Windows 8.1 image for laptop dns recovery. Restoring a laptop operating system without a disk. Why not transfer the pre-installed system to a new SSD

Appeared in Windows 8 new feature system recovery – Refresh Your PC. It has two application scenarios, which I will talk about today. You'll also learn about the technology behind this exciting opportunity.

Along with updating your PC without deleting files (Refresh Your PC), Windows 8 has the ability to delete all data and reinstall Windows (Reset Your PC). It formats the system partition (and optionally all partitions) and installs the system completely, which is not very interesting. Her sister is more flexible and therefore much more attractive. One of its trump cards is the ability to create a rollback image yourself!

The Refresh Your PC feature and the recimg console utility are only available in Windows 8 and 8.1. These features are not present in Windows 10, but it does have an old backup from Windows 7.

Windows Recovery Tools Comparison Chart

Due to the variety of means Windows recovery, I have prepared a comparison table. In it you will find a brief description of recovery methods and the mechanisms of their operation, as well as links to detailed articles about each of the means.

What is PC update without deleting files (Refresh Your PC)

The step-by-step instructions that you will find below are very primitive. It is much more important to understand how to use the new feature and what results it will lead to.

Methods of application in practice

Updating your PC without deleting files(and this is exactly the term they decided to use in the Russian OS) - this is a reinstallation of the system. It can be done using:

  1. Installation disk. In this case, personal files are saved, as well as applications from the store (but that’s all!). After recovery, the OS itself will be clean.
  2. Factory look. In this case, only personal files and store applications are saved. After restoration, the system itself will be the same as it was when you first turned on the PC.
  3. WIM image created in advance by the recimg utility. In this case there is a return operating system And installed programs(but not their parameters!) to the state at the time of creation of this image.

If there is no image, Refresh Your PC is a convenient, but not the only solution for restoring Windows. Obviously, here Microsoft is focusing on maximum simplicity and high speed reinstallations, as well as the low value of regular (“desktop”) programs for tablet users.

Difference between Refresh Your PC and reinstalling a system on top of an existing one

Typically, reinstalling Windows is resorted to when there are no backup copies. In this case, you can also reinstall the system on top of an already installed one, but... only if you can log into the system!

This is the benefit of the new Refresh Your PC feature, which accessible from the recovery environment(Windows RE). This means that you can bring the system back to life even if it does not boot.

Another advantage of recovery is full automation of the process. In other words, you don't have to go through the initial steps of installing the system first, and you don't have to configure OOBE settings (language, time zone, etc.) at the end.

Restoring Windows using an installation disc or factory image

Despite the simplicity of the recovery procedure, it contains a number of pitfalls, and at the very beginning. Let's first define the main rollback scenarios.

  • You purchased a PC with Windows 8.1. The manufacturer registered the factory image as the recovery image for Refresh, so the procedure effectively restores the factory settings. It doesn’t matter whether you launch a rollback from Windows or a special key combination before booting the system (see user manual) - all roads lead to Rome.

    • You purchased a PC with Windows 8 and then upgraded it to 8.1. The manufacturer registered the Windows 8 image, so it is highly likely that a rollback to factory settings will not work, and even relatively simple way there is no way to return it. To restore you will need a free Windows distribution.

  • You installed Windows 8 or 8.1 on your PC yourself. If you didn't create the image yourself, you will also need the OS distribution.

Now we can talk about everything that was acquired through back-breaking labor.

What data will be recovered

Based on my tests and data from the TechNet library, I have prepared for you comparison table. It compares recovery with and without its own image, as well as a detailed breakdown of system and user settings (note that in the Excel workbook three sheets).

Note that regardless of whether the image is present, most personal settings are lost, as well as all desktop application settings. I spoke separately about the reasons for this behavior of Refresh Your PC.

Starting recovery when the system can be logged in

The beauty of Refresh Your PC is that it requires minimal movement from you. Press Win + W and find Computer recovery(in English OS -), or press Win + R and execute systemreset.

Running recovery when login fails

If the system does not boot, you can get to the update mechanism from the recovery environment, where Windows 8 should automatically enter if it cannot boot into the system. If this doesn't happen:

  1. Boot from
    pre-created recovery disk
    or
    installation disk, select your language and click System Restore.
  2. Click Diagnostics, then Restore.

That's all! At the end of the process, you will receive a working system, and a report about deleted programs will be saved on your desktop.

Lost programs can be quickly downloaded, because... for your convenience, their names are made with links leading to the developers’ website (if they provided links, of course).

In my experiment, recovery was generally successful. Only the shortcuts are lost command line and Run windows pinned to the taskbar and Start screen. I think this can be attributed to preliminary Windows version 8.

Restoring Windows using a pre-created image

The ability to create your own image and assign it as a mark for recovery is served as the most delicious part of the Refresh Your PC pie. The only difference from recovery without a pre-created image is the return Windows folders and Program Files to the state at the time the backup image was created. Otherwise identical.

Creating an image using the recimg utility

Windows 8 includes a console utility recimg, thanks to which the image is created with one command:

Recimg /createimage D:\backup

here D:\backup is the folder where the file will be saved CustomRefresh.wim.

If the specified folder is not on the disk, the utility will create it itself. And if the wrong path is specified, the image must be searched in the System32 folder (I checked this in practice by accidentally putting a semicolon instead of a colon after the drive letter :)

The created image is automatically registered as a starting point for recovery, which is launched by the command you already know systemreset.

Starting a recovery from a pre-created image

Now you can rollback without an installation disk by logging into the Windows RE environment. But even if you boot from a disk or flash drive, the system is restored using the image you created, and not the standard one. I provided instructions for starting the recovery above.

How Refresh Your PC works

Saving data in shadow copies

After executing the image creation command, I immediately noticed the line “Creating snapshot”.

This suggested that the data included in the image was first stored in shadow copies. Process Monitor confirmed my assumption.

After which I could not resist and looked into the shadow copies. With one command you can list them and see the path to that shadow copy. And access from file manager- this is already a matter of technology, thanks to symbolic links.

Vssadmin list shadows mklink /d c:\shadow \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy2\

Creating a WIM image

Shadow copies allow you to create an image running V this moment systems, and this new opportunity Windows 8.

In Windows 7 and Vista, a utility was used to capture a volume into a WIM image imagex, and the operation had to be performed when the system is not running (for example, from another installation or Windows PE). Now the main tool for working with images, DISM, has acquired the functions of creating and using WIM images.

DISM /Capture-Image/? DISM /Apply-Image/?

Obviously, recimg uses the same technology, but does not involve the DISM utility in the process, otherwise its log and Process Monitor would reflect this fact.

Image Contents

Having created the image, I did not fail to look into it:

DISM.exe /Mount-Wim /WimFile:D:\backup\CustomRefresh.wim /index:1 /MountDir:C:\mount

System folders and programs located on the system partition are present in full, which cannot be said about user data.

Of the user data, only a shared folder and a standard user profile.

As a result, the WIM image itself is not suitable as a backup copy, for example, in the event of a disk failure. Obviously it does not contain data and custom settings. However, when you restore Windows 8 using Refresh Your PC, your data will not be lost!

Restoring Windows 8 in Windows PE

The recovery procedure is performed in Windows environment PE regardless of whether you launched Refresh Your PC from a running system or a recovery environment (Windows RE).

And this is where the already familiar mechanism of reinstalling the system comes into play, preserving the data and settings of the user environment. The sequence in brief is:

  1. The contents of profiles and other folders are moved to a separate area on the disk.
  2. A new system is being installed.
  3. Your files are returned to their original locations

The difference from reinstalling on top is that the contents of the profiles are not restored entirely, which is why program parameters and personal settings are lost in particular.

If you have created your own image CustomRefresh.wim, it is used as the installation WIM image, and not standard file install.wim from the distribution.

As in the case of reinstalling a system over an existing one, the old OS is stored in the Windows.old folder, which can be deleted.

As you can see, Refresh Your PC uses a combination of new DISM capabilities and time-tested data transfer technologies to restore Windows 8 using Refresh Your PC.

Scenarios for using the recimg utility

The utility itself is extremely easy to use, but it is important to understand what purposes it is intended for.

recimg command line options

Since the utility's built-in help is currently only available in English, I will briefly comment on the command line parameters:

  • /createimage– creates an image in the specified folder using shadow copies
  • /showcurrent– displays the path to the image that is used for recovery
  • /setcurrent– registers the folder where the image is stored as a starting point
  • /deregister– unregisters (allowing you to restore using the installation disk)

As you can see, you can create multiple images at different times and register any of them as a rollback point.

Differences between using recimg and imagex

The recimg utility is not a replacement for imagex, since it is designed exclusively for the Refresh Your PC function.

  • Launch environment. As I noted above, imagex can only capture an image if the system is not running. This can be done from Windows PE or another OS. In contrast, recimg is aimed at running on a busy system.
  • Dataset in an image. The imagex utility captures the entire volume, except for some unnecessary files, or according to your list. recimg has a different task - only the system, programs and standard profile.
  • Generalization of the image. Typically, imagex is started after the image has been generalized using the sysprep utility. Using recimg does not imply such a scenario, and the resulting image is intended only for deployment on the system on which it was created.

Thus, the recimg utility does not make any adjustments to the creation of a customized system image for the purpose of deploying it to other PCs.

Discussion and poll

The introduction of Refresh Your PC in Windows 8 shows that Microsoft continues to improve and simplify Windows recovery mechanisms.

Now, even in the worst case scenario, when you can’t restore the boot, you can get a working system in no time.

In this case, all personal data will be safe and sound, and losses will be reduced only to ordinary programs that are easy to reinstall.

And for IT professionals and enthusiasts aware of the ability to create their own image, there is another tool for creating a rollback image, although it cannot be considered a backup tool.

In Windows 7, I create an image of the system partition on a weekly schedule. By the way, how do you create system images? Justify your choice in the comments!

If you would like to discuss Refresh Your PC and other Windows recovery mechanisms, Share your thoughts in the comments! If you'd like to speak on other Windows 8-related topics, comments on this post are still open.

With pictures and videos on the website:
http://2133790.ru/vostnout.htm

Nowadays, laptops often come without a disk with the Windows 7 operating system. And sometimes the operating system needs to be reinstalled.

If you have a laptop book, you can read in it how to do this. But sometimes there isn’t even a book. I read about it on the Internet and this is what I found:

Restore the system using hotkeys. Here is my short list of these hotkeys. The original source is here. After turning on the laptop, we begin to frantically press:
F3 – MSI;
F4 – Samsung. Under the OS you can via Samsung Recovery Solution III;

F8 – Fujitsu Siemens. In general, it often allows you to get into the proprietary Recovery utility on other laptops (via troubleshooting).
F8 - Toshiba
F9 - ASUS;
F10 - Sony VAIO. Under OS it is possible through VAIO Recovery Utility;
F10 - Packard Bell;
F11 - HP Pavilion;
F11 - LG;
F11 - Lenovo ThinkPad.
Alt+F10 - Acer. Before doing this, select Disk-to-Disk (D2D) in the BIOS; a nuance about the recovery tool for acer laptops: it happens that the user sets a password for the recovery tool, and naturally forgets the password completely. As a result, when loading the recovery software, you are asked for a password. solution: boot into Acronis or any live Linux distribution (Windows cannot open this partition), mount the partition with the recovery system, look for a file in the root no larger than 1kb (I don’t remember the exact name, I don’t have a laptop at hand right now) open text editor and in the PD= field we see the password (tobish, in the Acer recovery tool, the password is not encrypted and is in clear text).
Ctrl+F11 - Dell Inspiron;
F8 or F9 - Dell XPS. I forgot.
Clamp - Rover
Lenovo: ThinkPad - ThinkVantage or Enter button at boot or F11. IdeaPad has a separate OneKey Rescue button, press when the power is off. The menu for selecting the proprietary Recovery utility basically looks something like this.

On an old Acer 4202 with Windows XP, my drive was split into C: and D:, and during recovery only the C: drive was formatted (accordingly, I had to make sure that everything valuable was stored exclusively on D:, which 90% of users did not do, since My Documents and User Profile was located at C: in Documents and settings)

On the new Acer 4810TG (with Windows Vista) one partition C: which will be completely formatted with everything that is.

Accordingly, in all cases, to restore it is necessary to have
a) LiveCD with Ubuntu Linux
b) External HDD USB disk

We boot into Ubuntu Linux, copy all important data (you can install midnight commander under it - an analogue far manager by running the command apt-get install mc and copy it to the mounted /media/device_name) to another disk

Windows 8 is a reliable, convenient and stable operating system. However, even it is susceptible to virus attacks, and may also stop loading due to any user actions. In addition, untested programs may cause certain errors. In this regard, the question arises, how to restore Windows 8 on a laptop?

Of course, the solution may be to reinstall the operating system. However, what if you bought a laptop with a pre-installed OS? After all, it is official, and, of course, you do not have a disk to reinstall Windows. In addition, to install the operating system you must have certain knowledge. And it’s much easier to perform a restore than a reinstallation.

How to restore Windows8

First of all, it is worth noting that there are several methods for restoring Windows 8 on a laptop:

  • Before loading the operating system, press a special key.
  • Launch the built-in utility that is provided on the laptop.
  • Launch the built-in Windows recovery tools.
  • Recovering from .

It is worth noting that the first method allows you to perform a recovery even if Windows 8 does not boot. The second method is special program, which is provided by the laptop developer. If you bought a laptop with a pre-installed operating system, then a special utility should already be installed. In addition, a starting point must be created. If such a program is not installed, then it can be installed from the disk that comes with the kit. You will also have to create a backup of the OS.

The last option is to launch the built-in Windows 8 recovery tools. It is worth noting that when installing the OS, a restore point is created, which can later be changed. You can . For example, immediately after installing a new operating system and configuring it. This will allow you to roll back the system to the state at which you created the backup. So, let's look at all the options in more detail.

System Restore in Windows 8. How to create a restore point on Windows 8: Video

Running recovery before booting the operating system

It is worth noting that if the boot attempt is unsuccessful, you will be automatically prompted to run Windows 8 recovery on your laptop. The fact is that, as mentioned above when installing the OS, backup copy is created automatically. In addition, the manufacturer also took care of restoration. Every modern laptop has a special section called “Recovery”. It contains a backup copy of Windows.

To run the built-in function you just need to press the corresponding button when loading. These are different buttons on every laptop. On some models there is a separate key, on others it may be F9 or any other button on the keyboard. You can find this out in the user manual. So, after pressing the corresponding key, just follow the prompts on the screen. The system will do everything automatically.

Built-in Windows recovery tools

Everything here is extremely simple. Press the Windows key combination + X and select "System". In the window that appears, in the left menu, find and open the “Protection” item. Then all you have to do is click the “Restore” button. As you can see, everything is extremely simple.

In order for this method to work, we need immediately after Windows installations 8 and installing all drivers. You can create a copy in the above menu. Instead of the “Restore” button, we should click “Create”. This function is at the very bottom of the menu. Once clicked, follow the on-screen prompts.

Windows 8 System Recovery Tools: Video

Restoring Windows 8 from an installation disk or flash drive

Another way to restore Windows 8 on a laptop is to create a boot disk or flash drive. To do this we will have to create boot disk or flash drive. It is worth noting that disks are used less and less every year, and today there are laptops that do not have laser drive for reading CDs or DVDs. So we'll look at how to create bootable USB flash drive and use it to restore Windows 8. In this case, creating a disk is performed in the same way.

Restoring Windows 8 from an installation disk or flash drive: Video

So, first we need UltraISO program. In addition, we will need. All this can be easily downloaded on the Internet. After installing the program, launch it and insert the flash drive into the USB port. The application is divided into four windows. In the lower left menu, you need to select the directory (folder) in which the desired image is located and select it. In the lower right menu, open the image by double-clicking with the left mouse button.

Appear in the upper windows open image. Now at the very top, find and click the “Boot” button. Select "Record" image of a tough disk."

In the window that appears, in the “Disk Drive” line, select your memory drive to which the image will be saved, and click the “Burn” button. The system will warn you that the flash drive will be formatted and all data will be deleted. We agree with this. That's it, wait until the system writes the image.

After that, reboot the computer and . Here you need to enter the “Boot” section. Next, select the “Boot Device Priority” item and set it in the “1st boot device» "JetFlash". This means that the operating system will be loaded from the flash drive. Save the settings and restart the computer. As a rule, everything happens automatically, but in some cases you will have to press “Enter” to boot Windows from the memory drive. After downloading all the necessary files, you can choose one of the options:

  • Recovery.
  • Installing a new OS.

Read the on-screen prompts carefully and follow them.

How to perform a system restore on Windows 8. System recovery tools: Video

Windows 8 is highly reliable and stable, however, even in the most modern system, situations may arise that require immediate recovery: a malicious attack software, loss system files, incorrect actions of the user himself. In general, everything that somehow led to refusal.

Restoring Windows 8

Many users believe that the only correct solution when faced with critical error There will be a complete reinstallation of the operating system on the laptop, but they are wrong. OS recovery can also solve almost all problems, having a number of advantages:

  • Restoring the system is much faster than reinstalling it;
  • If reinstalling Windows requires specific knowledge (for example, how to set up the BIOS), then such skills are not needed for recovery;
  • When you roll back the OS on a laptop, the data will not be affected (those files that are deleted can be easily restored by clicking on the link in the report provided);
  • You don't have to look for an external drive that contains Windows licenses for reinstallation (although in most cases the distribution is still necessary, but an image can be used instead).

There are four ways that you can roll back Windows 8 on a laptop:

  1. With help special key(it is different for each brand of device), which will launch the system recovery environment;
  2. Launch an integrated program that will perform automatic recovery;
  3. Rollback the OS to a previously created checkpoint;
  4. Using files for installation from external media (disk, flash drive).

The first method involves rolling back the system even if it does not boot.

The second method is a specially integrated utility provided by the device developers.

The program should come with the OS by default, but if it is missing, it can be found on the installation disk/flash drive.

The third method is to roll back the system on the laptop to a specific point. It can be created either automatically or manually.

The fourth option is to use media with a licensed system to launch the Windows Recovery Environment. The screenshot shows its main elements:

System rollback using a special key

The presented rollback method is used in the case when Windows completely refuses to start due to malware or loss of system files.

The first thing you need to do is find out which button on your device model is responsible for calling the recovery environment. On a laptop these could be the keys:

Comment. Similar information can be found in the manufacturer's instructions. If it’s not there, then we just poke and look for it experimentally.

As soon as the button is found, the following window will launch:


Refresh Your PC tool

This function is used when the OS starts but is unstable. At the same time, rolling back to the point did not change the situation.

The method implies complete reinstalling Windows 8, but without affecting user files. To do this, we need a system distribution package located on a flash drive or disk.

The changes will not affect:

  • Absolutely all owner documents (photos, music, videos, etc.);
  • Files on the desktop will also not be affected in their places;
  • Windows Store utilities will be retained;
  • Reinstalling using this method will not affect the network settings.

The only thing that will be deleted are files installed in the system Program Files folder. In addition, all the owner’s personal settings will be reset to basic ones.

The recovery algorithm is as follows:

  1. Launch the Refresh Your PC application while the system is running. To do this, go to the parameters section and then change their value:
  2. Go to the general section and select the second option: restore your computer without deleting user files:
  3. A warning window appears, which describes all changes that take effect after starting the procedure. Special attention should be given to the last point of the memo, where it is noted that the list remote applications will be placed on the desktop. This will allow the user, if necessary, to quickly restore what was lost:
  4. Before clicking next, insert the device with the Windows 8 distribution:
  5. Once the device with the system has been detected, the laptop will reboot to prepare the system for the recovery process:
  6. Click restore. Further, no secondary actions from the user are needed, the procedure is completely automatic. Approximate rollback time to basic settings is 20-40 minutes depending on the power of the laptop:

Restoring a Windows system without a distribution kit

Using the Refresh Your PC function allows you to roll back the system even in the most hopeless situations. But often the user simply does not have external media with installation files.

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 - reinstalling the 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 a new reset function has appeared, which allows you to quickly, in just a few 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 active partition to restore Windows 8.1, the system will issue 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.
● A list of deleted applications will be saved on 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).

The recovery is completely automatic. 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.