New Computer Create Recovery Media

11 years ago

Okay, I now have a 16 Gbyte (USB) Flash Drive, noted in an earlier post, so I can now create restore media, none came with the computer.

Computer Gateway/Acer Windows 8 which provides software to:
[My Backup] which provides a tool for data back up and also offers "Image My Drive"... not sure what that's for but it seems it could be a "restore" tool.
[Gateway Recovery Management] which provides for
Create factory Backup which defaults to via a check box "copy the recovery partition from the PC to recovery drive".

Interesting, this option whas "checked" making me think there must be a "recovery partition" on my HDD as delivered by Gateway. I can not see any such with the file manager. Suggestions?

I am still on hold as I suppose I can also create a recovery using Microsoft tools. Here I assume the Factory tools is preferred as it may include brand/model specific items

I welcome suggestions on backup.

When I did this for a Windows 7 computer I liked the fact it provided for a recover disk (DVD) and one or two other more serious restore disks (DVDs). With one restore device, the USB 16 GByte Flash drive it may offer these as choices when the Flash is the boot device... here I assume the firmware in the Gateway has the USB as the primary boot device and defaults to the HDD if no bootable device is found on the USB. Does this sound about right? If so one could not boot from the DVD even if it had sufficient boot software - which I assume can exist for W8 with less than 4 GBytes, which is possible with DVD.

All this may be disclosed in the Gateway user information, but being that too is absent in the hard copy sense I haven't looked at it. Hey, I'm an old guy, still check out paper books from the library rather than down load them to a Kindle. The last book I checked, Killing Kennedy, Bill O'Reilly, came in LARGE PRINT, great.

Comments (3)

owbist
11 years ago
Hey, Windows 8 is interesting is it not Jerry?

As I went through this yesterday I can point you to the right tutorial here. For what you need scroll down to option 2 and you should be good to go.

I have had my Win 8 computer a few months now but cannot get too excited so I tend to stay on my Windows 7 machine. Yesterday I felt the need to get acquainted with the newer computer.

You might find some other interesting tutorials on that site.
mikie_gw
11 years ago
If you want to be a little worried... install EaseUS todo free backup and make a system image with that and enable its preOS pre-boot op sys. It flashes a screen 5 seconds .. or you can make it quicker or longer from msconfig.

It not only lets you do a reimage before boot.. but the preOS has a back door to the F8 stuff we all know and love .... which is inaccessible normally with win8 until you at least get to the login lock screen. And then you need to know the secret key combo and its quirks.

There is no simple F8 tapping . I see a lot of complaints about ..cant get to the login to run safe mode or last known restore points. Most don't seem to know to hold the Shift and press restart from the login screen. If they are lucky enough to get that far into startup.
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jerry_nj
Original Author
11 years ago
Owbist, thanks I do like the fast boot on W8 - even with the switch to Desk Top, which to my simple needs is like being back in W7, it is a much shorter wait to start browsing or getting email.

Mikie, not sure I "know and love" playing with the BIOS, but in the past I have had occasions to need to. Mostly that goes back to W95 days. Or even the 3.x whatever was before '95.

You seem to be suggesting a 3rd party recovery tool. As I noted Gateway provides a tool to image the HDD as well as restore to factory fresh - as I have already uninstalled Norton I assume that would be Factory Fresh less Norton which is fine with me. What I miss was W7 had a DVD boot capability and Toshiba provided me with the tools to create a repair DVD, separate from a restore DVD... I liked that, it prevented me form doing damage by clicking on the wrong button.

I suppose the Gateway restore doesn't proved direct access to F8. I do recall tapping F8 during a boot in XP and earlier to get into the BIOS..you seem to be saying (to my reading) that W8 doesn't let one get to the BIOS until the password is satisfied. I don't know if that is different in W7, I have never gone to the BIOS in my W7 machines. I have had to boot the Toshiba notebook off of the Repair DVD a couple of times and it saved my "bacon".

On Password, in W7 I could easily change or remove the password.. that seems to be buried deeper in W8. Is it even possible to run W8 without an administrative password protected logon? My giant 17.3" Gateway will likely not be taken out of the house, a password isn't needed - well if a crook breaks into my house it would be better if I has some protection on all computers... problem is W8 ended up with a very complicated password that resulted from my initial start up of the machine..as I recall it had something to do with a password for my Microsoft account, and being external I wanted a secure PW, in fact MS may have required it.

New Computer Create Recovery Media

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owbist

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