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

 

[ingber]

Shawn:

Thanks for your posting, but no, I reject that as a reasonable alternative. I would do that as an unreasonable alternative if I had to replace my computer, but I want to know if I can work with this extra SSD without taking my PC down.

Lester

 

[SIW2]

You should be able to do that with wbadmin.exe. It is laborious.

wbadmin.exe /restore ? at cmd prompt will show you how.

Iiirc restore commands are only available from winpe in client editions.

 

[SIW2]

I just booted up my 81 winpe and had a look:



You may be able to do it from within windows if you are running server or enterprise.

 

[ingber]

SIW2:

I'll look into this.

Thanks.

Lester

You should be able to do that with wbadmin.exe. It is laborious.

wbadmin.exe /restore ? at cmd prompt will show you how.

Iiirc restore commands are only available from winpe in client editions.

 

[Paul8472]

Hi everyone,
i'm to restore an image to my laptop following hard drive failure and am not so good with computers and am having a slight problem.
I've tried following the tutorial but when it gets to stage 14 I get the message above.
my recovery media is on a USB stick and the image is on my portable hard drive. I created the media and image using windows 8.
I would be grateful for any ideas please.

many thanks and Happy New Year

Paul

 

[Brink]

Hello Paul, and welcome to Eight Forums.

It doesn't look like you're going to be able to restore the image. You might see if you may be able to use the method in the tutorial below to try and manually recover any files you may want from the system image.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/17524-system-image-extract-files-using-disk-management.html

 

[Paul8472]

Hi Brink,

Thank you for that. I had also done a file back-up so I have all of the files and pics etc., but was hoping to restore all of the software as well but that is what I feared.

many thanks for your reply though. Better get downloading!!

All the best and thanks again

Paul

 

[Brink]

You're welcome.

That's the only bad thing about a system image. If Windows doesn't recognize it, then it usually will not work.

If you like, you might also consider using Macrium Reflect for image backups as well.

Imaging with free Macrium - Windows 7 Help Forums

MACRIUM REFLECT - Create Bootable Rescue USB Drive - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[Ridge08]

I have been going crazy trying to restore my Toshiba Satellite Windows 8 laptop from a system image I created after I bought the computer and set it up the way I wanted it. This is what I've done:

- I created a recovery drive on a 16GB USB stick
- I boot from the usb and enter the recovery screen or whatever it's called
- I select, Troubleshoot, Advanced Options, System Image Recovery

With my external hard drive attached, I select the image I want to recover from (the last step of #7 above). And every time, after I click 'next' I get the message:

"To restore this computer, Windows needs to format the drive that the Windows Recovery Environment is currently running on. To continue with the restore, shut down this computer and boot it from a Windows Installataion disk or a system repair disk and try the restore again"

I am booting from a system repair disk, with the recovery partition copied to it. I can't figure out why it thinks I'm running from the hard drive.

The 'drives in backup' listed:
EFI System Partition, C:, \\?\\Volume{ .... some long hex number ....}

Any clues?

 

[Brink]

Hello Ridge, and welcome to Eight Forums.

If you area able to boot into Windows, you might see if you are able to boot to the startup options screen using OPTION THREE to boot to Advanced Startup to then do a system image recovery.

 

[Ridge08]

Thank you for replying so quickly. I was able to try that and I still get the same exact error.

To restore this computer, Windows needs to format the drive that the windows recovery environment is currently running on.....

 

[Brink]

What method did you use to boot from the USB recovery drive?

Did you boot to your boot menu, and select to boot from the USB?

 

[Ridge08]

I tried going to change pc settings, general, scroll all the way to bottom and select restart or something. Then I chose boot from device and I chose the USB.

I also restarted my computer and hit F12 to get the boot options and selected the USB

I also restarted my computer and hit F12 to get the boot options and selected HDD Recovery

I think I've tried everything. I posted my question on the toshiba site and haven't received an answer yet.

I was able to boot from the recovery partition and restore the laptop to factory settings, and am now in the process of installing programs. I was able to save my data files separate from the system image, so didn't lose anything.

But, I'm just STUMPED. I can't figure out what is wrong. I'd like to know that if I go through the trouble of creating a system image, I will be able to restore from it at some point, so I'd like to solve this problem

 

[Brink]

You might consider using the free Macrium Reflect to create images with instead. It's a bit more reliable.

Imaging with free Macrium - Windows 7 Help Forums

MACRIUM REFLECT - Create Bootable Rescue USB Drive - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[lvbaal]

Hi!
Thanks so much for this great tutorial Brink.
However, I stumble upon a problem which prevents me from recovery. Hope you can help. Am am on Windows 8.1.
In step 6 I am presented With the recovery image on an attached USB drive. When I press Next I see the following dialogue (translated from Norwegian, so I am not sure I am using the correct English equivalents):

¨Choose recovery options.
The drive on which the Windows Recovery Environment runs needs to be formattted to recover the PC. If you want to continue recovery, shut Down the PC and start from a Windows installation disk or System repair disk, to retry the recovery.
If you don't have a system repair disk, you can create one now¨.

I don't have a Windows installation disk. Asus has put a recovery partition on the drive. Also I do not have a CD drive.

Can you advise please?

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

What is the simplest method?

Hello,

This is my first post on this forum so apologies if it is in the wrong place. The more I read about backing up and restoring my system, the more confused I get about the different options. What I am looking for is a straightforward, minimally technical answer to what (I think) are fairly simple questions . I've seen some very helpful replies on these tutorial threads so am hoping someone can also help me.

I have 2 Dell Inspiron 15 laptops, both purchased at the same time (autumn 2013) pre-installed with Win8. After purchase, recovery (reinstallation?) USBs were created for both using Dell's Backup and Recovery program.

Both laptops have now been upgraded to Win8.1 via the Store.

Windows backup functionality is used regularly to make System Images of both laptops onto an external hard drive. In addition, files are also copied regularly, either via Filehistory or manually. I have mounted the System Images and viewed the contents (I'm not totally untechnical, but nor am I overconfident).

My questions are:

Is the System Image the only thing I need (and the best way) to restore a laptop to a recent (i.e. Win8.1) state in the event of an OS or hardware failure?

If this is sufficient I can't understand why I would need to create the various recovery media and factory back-ups through Dell and/or through Windows (I've been advised to do both). Can anyone explain what the different things do and which (if any) I actually need?

I'm also unsure whether I need to create a bootable USB and if so, whether I should create this using the Dell functionality, the Windows functionality or both .

All I am trying to do is have the necessary tools in place to restore the laptops in the event of a problem. But if I do everything I have read I suspect I will have a pile of tools that I don't really know how to use, and that may not work anyway.

If there is already a tutorial which covers these basic questions, I'm more than happy to be redirected to it, but I couldn't find anything that covered it all.

Thank you

 

[Brink]

Hello Maggy,

Factory restore media is used to restore Windows back to the out of box experience like it was when you first got the computer. It would be a good idea to create this to have handy. This way if a system image should fail, you will have this as an option.

A system image is one good method that is included in Windows that you could use to restore Windows back to how it was when the image was created. You should create a recovery drive to use if you are unable to boot to Windows. This way you could use the recovery drive to do a system image recovery with.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5132-recovery-drive-create-usb-flash-drive-windows-8-a.html​

If you like, you could also create a custom recovery image to have as another method to use to refresh Windows with as needed.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/3610-refresh-windows-8-create-use-custom-recovery-image.html​

Of course, there are many free 3rd party backup and system image options like below out there you could use as well.

• AOMEI Backupper
• Imaging with free Macrium
• How to Create a Bootable Rescue USB Flash Drive for Macrium Reflect

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[HOODY]

Hello,

This is my first post on this forum so apologies if it is in the wrong place. The more I read about backing up and restoring my system, the more confused I get about the different options. What I am looking for is a straightforward, minimally technical answer to what (I think) are fairly simple questions . I've seen some very helpful replies on these tutorial threads so am hoping someone can also help me.

I have 2 Dell Inspiron 15 laptops, both purchased at the same time (autumn 2013) pre-installed with Win8. After purchase, recovery (reinstallation?) USBs were created for both using Dell's Backup and Recovery program.

Both laptops have now been upgraded to Win8.1 via the Store.

Windows backup functionality is used regularly to make System Images of both laptops onto an external hard drive. In addition, files are also copied regularly, either via Filehistory or manually. I have mounted the System Images and viewed the contents (I'm not totally untechnical, but nor am I overconfident).

My questions are:

Is the System Image the only thing I need (and the best way) to restore a laptop to a recent (i.e. Win8.1) state in the event of an OS or hardware failure?

If this is sufficient I can't understand why I would need to create the various recovery media and factory back-ups through Dell and/or through Windows (I've been advised to do both). Can anyone explain what the different things do and which (if any) I actually need?

I'm also unsure whether I need to create a bootable USB and if so, whether I should create this using the Dell functionality, the Windows functionality or both .

All I am trying to do is have the necessary tools in place to restore the laptops in the event of a problem. But if I do everything I have read I suspect I will have a pile of tools that I don't really know how to use, and that may not work anyway.

If there is already a tutorial which covers these basic questions, I'm more than happy to be redirected to it, but I couldn't find anything that covered it all.

Thank you

OK well to start with your a bit better off than most, so don't belittle yourself, at least you have a handle on "backups" most don't even know that.

The deal is those orig system restore disks you made are not going to be of much use if you want your system restored "as is" now, the Image backups you make from now on with what ever Image program you use is what will restore your system back to the state its in at the time you make the image.

I use 3 different ones, Acronis 2010 (yes it runs on 8.1up1) AOMEI backerupper 2.0, and EASEUS ToDO backup 6.5, I also use the built in image backup in 8.1, I know it seems like over kill, but I have had my share of problems and will never be without a full image backup again.

I had W7 OEM from HP on my laptop when it was bought, since upgrading to W8 I found that the system restore on the computer was useless, as there was no W7 installed at that point, I still have the original set of system restore disks for W7 and if I ever wanted to go back to that those disks would still work however. Since I bought W8 I created an ISPO with the downloaded files and made a system "install" disk of that now, W8.1 was a bit different but still got the ISO made, and than W8.1up1 was harder yet, as there was no downloadable ISO, I had to search a torrent sight for one to get W8.1up1 to even install on my system, the regular update wouldn't work from MS, so of course i made me a installable disk of that now, which does work, however to install W8.1up now from scratch I have to use a public install key and than activate my pro copy with my retail W8 key.

Anyway....... bottom line is as long as you use a good image program on each machine and keep them up, than if anything goes wrong, you can recover the system AS IS from the time the image was made. Don't use your Dell restore disks, other wise you end up with a system as it was when you got it new.

As for boot disk's, yes, you will need to make a recovery boot disk to run if the system won't boot at all so it runs the recovery program to recover the image you made with what ever program you use, like I made one for each of the programs I use, they can be done from within the image programs.

One other problem is if you use the built in image program in w8.1, you'll need a WinPE boot disk, or the W8.xx install disks to recover your image made from the built in program (if you can't boot at all) EASEUS home 6.5 has that option built , you can find it on giveaway sites for free if you look.

Again the "factory" restore disks you made are only going to restore your laptop to their original W8 as you got them, so you don't want to use them for that, I'd hold them only if you ever decide to sell/give them to someone and want them to be clean The image's you made after you upgrade is what you will want to be recovering with. And as I said there are several good free image programs that work well for that.

I hope I made some sense I'm not good at tech support via phone/email lolol. I'm better hands on

 

[HOODY]

LOL your fast Brink sorry if I covered the same thing, it took me a bit to type it up

 

[Brink]

No problem.