change to a larger one there's no hassles, just change disk, restore the backup you have made and in short time you're ready to go.
Considering that I don't have OEM windows or computer, no UEFI and factory backup partitions I made one backup with newly installed, virgin windows so I don't have to do contortions with activation and a fairly recent backup (once a month) of whole boot disk. I don't keep any data files on boot disk, I send everything to one of two other HDDS but they are also safely backed up again on other HDDs.

I have read some user reviews about not getting image restored to new hdd/ssd using certain restore softwares, i don't know if that applies to aomei too?

Does this activation issue come up specifically for recent image back ups?

I have just the opposite you have- i have factory installed partitions, oem windows, with product key in the BIOS, now what should i do? Will there be any problem while restoring?

I have also created the recovery discs out-of-box when I bought this lap.

 

[CountMike]

As far as I'm concerned, only full system disk backup, together with all the partitions on it is real backup. That way you end up with completely same thing you stared with and you can do anything you did before backup, including recovery from recovery disks etc. In case of that system HDD failure or just change to a larger one there's no hassles, just change disk, restore the backup you have made and in short time you're ready to go.
Considering that I don't have OEM windows or computer, no UEFI and factory backup partitions I made one backup with newly installed, virgin windows so I don't have to do contortions with activation and a fairly recent backup (once a month) of whole boot disk. I don't keep any data files on boot disk, I send everything to one of two other HDDS but they are also safely backed up again on other HDDs.

I have read some user reviews about not getting image restored to new hdd/ssd using certain restore softwares, i don't know if that applies to aomei too?

Does this activation issue come up specifically for recent image back ups?

I have just the opposite you have- i have factory installed partitions, oem windows, with product key in the BIOS, now what should i do? Will there be any problem while restoring?

I have also created the recovery discs out-of-box when I bought this lap.

Not if you make complete disk backup, all partitions, all files, everything. Of course that if you change anything, like restore to factory state etc. you'll have to do same backup again. When you are sure that everything is in good order you just delete old backup file, don't even have to make another media (CD or USB).

 

[visruth]

OK Mike, I'm going ahead with full disc image backup with aomei.

I still didn't get the thing about activation issue you explained to me that may arise when going for a image restore in an oem lap, if you could please clear me out?

 

[CountMike]

OK Mike, I'm going ahead with full disc image backup with aomei.

I still didn't get the thing about activation issue you explained to me that may arise when going for a image restore in an oem lap, if you could please clear me out?

No, with OEM windows and your setup there should be no activation issues at all unless you change MB. I, on other hand with "ordinary", (let's call it "store bought") Windows would have to activate them again if I did clean install. With full backup - restore I don't have to do anything else. That's main reason I backup first installation, I'm not adverse to install Windows, did it hundreds of times but this way it's more convenient.

 

[jimbo45]

Yes, you can partition it any way you like, no data loss in advance with something like my favorite EaseUS Partition Master - Best partition manager software just do yourself a favor and name partitions you have defined now with distinctive names so you don't confuse them while doing it. Name newly made partitions too, takes less guesswork later on.

Hi there

EASUS is not very good IMO -- download any Linux distro live CD - OPENSUSE for example and start GPARTED. If GPARTED doesn't exist in your version just install it from the distros package manager. Or download the Stand alone version of GPARTED -- works flawlessly for managing partitions and re-sizes them easily too. If you don't have a DVD / CD then create a bootable USB version - both the Linux live CD downloads and GPARTED have instructions on creating bootable USB devices.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[visruth]

OK Mike, I'm going ahead with full disc image backup with aomei.

I still didn't get the thing about activation issue you explained to me that may arise when going for a image restore in an oem lap, if you could please clear me out?

No, with OEM windows and your setup there should be no activation issues at all unless you change MB. I, on other hand with "ordinary", (let's call it "store bought") Windows would have to activate them again if I did clean install. With full backup - restore I don't have to do anything else.

Thanks for making it clear , its so not properly explained anywhere that I could understand

Thanks for the help guys, David, Mike , Mooley... :thumb:

 

[visruth]

Yes, you can partition it any way you like, no data loss in advance with something like my favorite EaseUS Partition Master - Best partition manager software just do yourself a favor and name partitions you have defined now with distinctive names so you don't confuse them while doing it. Name newly made partitions too, takes less guesswork later on.

Hi there

EASUS is not very good IMO -- download any Linux distro live CD - OPENSUSE for example and start GPARTED. If GPARTED doesn't exist in your version just install it from the distros package manager. Or download the Stand alone version of GPARTED -- works flawlessly for managing partitions and re-sizes them easily too. If you don't have a DVD / CD then create a bootable USB version - both the Linux live CD downloads and GPARTED have instructions on creating bootable USB devices.

Cheers
jimbo

I'm new here & new to these partitioning, please post a tutorial or guide me through it if you could.
Where can I get opensuse - gparted? Where can I get distros package manager or standalone version of gparted?
Is there a reliable link so that you could post it here.

Do Gparted work in partitioning the EHDD without any hassles?

 

[CountMike]

Gparted works just fine but it has to be on another boot media, it's on Linux and if you make a mistake and do it on a wrong HDD it will let you screw up system. With a windows program, running from windows it will not let you do anything to system that can hurt it.
Here's Gparted and instructions for it. Just remember not to do ANYTHING to your Boot HDD.

 

[visruth]

Gparted works just fine but it has to be on another boot media, it's on Linux and if you make a mistake and do it on a wrong HDD it will let you screw up system. With a windows program, running from windows it will not let you do anything to system that can hurt it.
Here's Gparted and instructions for it. Just remember not to do ANYTHING to your Boot HDD.

I'll do the partitioning in the WD 2TB i have, for image back up into that partition.
Boot media means my c:\ drive isn't it? - No I'll not do that in my internal hdd.

I didn't get the instructions

 

[CountMike]

Gparted works just fine but it has to be on another boot media, it's on Linux and if you make a mistake and do it on a wrong HDD it will let you screw up system. With a windows program, running from windows it will not let you do anything to system that can hurt it.
Here's Gparted and instructions for it. Just remember not to do ANYTHING to your Boot HDD.

I'll do the partitioning in the WD 2TB i have, for image back up into that partition.
Boot media means my c:\ drive isn't it? - No I'll not do that in my internal hdd.

I didn't get the instructions

Ugh, sorry, that's because I forgot the link GParted -- Live CD/USB/PXE/HD
Yes BOOT drive means your physical, inside disk with all the partitions. Do you already have anything on that external drive ? Is it formatted all in one piece and does it show a letter in Disk management or My Computer ?

 

[visruth]

Gparted works just fine but it has to be on another boot media, it's on Linux and if you make a mistake and do it on a wrong HDD it will let you screw up system. With a windows program, running from windows it will not let you do anything to system that can hurt it.
Here's Gparted and instructions for it. Just remember not to do ANYTHING to your Boot HDD.

I'll do the partitioning in the WD 2TB i have, for image back up into that partition.
Boot media means my c:\ drive isn't it? - No I'll not do that in my internal hdd.

I didn't get the instructions

Ugh, sorry, that's because I forgot the link GParted -- Live CD/USB/PXE/HD
Yes BOOT drive means your physical, inside disk with all the partitions. Do you already have anything on that external drive ? Is it formatted all in one piece and does it show a letter in Disk management or My Computer ?

Yes, I have my files, folders, wd backups. I have not done anything since I got it, just backing up through WD app & copying some others files in addition.

Any advice on partition size I have to choose?

Here is the screenshot of

Disk management:



My External HDD:

 

[Mooly]

One comment regarding your OEM recovery partition and this is something I found out the hard way although it was no major problem (for me) because I would never have wanted to do a factory restore with all the bloatware and so on. I have a Dell PC and when you restore an image (in my case with Acronis) that overwrites some unique Dell code and means that the recovery partition no longer works. You can create recovery discs to get around that though. Again in my case, I just completely blitzed all the partitions and deleted them all and then did a clean install of W7/W8.1


Its just something to be aware of and may or may not apply to other PC's.

 

[CountMike]

To tell you frankly, I would not even partition it now until the backup is made and see how much space it's going to take.

 

[visruth]

One comment regarding your OEM recovery partition and this is something I found out the hard way although it was no major problem (for me) because I would never have wanted to do a factory restore with all the bloatware and so on. I have a Dell PC and when you restore an image (in my case with Acronis) that overwrites some unique Dell code and means that the recovery partition no longer works. You can create recovery discs to get around that though. Again in my case, I just completely blitzed all the partitions and deleted them all and then did a clean install of W7/W8.1


Its just something to be aware of and may or may not apply to other PC's.

OK, so i have to make two backups now, since i don't know what is going to work. Anyway I'll try backing up both disc image & system image.
Few doubts though:
1.
Will restoring the system image several times subsequently, whenever the need comes, with newer system images , would cause any harm to the working of the system & would give rise to any product key activation issue as Mike suggested earlier.?

2.
Since I'm having the recovery discs of my factory installed os,
will the restoring from it cause any problems later on when the need comes,? --
Assuming at that time, I'm having the system image loaded & I'm working on the system with restored image.

3.
After doing a clean install with oem iso and it getting automatically activated,
later on there comes a point I have to restore from my recovery discs created out-of-box by me, will that work or

Should i have to do clean installation again or system image restore of the clean installed os?

 

[CountMike]

One comment regarding your OEM recovery partition and this is something I found out the hard way although it was no major problem (for me) because I would never have wanted to do a factory restore with all the bloatware and so on. I have a Dell PC and when you restore an image (in my case with Acronis) that overwrites some unique Dell code and means that the recovery partition no longer works. You can create recovery discs to get around that though. Again in my case, I just completely blitzed all the partitions and deleted them all and then did a clean install of W7/W8.1


Its just something to be aware of and may or may not apply to other PC's.

The "secret" is to backup WHOLE DISK, all the partitions, whole kitten caboodle, not only system, that way you get everything back as it was after such restoration. Restoring using system restore, with system restore disk is different than restoring whole disk using Acronis or Macrium reflect or other programs like that. Using some "live boot disk" with backup program to backup everything might not even care what OS is there, just backup and restore whatever there was on disk.