Windows 8 has a new System Restore feature - Refresh Your PC. It has two application scenarios, which I will talk about today. You will also learn about the technologies behind this interesting feature.
Along with refreshing your PC without deleting files (Refresh Your PC), Windows 8 has the option to erase all data and reinstall Windows (Reset Your PC). It formats the system partition (and optionally all partitions) and installs the system clean, which is not very interesting. Her sister is more flexible and therefore much more attractive. One of her trump cards is the ability to independently create an image for a rollback!
Refresh Your PC and recimg console utility are only available in Windows 8 and 8.1. These features are not available 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 short description methods of recovery and mechanisms of their work, as well as links to detailed articles about each of the tools.
What is Refresh Your PC
The step-by-step instructions below are very basic. It is much more important to understand how to use the new function and what results it will lead to.
Practical application
Update your PC without deleting files (namely, this term was decided to be used in the Russian OS) - this is a reinstallation of the system. It can be done with:
- Installation disc... At the same time, personal files are saved, as well as applications from the store (but nothing more!). After recovery, the OS itself will be clean.
- Factory image... In this case, too, only personal files and store apps are saved. After recovery, the system itself will be the same as it was when the PC was first turned on.
- WIM image previously created by the recimg utility... In this case, a return occurs operating system and installed programs (but not their parameters!) to the state at the time of creating this image.
If there is no image, Refresh Your PC is a handy, but not the only solution for Windows recovery. Obviously, here Microsoft is focusing on the maximum simplicity and high speed of reinstallation, as well as the low value of conventional ("desktop") programs for tablet users.
Difference between Refresh Your PC and reinstalling a system over an existing one
Usually, to reinstalling Windows accessed in the absence of backups. In this case, you can also reinstall the system over the already installed one, but ... only if you can log in to the system!
This is the advantage new function Refresh Your PC which accessible from the recovery environment (Windows RE). This means that you can bring the system back to life even if it fails to boot.
Another plus of recovery is full automation of the process... In other words, you do not need to go through the initial stages of system installation at first, and in the end you do not need to configure OOBE settings (language, time zone, etc.).
Recovering 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 basic rollback scenarios.
- You purchased a Windows 8.1 PC... The manufacturer registered the factory image as a Refresh recovery image, so the procedure actually restores the factory settings. In this case, it does not matter whether you run a rollback from under Windows or a special key combination before booting the system (see user manual) - all roads lead to Rome.
- You installed Windows 8 or 8.1 on your PC yourself... If you haven't created the image yourself, you will also need an OS distribution.
You bought a Windows 8 PC and then upgraded to 8.1... The manufacturer registered the Windows 8 image, so it is highly likely that a factory rollback will not work, and even relatively easy way return it no. You will need a free Windows distribution to restore.
Now you can talk about everything that has been acquired by overwork.
What data will be recovered
Based on my tests and data from the TechNet library, I have prepared for you comparative table ... It compares recovery with and without your 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 the presence of an image, most personal settingsas well as all the options for desktop applications. I told about the reasons for this behavior of Refresh Your PC separately.
Start recovery when you can log in
The beauty of Refresh Your PC is that it requires a minimum of body movement. Press Win + W and find Computer recovery (in English OS -), or press Win + R and execute systemreset.
Start recovery when login fails
If the system does not boot, you can get to the update mechanism from the recovery environment, where is windows 8 should automatically log in if it is not possible to boot into the system. If it doesn't:
- Boot from
a pre-created recovery disc
or
installation disc, select a language and click System Restore. - Click Diagnosticsthen Restore.
And that's it! At the end of the process, you will receive a working system, and a report on the removed programs will be saved on the desktop.
Lost programs can be downloaded quickly because for your convenience, their names are taken as links leading to the developers' site (if they provided links, of course).
In my experiment, recovery was generally successful. Only shortcuts are lost command line and Run windows pinned to the taskbar and Start screen. I think this can be attributed to the preview version of Windows 8.
Restoring Windows using a pre-created image
Being able to create your own image and assign it as a mark for recovery is served as the most delicious part of Refresh Your PC's pie. The only difference from restoring without a pre-imaged is to return windows folders and Program Files to their state at the time of the backup image. The rest is identical.
Create an image with 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 path is incorrect, the image must be looked for 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 started by the command you already know systemreset.
Starting recovery from a pre-created image
You can now rollback without an installation disc by entering Windows RE. 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 gave instructions on how to start recovery above.
How Refresh Your PC works
Saving data in shadow copies
Having executed the command to create the image, I immediately noticed the line “Creating snapshot”.
This suggested that the data to be 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 the shadow copy. And access from the file manager is 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 launched at the moment the system is new windows feature 8.
In Windows 7 and Vista, the utility was used to capture a volume to a WIM image imagex, and the operation had to be performed when the system was not started (for example, from another installation or Windows PE). Now the main imaging tool, DISM, has the ability to create and use WIM images.
DISM / Capture-Image /? DISM / Apply-Image /?
Obviously, recimg uses the same technology, but does not involve DISM, otherwise its log and Process Monitor would reflect this fact.
Image content
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.
From user data, only a shared folder and a standard user profile.
As a consequence, a WIM image by itself is not suitable as a backup, for example in the event of a disk failure. Obviously, it contains no data or user settings. However, when you restore Windows 8 with Refresh Your PC, your data will not be lost!
Restoring Windows 8 in Windows PE
The recovery procedure is performed in Windows PE, regardless of whether you started Refresh Your PC from a running system or from the Recovery Environment (Windows RE).
And here the already well-known mechanism for reinstalling the system comes into play with saving data and parameters user environment... The sequence is briefly as follows:
- The content of profiles and other folders is moved to a separate area on the disk.
- A new system is being installed.
- Your files are returned to their original locations
The difference from reinstallation over the fact that the contents of the profiles are not restored entirely, and therefore, in particular, program parameters and personal settings are lost.
If you have created your image CustomRefresh.wim, it is used as the WIM installation image, not standard file install.wim from the distribution.
As in the case of reinstalling the system over the existing one, the old OS is saved in the Windows.old folder, which can be deleted.
As you can see, Refresh Your PC uses a combination of new DISM capabilities and proven data transfer technologies to restore Windows 8.
Recimg use cases
The utility itself is extremely easy to use, but it is important to understand what 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, which is used for recovery
- / setcurrent - registers the folder where the image is stored as a starting point
- / deregister - unregisters (which allows 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 recimg and imagex usage
The recimg utility is not a replacement for imagex, as it is "sharpened" 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 aims to work on a busy system.
- Dataset in image... The imagex utility grabs the entire volume except for some unnecessary files, or according to your list. Recimg has a different task - just the system, programs and standard profile.
- Generalization of the image... Typically, imagex is run after the image has been generalized using the sysprep utility. Using recimg does not imply such a scenario, and the resulting image is only intended to be deployed to the system on which it was created.
Therefore, recimg does not make any adjustments to creating a customized system image for deployment to other PCs.
Discussion and survey
The introduction of the Refresh Your PC feature in Windows 8 shows that Microsoft continues to improve and simplify the Windows recovery mechanisms.
Now, even in the worst case scenario, when it is not possible to restore the load, you can get a working system in no time.
In this case, all personal data will be intact and safe, and the losses will be reduced only to regular programswhich are easy to reinstall.
And IT pros and enthusiasts who know about the ability to create their own image now have 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 basis. 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 would like to comment on other topics related to Windows 8, comments on this post are still open.
Operating windows systems 8 and 8.1 allow you to create boot disk restoration by regular means. It is a regular USB stick that boots into the Windows recovery environment (that is, limited mode diagnostics), which allows you to repair the startup, file system or fix other issues that are causing the operating system or to work with tangible problems.
A boot disk for Windows is useful in that you can use it to start system restore, update the system and reset the computer to its original - working - parameters.
It should be noted, however, that the disc or media cannot be used to install Windows. At the same time, the boot disk is very similar to the one used to restore Windows 7.
A recovery disc (USB) or a system recovery disc (CD / DVD version, available in Windows 8 only) is for those who do not have an official Windows 8 / 8.1 boot disc.
I strongly recommend that you create a disk or flash drive for system recovery before getting 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.
Please note that a 32-bit (x86) recovery disc can be used to repair a 32-bit windows versions 8 / 8.1. Accordingly, the 64-bit (x64) edition of the recovery disc only works with 64-bit Windows 8 / 8.1.
On the positive side, you can repair any edition Microsoft Windows 8 / 8.1 from this disc if it is for the same hardware architecture (32-bit or 64-bit). One final note: don't try to use a Windows 8.1 recovery disc to reanimate Windows 8 and vice versa!
Requirements for creating a bootable Windows 8 / 8.1 disc or a system recovery disc
First, make sure you have a blank CD / DVD (this is a requirement only for windows environment 8) or a USB drive with a minimum size of 256 MB (megabytes) of the total disk space... Many OEM computers have strictly individual recovery partitions - they can require up to 32 gigabytes of disk space on the recovery drive.
The CD or DVD drive in Windows 8 must be truly empty, because the program will not be able to write data to rewritable media. You can erase the contents of a CD or DVD by opening My Computer (Windows key + E), right-clicking on the CD / DVD drive emblem in the list, and selecting "Erase this disc".
The USB stick can be a simple portable flash drive or hard disk with a similar USB interface. Please note that this hDD will be formatted and you will lose all files on it. Therefore, it will not be superfluous to do backup all important files! Be careful. If you delete valuable files, they will have to be restored (about reanimating the flash drive to the site).
After creating the recovery disc, you need to make sure that your computer is able to boot normally. Some older USB sticks do not support booting. Also, do not forget to check the boot order of the computer in BIOS in order to make sure that booting from USB devices is enabled and is listed before booting hard drives.
If your computer is equipped with uSB interfaces 2.0 and USB 3.0 or later, plug the recovery disc into a USB 2.0 port - this may fix some boot problems.
Creating a bootable Windows recovery USB drive
To start creating a bootable disk, open the search settings with the Windows key + W and type "Recovery" in the search box. Click on "Create a recovery disc".
As expected, the User Account Control window appears. Click the Yes button to make sure you know what you are doing.
You will see the Create Recovery Disc window. First, check the box "Copy the contents of the recovery partition to disk". Then plug in your USB drive, wait about 10 seconds and click Next.
If you cannot enable the "Copy the contents of the recovery partition to a recovery drive" option when creating a recovery drive in Windows 8 or 8.1, you need to copy the Windows instll.wim installer to your hard drive or sSD drive... Please note that this will increase the requirements for available space on the default recovery drive, from 256 megabytes to 4 gigabytes, respectively.
If, when creating a Windows recovery disc, the message "We cannot create a recovery disc on this computer. Some required files are missing", the winre.wim file or reserved by the system section 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 the entire contents of the selected drive will be cleared. Click the Create button to continue.
The process of formatting the disk and copying the files may take several minutes depending on the speed of your USB drive. After the disc is ready, click the "Finish" button.
End of the creation process bootable flash drive windows 8
Now check that your device is actually capable of booting from a recovery drive: some older USB drives do not support booting. In this case, make a recovery disc on a newer flash drive and retest the drive for bootability. Now open the USB stick in any file manager and make sure the content matches what you see in the screenshot below:
How to Create an Old School System Recovery CD / DVD in Windows 8
If you want to create a bootable system recovery CD or DVD (this is only possible in Windows 8), open the search for Windows Key + W settings, type "recovery" and click "File Recovery in Windows 7" (yes, it is glitch, in fact the option has this name).
If you cannot find the item you are looking for, open a Command Prompt window (use Windows key + X), type sdclt.exe and press Enter to start the program.
On the left side of the Restore window microsoft files Windows 7 Click the Create System Repair Drive button.
The Create System Restore Disc window opens. Select the desired successor and click the Create Disc button.
If you are inserting a non-blank CD or DVD, you will see an error dialog box like this: "System recovery disc was not created, no media in device (0xC0AA0202)". Click OK, insert a blank disc and the burning process will start automatically.
Right click on your CD or DVD drive, select the "Erase this disc" option.
It may take several minutes to create a system repair disc. When the process is complete, specify a name for the disc and click the "Close" button.
Summary... I hope this instruction helped you create a bootable USB flash drive for recovering Microsoft Windows 8. 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 are missing. How to return / restore them?
Answer... You should 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 a subdirectory Application Data look for custom files with application configuration files, they can be copied to the current user's folder. That's just actually windows applications will need to be installed from the installation files.
If you installed Windows 8 on system disk by default and overwritten old version OS, look for the Windows.old folder. It stores copies of previously installed programs.
Laptop crash after uninstall windows 8. Before that there was no archiving either. And now, having returned something, I do not find some files: office program, your notes, etc. Update center is not working. It is impossible to find deleted files, there is a default everywhere. How to restore windows 8 to normal as before?
Answer... It looks like you used a restore point to roll back to previous version Windows OS. However, the question is worded in such a way that it is not clear what you wanted to ask. Let's try to answer the points.
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 Windows Update. Start - Run - services.msc. Find the specified service, switch to the "Automatic" state, reboot the system.
3. For recovery deleted files use, we wrote about them many times.
If you restore the system through usb flash drive (on Windows 8), will the system be restored to factory settings or by the time the recovery disk is created?
Answer. Windows recording 8 to a USB flash drive is just a convenient reinstallation option without using a floppy drive.
You can write windows 8 to a USB flash drive and reinstall from scratch, however, you will need to configure, install programs, and so on. If you use Windows restore points, then you return to the state in which the OS was fixed at the time this point was created.
Return to the initial state - one of the options for system recovery in Windows 8.1. It is advisable to use this function:
- if you wish to delete all of your data and restore the state of your computer at the time of purchase;
- when the computer cannot be restored in any other way.
What is the difference between resetting and reinstalling
It differs in that you do not need to reinstall the drivers and enter serial number product. The recovery program will only fix problems in the system kernel and delete personal files.
How to return Windows to its original state
Boot from the Windows 8.1 installation disc:
In the window Installing Windows click Further:
Select item Diagnostics:
Please select Return to original state:
In most cases, this list will only have one copy of the operating system. If there are several of them, select the desired (or problematic) system that you want to restore:
At this stage, you have a choice: 1) to clear only the system partition; This option will suit you if your OS has become unusable and you want to restore it for future use. For a complete recovery, you only need to restore the system partition. 2) clean up all disks on your computer, if you have several. This option is suitable when you want to sell your computer and clear all data. Also, this option is desirable if you are recovering the system after a virus infection and have already saved all important documents to a USB flash drive.
In most cases, the option Just delete my files... This will give you a chance to recover some files. If you select the second item, then the system will produce complete erasure files for protection from recovery. This option will take much more time and is suitable if you are selling or donating your old computer.
Click the button Return to original state to start the Windows restore process to its original state:
After that, wait until the progress reaches 100% and the system will restore its original state:
After resetting the operating system, the computer will behave as if you just installed the operating system on it (well, or as if you just brought home new computer with WIndows 8.1 preinstalled). Select your region, language, time zone and keyboard layout:
Accept the license terms:
Select a color, name the computer and click Further:
Log into your account Microsoft. To do this, you will need a login to the hotmail.com mail and a password from it:
The system will ask for confirmation via mobile phone or mail. Complete the required steps:
Enter the received code:
At this point, you have the choice of copying all settings and applications from the Microsoft store,
or set up the computer as new:
Hello dear admin, thank you for a really very useful, exclusive project, of which there are not so many in runet. Within 5 days, I studied the materials on your site, I learned a lot of interesting things, but unfortunately, after this period of time, I could not fix my recently arisen problem on my laptop, so I would like to contact you for help in the hope of finding out my problem and finally then solve it. I apologize in advance that there will be many "letters").
I bought a laptop Acer Aspire v5-122p 2 years ago with a preinstalled Windows 8 64-bit OS (I don't remember the edition). Then after some time it was automatically updated to 8.1. The last 2 months there were frequent freezes in the system, and I delayed everything with recovery windows systems... A week ago, the system once again hung up badly and I had to urgently turn off the laptop by holding the shutdown button. After that, the following problem has occurred and is not being fixed. After turning on the laptop, the acer logo appears and the boot icon is spinning for about 40 seconds and the message "Your computer has a problem, you need to restart it" appears on a blue background. After this message, the computer itself reboots and "Preparing automatic recovery" starts, the boot icon is spinning for about 30 seconds and then everything disappears, nothing, just a black background glows without any messages, but the laptop seems to continue to work, but does not respond to any what actions, except how emergency shutdown laptop. And so all the time.
I did not bother to make a boot disk, a USB flash drive from under the system, when the system was still working normally. Having studied the materials on your site, I tried to do the following. I downloaded images with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 in English via mediacreationtool, I also made bootable USB flash drives separately with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 in English, I also tried to make bootable USB flash drives through WinSetupFromUSB_1-4_x64 and rufus programs with these images. I did it according to your materials, initially tried through these programs to make a bootable USB flash drive for UEFI BIOS with formatting in FAT32 with a GPT scheme, but did not change anything in the BIOS, UEFI was turned on with secure boot, set the boot priority to the first USB HDD, also specially by pressing I could select a bootable USB flash drive connected to the laptop on the f12 button, as a result, after these manipulations, the acer logo and the boot icon did not appear for long, and after that the black background glows again without anything. I also tried to disable D2D RECOVERY, even then in the BIOS I registered the path in the select an uefi file as trusted for executing item in usb1 the path to the BOOTX64.efi file, which is on the USB flash drive, but the result is the same.
Then I decided to go differently. According to the article "How to disable Secure Boot on laptop Acer Aspire "I disabled the secure boot to disabled by setting the password, then switched UEFI to Legacy in boot mode. I set the boot priorities from usb hdd in the BIOS, then through the WinSetupFromUSB_1-4_x64 and rufus programs I formatted it in NTFS with MBR and made bootable flash drives. When I connected this flash drive to the laptop in usb 2.0 and by pressing f12 I selected my bootable USB flash drive, the laptop rebooted, after a while the Windows 8 logo appeared with a blue background with a boot icon, but it did not come to the points to install Windows and restore the system, again the black background covered the boot.
In this appearing black background, the whole problem is, for some reason I cannot run the bootable flash drives to the end from Windows.
But two other facts are noteworthy when I write all sorts of programs like eset.nod32, Victoria and some others to a bootable USB flash drive live programs CD, then everything is fine, they are loaded from a USB flash drive and there is no black background, there are not even any freezes.
These days it got to the point that I even had to initially disassemble my laptop due to this problem, removed the RAM, hard drive. I disconnected the wires, the floppy drive, cleaned the video card from dust, applied neatly new thermal paste, but unfortunately this did not affect the solution of this problem. And I wondered if it was a hardware problem or a software one.
I decided to run without hard disk a laptop with a bootable USB flash drive not from under UEFI, it turned out interesting fact, the logo in Windows 8 with a blue background, the boot icon and finally the items to install Windows and restore the system appeared, i.e. there were no black screens, at that moment I decided to put the hard drive back in, there was no black screen, but when I tried to recover or install the system there were such errors, the disk was locked, unlock it and reboot, also the blue background "Your PC needs to be repeired" file: boot / BCD .......
As a result, 1 day I left with experiments with the Victoria program from under DOS, SMART seemed to give the status to the disk "GOOD", I found out 8 defective bad blocks during the test, ADVANCED REMAP seemed to first correct them, then when I pass again 6 pieces found it at the same addresses, but the SMART status for a disk like "GOOD" remained.
Therefore, now I am puzzled and cannot understand, after all, the black screen is the tricks of the hard drive in connection with some hardware problem or a software problem, but then what is this paradox with a black screen and how to get rid of it all the same.
Those. at the moment I cannot achieve in any way that I can run to the end a bootable USB flash drive from Windows without a black background with a connected hard drive, and as I have already said many other programs eset.nod.32, Victoria with LIVE CD when connected hard drive startup normally with no black background.
Thank you in advance for your response.
A Windows 8 recovery disc or a Windows 8.1 recovery disc is designed to troubleshoot the operating system when the computer cannot boot. Recovery tools are launched from the recovery disk to perform work to restore Windows to health.
In the process of working on the computer, sometimes problems occur due to various reasons. Malfunctions occur due to abnormal operation of equipment, errors software, and perhaps the most common reason: incorrect user actions.
If a serious problem occurs, the user can run System Restore in different ways:
- Recovery system files and settings using previously created system restore points.
- Restoring your computer (Refresh) without deleting personal data.
- Delete all data and reinstall (Reset) Windows.
These recovery options run directly from the operating system. If impossible windows startup, it is possible to start recovery by booting from a bootable USB flash drive or from DVD disc with the operating system image, and if the user does not windows imagethen booted from the recovery disk.
The Windows 8.1 (Windows 8) installation DVD or bootable USB flash drive can also be used as a recovery drive by entering the operating system recovery environment.
You will need a Windows 8.1 system recovery disc in the following cases:
- the user does not have installation disk or a bootable USB flash drive with the Windows1 operating system (Windows 8);
- in case of a serious computer failure;
- when Windows cannot boot.
After booting from the recovery disc, the user can use the recovery tools to necessary work troubleshoot your computer.
Creating a Windows 8.1 recovery drive
The user can independently create a Windows 8.1 recovery disk and write it to a USB flash drive.
When creating a Windows 8.1 recovery disc, follow these steps:
- Enter "Options", then click on "Control Panel".
- Enter "Recovery", select "Create a recovery disc".
- The next window prompts you to copy the recovery partition from your computer to the recovery drive. If there is such a partition on the computer, the user can check the box next to the "Copy the recovery partition from the computer to the recovery drive" in order to use it to restore or return the computer to its original state.
- Click on the "Next" button.
- The application will check the computer for connected drives. In Windows 8 it is possible to write to a CD / DVD disc (for this you will need to launch another application), in Windows 8.1 a recovery disc is created only on a USB flash drive.
- Then a window with available disks opens. Please select desired disk with USB storage. The size of the flash drive must be at least 256 MB, all information from USB devices will be deleted.
- Agree to delete all data from the flash drive. Transfer the data (if any) from the USB device to another drive in advance.
- Click on the "Create" button.
- Next, the service files are formatted and copied.
- The recovery disk is ready, click on the "Finish" button.
Remove the Windows 8.1 recovery USB flash drive from your computer.
A bootable USB flash drive with a Windows 8.1 system recovery disc is created. Now, in the event of an operating system failure, the user will have a chance to return the computer to a working state.
Windows 8.1 bootable USB flash drive for system recovery
Now let's see how to start recovery in Windows 8.1 from an installation disc or from a bootable USB flash drive. The recovery disc (not the installation disc) will start in a similar way, only without windows to install Windows 8.
Select in BIOS or UEFI the priority for booting the system from the connected disk ( USB stick or DVD disc), or directly enter boot menu to start the disk from there.
In the "Install Windows 8" window, click on the "Next" button. Here, by default, the language and keyboard layout are already correctly selected.
In the next window, click on "System Restore".
The Select Action window offers two options:
- Diagnostics - restoring the system, returning the computer to its original state, or using additional tools.
- Turn off computer.
Select "Diagnostics".
The Diagnostics window offers the following actions:
- Restore - restore the system while preserving personal files.
- Reset - reinstalling the system with the loss of personal data.
- Extra options - using other means of recovery.
Select Advanced Options.
The following system recovery tools are available in the Advanced Options window:
- System Restore - Restore Windows using previously created restore points.
- System Image Restore - Restore Windows using a previously created system image backup.
- Startup Repair - Eliminates a crash that prevents the operating system from loading.
- Command Prompt - Launches a Command Prompt for troubleshooting.
Select the correct solution to solve the problem with your computer.
Conclusions of the article
The user can create a bootable recovery disk for Windows 8.1 (Windows 8), which will help launch the system recovery tools when serious problems arise in the operation of the computer, Windows cannot start.
