Windows 8 emergency recovery image from a flash drive. Windows System Restore. Difference between Refresh Your PC and reinstalling a system on top of an existing one
This article discusses steps that can be used to restore Windows 8.1 without deleting user data.
If computer malfunctions cannot be resolved using conventional methods, there is only one radical solution left - reinstallation operating system. Many users are frightened by the prospect of reinstalling the system.
In Windows 8.1, the problem of reinstalling the operating system is almost solved. Of course, the operating system will not do everything for you, but many users who previously called specialists or experienced friends to reinstall the operating system will now be able to do it themselves. The fact is that in Windows 8, Windows 8.1 appeared new feature reset, which allows you to quickly, in just a few mouse clicks, restore the operating system or return it to its original state.
In the event of serious system failures that cannot be resolved using conventional methods, you can restore the operating system while preserving your personal files, Accounts and contacts. To do this, you need to reset the operating system. We will need installation disk Windows 8.1 or bootable USB flash drive with Windows 8.1
Press the key combination + I in the panel that opens Options click Change computer settings
A window will open Computer settings, select Update and recovery
In the window Update and recovery press Recovery
We wait a little
If your computer does not have an active Windows 8.1 recovery partition, the system will display a warning. You will need a Windows 8.1 installation disc or a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 8.1
Insert the Windows 8.1 installation disc or bootable USB flash drive with Windows 8.1. An update wizard window will open, which lists the consequences of the update, namely:
● Your files and personalization settings will not change.
● Your computer settings will be restored to their default values.
● Windows Store apps will be retained.
● Applications you installed from drives or websites will be removed.
● List remote applications will be saved to your desktop.
If you accept the terms listed above, click the button Further
The computer will restart, after which the system recovery process will begin.
System recovery may take some time. The recovery time can range from several minutes to several tens of minutes (depending on the speed of the computer).
Recovery is complete in automatic mode. Your presence at the computer is not required. Once the recovery process is complete and rebooted, your computer is ready to use. All you have to do is install programs that were removed as a result of system recovery. All your accounts and passwords will remain intact, so use your old password to log in.
Sometimes, due to the installation of a program, driver, or virus infection, Windows may begin to run slowly or stop working altogether. System Restore allows you to return your computer's system files and programs to the state they were in when they were working correctly, and avoid lengthy troubleshooting. It will not affect your documents, images and other data.
There are times when it is necessary to perform a system rollback - restoring the main system files from a “snapshot” of an earlier state - a restore point or OS image. With its help, you can return Windows to working condition, but at the same time, all programs recently installed on drive C (or any other, depending on which drive the backup will be carried out), programs, etc. will be deleted. It is quite possible that adjustments were made during this period.
If you can login
Rollback to the last point
If, after installing a new application or update, only part of the system stopped working for you (for example, some driver crashed or a problem occurred in the program), then you can restore to the last point when everything functioned without failures. Don't worry, your personal files will not be affected.
Attention!
The recovery process will not be able to be interrupted once it is started. It can only be canceled after the process is completed.
Once the process is complete, your computer will reboot and everything will be as before again.
If the system is damaged and does not work
Method 1: Use a restore point
If, after making any changes, you cannot log into the system, then in this case you need to rollback through backup mode. Usually, in such cases, the computer itself switches to the required mode. If this does not happen, then when starting the computer, press F8(or Shift+F8).
After this, the recovery process will begin and you can continue working on your computer.
Method 2: Backup from a bootable USB flash drive
Windows 8 and 8.1 allow you to create a bootable recovery disk regular means. It is a regular USB flash drive that boots into the Windows recovery environment (that is, limited diagnostic mode), which allows you to repair startup, file system or fix other problems that cause the OS to not boot or run with noticeable problems.
The backup may take quite a long time, so be patient.
Thus, the operating systems of the Microsoft Windows family allow using standard (regular) tools to perform a complete backup and restore of operating systems from previously saved images. In this case, all user information will remain intact.
Operating Windows systems 8 and 8.1 allow you to create a bootable recovery disk using standard tools. It is a regular USB flash drive that boots into the Windows recovery environment (that is, limited diagnostic mode), which allows you to repair startup, the file system, or fix other problems that are causing the operating system is not downloading or working with tangible problems.
A boot disk for Windows OS is useful because with its help you can run system recovery, update the system and reset your computer to its original working parameters.
It should be noted, however, that the disc or media cannot be used for Windows installations. At the same time, the boot disk is very similar to the one used to restore Windows 7.
A recovery disk (USB version) or a system recovery disk (for CD/DVD version, available only in Windows 8) is intended for those who do not have an official boot disk Windows 8/8.1.
I strongly recommend that you create a disk or flash drive to restore the system before you get into an unpleasant situation - if you cannot start Windows 8 or 8.1, you can easily and playfully return the OS to a working state using the prepared kit.
Keep in mind that a 32-bit (x86) recovery disk can be used to repair a 32-bit Windows versions 8/8.1. Accordingly, the 64-bit (x64) edition of the recovery disk only works with 64-bit Windows 8/8.1.
The good news: you can repair any edition of Microsoft Windows 8/8.1 from this disk, as long as it is designed for the same hardware architecture (32-bit or 64-bit). One last note: do not try to use the Windows 8.1 recovery disk to resuscitate Windows 8 and vice versa!
Requirements for creating a Windows 8/8.1 boot disk or system recovery disk
First, make sure you have a blank CD/DVD (this is only required for Windows environment 8) or USB disk with a minimum size of 256 MB (megabytes) of the total disk space. Many OEM computers have highly customized recovery partitions—they can require up to 32 gigabytes of disk space on the recovery drive.
The CD or DVD disk in Windows 8 must be truly empty, because the program will not be able to write data to rewritable media. You can clear the contents of a CD or DVD by opening My Computer (Windows key + E) by clicking right click mouse over the CD/DVD drive logo in the list and selecting “Erase this disk”.
A USB drive can be a simple portable flash drive or a hard drive with a similar USB interface. Please note that this HDD will be formatted and you will lose all the files on it. Therefore, it would not be a bad idea to do backup copy all important files! Be careful. If you delete valuable files, you will have to restore them (about resuscitating a flash drive to a website).
After creating the recovery disk, you need to make sure that your computer is able to boot normally. Some older USB flash drives do not support booting. Also be sure to check your computer's boot order in the BIOS to make sure booting from USB devices is enabled and listed before booting hard drives.
If your computer is equipped with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 interfaces or later, plug the recovery drive into the USB 2.0 port - this may solve some problems with booting the system.
Creating a bootable USB flash drive to restore Windows
To start creating a bootable disk, open the search settings using the Windows key + W and enter "Recovery" in the search box. Click on "Create a recovery disk".
As expected, the User Account Control window appears. Click "Yes" to make sure you know what you're doing.
The “Create a recovery disk” window will appear in front of you. First, check the box next to “Copy the contents of the recovery partition to disk.” Then connect the USB drive, wait about 10 seconds and click Next.
If you cannot enable the "Copy the contents of the recovery partition to the recovery disk" option when creating a recovery disk in Windows 8 or 8.1, you need to copy the Windows installer instll.wim to your hard drive or SSD drive. Please note that this will increase the default recovery disk space requirement from 256 megabytes to 4 gigabytes respectively.
If, when creating a Windows recovery disk, the message "We cannot create a recovery disk on this computer. Some required files are missing" appears, the winre.wim file or the system-reserved partition is missing.
Select the correct drive letter from the list, select the USB flash drive in the window. Then click the "Next" button.
Windows will warn you that all contents of the selected drive will be erased. To continue, click the Create button.
The process of formatting the drive and copying files may take several minutes, depending on the speed of your USB drive. Once the disc is ready, click the "Done" button.
Completing the bootloader creation process windows flash drives 8
Now check that your device is actually capable of booting from the recovery disk: some older USB drives do not support booting. In this case, make a newer recovery disk on the flash drive and retest the drive for bootability. Now open the flash drive in any file manager and make sure the content matches what you see in the screenshot below:
Creating an "old school" bootable CD/DVD for system recovery in Windows 8
If you want to create a bootable system recovery CD or DVD (this is only possible in Windows 8), search for Windows key settings+W, type "recovery" and click "File recovery in Windows 7" (yes, that's a thing) glitch, in fact the option has that name).
If you can't find the item you're looking for, open a command prompt window (use Windows keys+X), type sdclt.exe and press Enter to run the program.
On the left side of the Microsoft Windows 7 File Recovery window, click the “Create a system repair disc” button.
The “Create a system repair disc” window will open. Select the desired successor and click the "Create Disk" button.
If you insert a non-blank CD or DVD, you will see an error dialog like this: "The system repair disc was not created, there is no media in the device (0xC0AA0202)." Click OK, insert a blank disc and the burning process will start automatically.
Right-click on your CD or DVD drive and select the "Erase this drive" option.
It may take several minutes to create a system repair disc. After the process is complete, specify the name of the disk and click the “Close” button.
Summary. I hope that these instructions helped you create bootable USB flash drive to restore Microsoft Windows 8 OS. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments, I will definitely answer them (see below).
Answers to readers' questions
After restoring Windows 8, files and some programs disappeared. How to return/restore them?
Answer. You must understand that restoring Windows 8 from a disk or other media assumes that everything installed programs will be removed and will need to be reinstalled. However, if you installed Windows on a different drive, you can go to the user folder (Users - [username]) on the system drive used by the previous OS. In the Application Data subdirectory, look for user files with application configuration files, they can be copied to the user’s current folder. That's just actually Windows applications you will need to install from the installation files.
If you installed Windows 8 on system disk default and overwritten old version OS, look for the Windows.old folder. It stores copies of previously installed programs.
Laptop crashes after uninstall Windows 8. Before this there was also no archiving. And now, having returned something, I can’t find some files: office program, your notes, etc. The update center does not work. It is impossible to find deleted files, the default is everywhere. How to restore windows 8 to normal like before?
Answer. It looks like you used a restore point to roll back to previous version Windows OS. However, the question is formulated in such a way that it is not clear what you wanted to ask. Let's try to answer point by point.
1. Office suite The easiest way to install is by downloading the installation package on the developer’s website.
2. Work of the center Windows updates 8 Depends on the Windows Update service. Start - Run - services.msc. Find the specified service, switch to the “Automatic” state, and reboot the system.
3. For recovery deleted files use specialized programs, we have written about them many times.
If you perform a system restore via usb flash drive(on Windows 8), will the system be restored to factory settings or to the time the recovery disk was created?
Answer. Windows Recording 8 on a flash drive is just a convenient option for reinstallation without using a disk drive.
You can write Windows 8 onto a USB flash drive and reinstall it from scratch, but you will need to configure, install programs, etc. again. If you use Windows restore points, you return to the state in which the OS was fixed at the time this point was created.
Although everyone understands that for stable operation of a PC it is simply necessary to keep its OS in working and healthy condition, sometimes the only way out is to restore Windows 8.1.
The recovery disk is a USB flash drive containing all the tools necessary to repair the system. It typically includes: Startup Repair, Updates, Reset, and System Restore.
To create a recovery disk, open the control panel and click on the “Recovery” section (the control panel is in the large or small icons view, this section is not in the category view). The top parameter of the window that opens is precisely responsible for creating the recovery disk we need. Click on it and go directly to creating the disc.
Clue. If you have a factory-preconfigured recovery partition on your computer, you can check the box to copy the recovery partition. True, this significantly increases the size of the recovery disk, and is only suitable for USB flash drives with a capacity of at least 32 GB, but it provides valuable additional parameter for emergency rescue of Windows 8.1.
Once the disk is created, you can start your computer from it and access recovery options. However, do not forget that USB boot must be enabled in your motherboard's UEFI firmware.
Attention. If you are using Windows RT for a tablet, e.g. Microsoft Surface, you must create a recovery disk containing the system backup image. There is no other way to reinstall Windows RT except from a recovery disk, so if an accident occurs, you have only one option - to return the computer to the manufacturer to re-image it, which in our reality is unrealistic. To create a recovery disk with a full Windows RT system image, you will need a USB flash drive of only 4 GB.
Backup and restore Windows 8.1.
Since the days of Windows XP, when problems arise with the OS, it has been considered common practice to completely reinstall the operating system and all software. There are now several other ways to ensure the safety of your installed copy of Windows and recover it in the event of a crisis.
Note. Windows 8 includes a tool for Reserve copy complete system image, Windows 7 has options for restoring files. This functionality has been removed in Windows 8.1. An alternative to these functions in Windows 8.1 was its own recovery option.
Repair Windows 8.1 using the Quick Repair option.
In Windows 8.1, Microsoft introduced new way creating a backup image that is so simple that any user can use it. This new recovery option creates a backup of your operating system that you can easily launch from your PC settings or, by inserting a recovery disc, from your OS startup options.
Between the old backup system image and new option recovery there is one important difference. Even if you create your own custom recovery image, which, if anything happens, will restore all installed desktop programs, you will not be able to save their settings. This means that software such as Microsoft Outlook will be restored, but your accounts Email will have to be configured again. Same with all other desktop applications.
However, most users don’t have to worry, Windows 8.1 synchronizes most of its settings, including for desktop applications, and the same Microsoft Office 2013 can synchronize its settings between different computers.
The easiest way to access the recovery option is in PC settings by selecting update and recovery there and then in the left navigation pane clicking recovery.
The recovery option is the first option at the top of the screen, by the way, there is an explanation of what will be done. When you are ready to restore your computer, click the GET START button. The process is fully automated.
Windows 8.1 will explain to you what will be done during the recovery process and ask you to confirm this operation. Clicking on the OK button will begin the action itself, which can take from 15 to 60 minutes, which directly depends on your created custom recovery image.
You can restore your computer during Windows startup 8.1. There are several ways to do this:
- If your computer fails to start three times, the repair process starts when you boot it up. If the computer cannot be repaired, he suggests additional features, including restoration.
- Starting the computer with a recovery disk; Please note that you may need to access boot options. You need to boot from a USB flash drive.
- Starting your computer with the installation DVD Windows disk 8.1. On the settings screen, instead of system repair options, click the computer repair link.
Create a custom recovery image in Windows 8.1.
As mentioned above, you can create a custom recovery image. You may need to do this because by default, this function will update your copy of Windows 8.1, keeping files and applications intact, but will destroy all desktop applications.
Creating a custom recovery image will take a snapshot of your computer complete with everything software desktop.
Note. Remember that when restoring from a custom recovery image, all settings are reset desktop programs, so you will have to configure them again, however, if their settings are not automatically synchronized between computers.
To create a custom recovery image, you need to follow these steps:
- Click Win + X by opening the administration menu.
- Select and run command line(administrator).
- Enter recimg -CreateImage C:\Folder, where C:\Folder is the location where you want to save the backup. This place may also be on another section hard drive or on another drive. You can add additional fault tolerance to your recovery image creation.