Perform a Windows 8.1 System Restore. System recovery via BIOS

Some users in their life are faced with the need to restore the Windows system. In this article, we will look at what a system restore is, how to do it, and all the additional points of this issue.

What is it for? System Restore can help if your computer has stopped working properly. This state is caused by the installation of virus software that makes changes to the PC registry or inept / harmful actions of the user himself.

When might you need a system restore?

• The computer is hopelessly buggy, slows down, does not boot.
• After installing a program, windows began to pop up reporting errors at the RAM level.
• The computer boots up to the windows welcome window, after which the computer restarts.

Windows System Restore- this is the restoration of the state of the OS, files and programs on the computer to the moment when the malfunctions began. Sometimes the user does not correctly understand the meaning of system restore and means by it the return of the previous Windows versions. For example, from windows 8 to windows 7. In fact, when you restore the system, its version does not change.

There are many ways to “breathe life” into your operating system, but we will look at 2 of the simplest rollbacks of a Windows system:

• System recovery with BIOS
• Recovery using the command line.

It should be noted initially that windows 7 system recovery can only be performed if the recovery function (service) was started earlier, before the problems appeared. If it was not enabled, then it will be possible to roll back only with the help of boot disk Windows.
To activate the service Windows recovery you need to go to the "Control Panel", this can be done from the "Start" menu. Next, look for an icon called "System Restore". Next, click on the tab called "Start recovery", the system will give us a message - the recovery service is disabled and offer to activate it.

Usually at the first Windows startup the restore point is saved even if the restore feature has been disabled. To see a list of your restore points, you need to click the "View other restore points" button.

If this function has already been launched before, then we can immediately start the system recovery procedure. Click "start system restore", select a restore point, click "next" and "finish". The recovery process has started, as soon as it ends, the computer will restart, after which you can get to work.
What to do if system restore does not work?

The most common problem is that the recovery service is not enabled. How to activate it is written above.

Of course, the possibility of its complete inoperability cannot be ruled out. Very often this can be found if a non-licensed version of windows is installed.

Is it possible to restore a system without a restore point?

Most likely, you have already entered the system recovery center, activated the recovery service and found that there is no backup point - which means you cannot choose which state to roll back the system to. Don't worry, your system can still be restored!

Restoring a system without a restore point can be done using the command line. It is recommended to strictly follow the instructions so as not to break anything. How to roll back the system using the command line, we will consider below.

By the way, it is not necessary to use a disk, you can do a system restore from an image by first transcoding it and writing it to a USB flash drive.

Windows recovery software

If your operating system not quite dead, i.e. it still loads and works somehow. Or, for example, the system recovery tools built into Windows do not help - try using special programs to restore Windows, such as:
1. - a program that will help you both restore the OS (registry, boot areas, access rights), and scan your PC for viruses and file errors.
2. - this software is focused mainly on backup, files, logical drives (partitions), but Acronis can also restore Windows and even Mac.

How to do system restore through bios?

Huge Advantage this method- successful system recovery even in the most difficult cases, the main thing is that the computer or laptop turns on.
Make sure you have your Windows installation disc (boot disc) handy and insert it into your drive. Now we need to enter the BIOS. When starting the computer, press the F12 key, go to the Boot -> BootDevicePriority menu - select the DVD drive in the first place if you are using a disk, if the USB flash drive is a USB HDD.

Reboot the PC again, it should now start windows installer. Often, when the PC boots up, an inscription in English pops up, which requires you to press any key to start booting from the disk. If this is not done, the computer will continue to boot in normal mode from your HDD after 10 seconds, and not from a bootable USB flash drive / disk as we need.

So, we booted from the disk and now select the "System Restore" item in the installation menu, click "Next". After that, you have to choose a restore point, it is best to use the first successful launch, but the programs you need may not have been installed there yet. Those. you will lose the programs (and data in them) that you installed after creating the restore point. Again, click "Next", now the system will be restored. When the process is completed, click "Yes, done". We reboot the system, after removing the disk / flash drive from the drive.

System restore via command line

This method is recommended if there is no system restore point. Again, we need a boot disk with the Windows operating system. It is the one that is installed on the computer.
You can view the OS version by clicking right click on the "My Computer" icon and going to the "System" tab.
If you have a system restore point, then you just need to boot into command line mode (to do this, press the F8 key when loading the OS and select “Boot in safe mode with command line support”). Then enter the command "rstrui" and follow the instructions.

1. If the boot sector of your OS is damaged.
Type “fixboot” on the command line, press “Enter”, then type “fixmbr” and press “Enter”. Everything, the boot sector of your windows is restored, you can restart your computer in normal mode.

2. If missing boot file boot.ini.
Type "bootcfg /rebuild" on the command line and press "Enter". We answer all possible questions of the system by entering "Y" and pressing the "Enter" button.

3. If your config is corrupted in the system32 folder.
We insert the disk with your version of the operating system into the drive, enter "cd repair copy SYSTEM C:\windows\system32\config" in the command line, press "Enter", you're done!

4. If the files “ntldr” or “ntdetect.com” are missing and the system displays messages like: “NTLDR is missing when Windows boots”.
At the command prompt, type "copy J:\i386\ntldr C:\", press "Enter" (Where J is the letter of your drive and C is the letter of your system disk on which your OS is installed).

If you do not want to restart your computer, you can restore the system through command line from windows. We insert the disc into the DVD-ROM, while the computer should be booted. Now you need to start the command line. To do this, in the "Start" menu, click "Run" or press the hot key combination "Windows + R".
Enter the following value there: "sfc / scannow", click "OK" After that, all broken system distributions will be copied from the boot disk automatically. System restore, rollback is quite fast and hassle-free.

How is system recovery different on laptop brands: Asus, Acer, Lenovo, HP, Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Bell, Dell, Vaio, etc.?

I want to note that there are no major differences here. There may be different BIOS versions, but there it is intuitive clear interface and tab names are preserved. With this, there shouldn't be any problems.
The second point is the BIOS entry key, they differ for these manufacturers. But this is not a problem either, you can see what you need to click on the picture that appears when loading.

• Acer-F2;
• Dell - F2 or F1;
• Toshiba - F1 or Esc;
• Sony - F1, F2 or F3.

Sometimes, after a system rollback, when you first start your laptop or computer, a message with this error pops up - this means that the recovery was not completed successfully and strongly recommends trying again with a different restore point.

Try restoring to a different, earlier restore date. If after that such an error pops up, then the problem is much deeper. This means that the problem is viruses in your system that have corrupted the information about system restore points.

A program that checks the strength of system user passwords. This utility used by network administrators to calculate users with…

If programs and applications are installed incorrectly, conflicts arise between software and hardware, which is fraught with operating system errors. Minor consequences may include unsaved documents, unexpected application shutdowns, or incorrect browser shutdowns. This is far from the worst thing that can happen if the OS fails.

On windows 8, there are several options. It depends on the quality of the problem associated with errors in the work.

1. OS rollback to given point return set by the user
2. Rolling back the OS from the distribution using the command line
3. Restoring windows 8 from a system image
4. Installing from a disk over a previous OS

Hotspot and fallback

After installing Windows, a rollback point is automatically created to allow you to reset the OS settings in the event of a malfunction or installation of a virus. software. When problems arise in the operation of the OS that prevent you from running the necessary applications and working comfortably in general, you can return the OS configuration to the moment a particular plug-in or program was installed on the computer, the program that creates the crash. windows 8 happens as follows:

• Go to the control panel;
• Select backup

Select "recovery"

• In the window that appears, you need to select the return point, which is the date and time at which the backup copy of the OS was created with the configuration saved at that time. If the user created the point himself, it will be displayed in the window with the appropriate comment. If not, then only one point is indicated, created during the installation of the OS on the computer, unless otherwise provided by the settings.

In automatic mode, a point is created when applications try to make changes to the configuration, register in the registry in an unusual way, or when a program is identified as unknown that can harm the computer.

Installing from a distribution

If Winda flew off completely, if there is no point of return before basic setting, then it is extracted from the Windows installation file, which can be created the first time you install Windows on your hard drive. You can restore your computer from the command line if you get to user interface fails. To do this, you need to know the location of the installation file.

When booting, press the delete key, which is also used to start the OS in safe mode. Choose boot with command line support and prescribe the source path to the installation file and press ENTER. The installer will offer two options:

• Install Windows
• Windows Recovery

Select the second item and the OS setting will be reset to the base one. This will keep all files. But it is possible to stop the work of programs that affect the normal operation of Windows.

Restoring a computer from a windows 8 image is the same as returning through the command line. An image is an installer archive. In the case when Windows can be loaded in safe mode, you need to find the image file and run it double tap mouse buttons.

You can restore the system on your computer absolutely painlessly if you create a backup in a timely manner. copies of windows 8.

Another way

Alternatively, you can use advanced recovery windows systems 8 with the help of appropriate programs. Microsoft has created about three of these to date, but they are not popular, unlike third-party software.

She (in 90% of versions) has two modes of use - normal and for an advanced user. The first allows you to roll back the OS without additional settings, and the second allows you to define the creation of a return point, the way the area is formatted hard drive etc.

The peculiarity of third-party, non-standard methods allows you not only to restore applications deleted when restoring your computer, but to prevent such a turn of events. Preliminary analysis notifies the user about which programs will be removed after the return and offers to transfer setup files these programs to another logical drive or storage medium.

It is impossible to restore a computer without losing data. Rollback implies the removal of those files that make changes to the OS action algorithm. So the return of Windows to its original state is associated with the removal of some information from the hard drive. Working papers and drafts remain intact, unlike executable files. This must be taken into account when analyzing the state of the computer.

WATCH VIDEO

Hello friends! This article explains step by step how to restore windows 8 on laptop if it loads with an error or doesn't load at all. We will have to create a Windows 8 recovery flash drive, if you have a Windows 8 installation disc, that's even better, you can use it. Before the article, as usual, we publish two interesting letters from our readers.

1) Hello! Tell me how to restore on a laptop, but please in detail? I bought a laptop with pre-installed Windows 8 operating system, immediately, about a week after the update, the laptop freezes during the game, I confess, the game is unlicensed. After forced reboot My laptop started auto-recovery but didn't do anything. Enter safe mode using the F8 key also did not work and I called the wizard. The wizard came, entered the BIOS of my laptop and set the boot priority from the flash drive, then booted my laptop from the recovery flash drive, which is done in Windows 8 itself in one minute (so he said), the Windows 8 recovery environment loaded, in it he found the recovery service system, selected a restore point and clicked Next, after three minutes my laptop booted up safely, everything was quick and easy.

After the master left, my wallet felt better by exactly 500 wooden ones (this is still a familiar master) and I seriously decided to try to restore Windows 8 on my laptop on my own and do everything that the master did, but I didn’t succeed. The laptop does not boot from the Windows 8 recovery flash drive I created, it may have created it with an error, or the UEFI BIOS itself incorrectly set the boot from the flash drive. I began to search the Internet for answers to questions and found your site, for people like me it's just a godsend.

I ask you, if possible, repeat all the steps of the wizard and start by creating a Windows 8 recovery flash drive, then manipulating the BIOS and show what needs to be done in the Windows 8 recovery environment or in another way it is called the Action selection menu, Diagnostics.

2) Hi admin, I want restore windows 8 on laptop my friend, it doesn’t load for him, he made a Windows 8 recovery USB flash drive on his laptop and wanted to help. I think I'll boot the laptop from the recovery flash drive, then apply the system restore, but it turned out that the recovery program on the flash drive on English language. Here is the screenshot. Tell them to click next to apply System Restore. I wrote to you because you always have everything in detail, anyone, even a beginner, will understand.

How to restore Windows 8 on a laptop

Hello friends! I understand the question, let's get straight to the point. By the way, there is nothing offensive in the fact that you did not remember exactly how the master restored Windows 8 on a laptop, he can do this several times a day, and you are faced with this for the first time.

I often wear such laptops to work and I will show you how to get out of this situation with dignity.

What happened to our readers can happen to any user and we need to be prepared for this. Windows 8 is a fairly reliable and stable operating system, but it may not boot due to viruses, crooked software, incorrect drivers, and so on. For this case, the developers have prepared several ways to restore Windows 8, which we will use.

What to do if when you turn on Windows laptop 8 tries to run some update and freezes? Or in the initial phase of loading the laptop starts automatic recovery and unsuccessfully, or maybe when loading you just get blue screen death with an error, although yesterday everything was fine. In all these cases, we act like this ...

First of all, you and I should have prepared a recovery flash drive or a Windows 8 recovery disk, it can also work, with the help of them you can enter a special menu Choice of action, Diagnostics and restore Windows 8. Many users may notice that you can do without a USB flash drive or a recovery disk, you can simply often press the F8 key or the Shift + F8 key combination when loading the laptop, and we will also get to the Action Selection menu. This is far from true friends, most of the laptops sold today will not allow you to do this, with the exception of only a few models, for example, the Packard Bell laptop, here it will allow you to enter the Select Action menu using the F8 key.

Therefore, the first step is to create a Windows 8 recovery flash drive.

We connect the flash drive to the USB port.

Move the mouse to the right hot corner and click Search.

Type in the search field Recovery. Click on Parameters and Create a recovery drive.

Create.

Ready. That's it, the Windows 8 recovery flash drive has been created.

Now let's restore Windows 8 on a laptop using our flash drive. Imagine a situation, our laptop does not boot at all and automatic means recovery cannot help us (and it does not often help, so do not rely on it too much).

How to restore Windows 8.1 on a laptop if it does not boot

We connect our Windows 8 recovery flash drive to the laptop and reboot the laptop, in order to boot the laptop from the USB flash drive, you need to get into the laptop boot menu, for example, on my laptop, the key is responsible for this F12

In the boot menu of the laptop, use the arrows on the keyboard to select our recovery flash drive and press Enter.

The flash drive is being loaded. The first thing we will see is the language selection window. Whatever language you choose, everything will still be in English.

Note: if you boot from installation disk Windows 8, then everything will be in Russian, consider this recovery option below.

Choose Troubleshoot(troubleshoot) or Diagnostics ( computer recovery, return computer to the initial state or use additional funds)

advanced options(Extra options)

System Restore(System Restore), by the way, please note below paragraph Automatic Repair(automatic recovery), does not always help, but you can try.

Choosing our operating system Windows 8.1(in your case, most likely there will be one Windows 8 operating system)

Select the restore point we need and Next (next)

Yes (the restore cannot be undone).

The system restore process is in progress and completed successfully.

Restart and reboot happens and Windows 8.1 boots normally

If you boot into the Windows 8 recovery environment from the installation disk of the eight, then everything will be in Russian

To restore Windows 8 on a laptop or simple computer select item Diagnostics(repair your computer, reset your computer, or use additional tools)

Extra options

System Restore

System Restore cannot be interrupted. Yes

Windows 8 System Restore completed successfully on our laptop

Friends, if all that is said above does not help you restore Windows 8 on a laptop, then refer to our more complete article - from it you will learn:

2)How to restore Windows 8 without deleting user files (Refresh Your PC). If the operating system does not boot and you do not have an installation Windows disk 8, then you can use the Restore method (your files will remain in place) or Refresh Your PC.

Note: To use this method, you must first create a Windows 8 image.

3) How to produce full recovery Windows 8 without saving user data and installed applications having a Windows 8 installation disc. All your personal files and installed programs will be deleted and the operating system will be restored to its original state.

4) . With the help of this article, you will learn how to boot into Safe windows mode 8 and restore the system from it.

Windows 8 and 8.1 operating systems 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 (i.e., restricted mode diagnostics), which allows you to repair autoload, file system or fix other issues that cause the operating system to not boot or run with tangible problems.

A boot disk for Windows is useful in that you can use it to start 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 to install Windows. At the same time, the boot disk is very similar to the one used to restore Windows 7.

The recovery disc (in the USB version) or system repair disc (for the CD/DVD version, only available in Windows 8) is intended for those who do not have an official Windows 8/8.1 boot disc.

I strongly recommend that you create a system recovery disk or flash drive before you get into an unpleasant situation - if you can’t start Windows 8 or 8.1, you can easily and effortlessly return the OS to operational state using the prepared kit.

Keep in mind that a 32-bit (x86) recovery disc can be used to fix Windows 8/8.1 32-bit. Accordingly, the 64-bit (x64) edition of the recovery disk only works with 64-bit Windows 8/8.1.

Good point: you can repair any edition Microsoft Windows 8/8.1 from this disk if it is for the same hardware architecture (32-bit or 64-bit). One final note: don't try to use the Windows 8.1 recovery disc to revive 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 a requirement for Windows environments 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 a recovery drive.

The CD or DVD drive in Windows 8 must be really 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 (keyboard shortcut Windows+E), right-clicking on the CD/DVD drive logo in the list, and selecting Erase This Disc.

A USB drive can be a simple portable flash drive or hard drive with a similar USB interface. Please note that this hard drive will be formatted and you will lose all files on it. Therefore, it will not be superfluous to backup all important files! Be careful. If you delete valuable files, they will have to be restored (about the resuscitation of a flash drive to the site).

After creating the recovery disk, you need to make sure that your computer is able to boot normally. Some older USB sticks do not support booting. Also, don't forget to check your computer's boot order in the BIOS to make sure that booting from USB devices is enabled and is on the list 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 a USB 2.0 port - this may solve some problems with booting the system.

Create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows recovery

To start creating a boot disk, open the search settings using the Windows key + W and type "Recovery" in the search box. Click on "Create a recovery drive".

As expected, the User Account Control window appears. Click the "Yes" button to make sure you know what you're doing.

You will see the "Create Recovery Drive" window. First, check the "Copy the contents of the recovery partition to disk" option. Then plug in 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 drive" option when creating a recovery drive 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 available space requirements on the default recovery drive from 256 megabytes to 4 gigabytes respectively.

If you receive the message "We cannot create a recovery disc on this computer. Some required files are missing" when creating a Windows recovery disc, the winre.wim file, or system reserved section is missing.

Select the correct drive letter from the list, specify USB flash drive in the window. Then click the "Next" button.

Windows will warn you that all contents of the selected drive will be cleared. To continue, click the "Create" button.

The disk formatting and file copying process may take several minutes, depending on the speed of your USB drive. Once the disk is ready, click the "Finish" button.

The end of the process of creating a bootable flash drives windows 8

Now check that your device is really able to boot from the recovery disk: some older USB drives don't support booting. In this case, make a newer recovery disk on the flash drive and re-test 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 Boot CD/DVD for System Recovery in Windows 8

If you want to create a bootable CD or System Recovery DVD (only available in Windows 8), open the search for Windows+W key settings, type "recovery" and click "Windows 7 File Restore" (yes, that's it). glitch, in fact, the option has such a name).

If you cannot find the item you are looking for, open a command prompt window (use the Windows key + X), type sdclt.exe and press Enter to launch the program.

On the left side of the Microsoft Windows 7 File Recovery window, click the Create System Repair Disc button.

The "Create System Recovery Disc" window opens. Select the desired successor and click the "Create Disc" button.

If you insert a non-blank CD or DVD, you will see an error dialog like this: "The system recovery media 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, select the Erase This Disc option.

It may take several minutes to create the system recovery disc. After the process is completed, specify the name of the disk and click the "Close" button.

Summary. I hope that this instruction helped you create bootable flash drive to restore Microsoft Windows 8. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments, I will definitely answer them (see below).

Answers to questions from readers

After restoring Windows 8, files and some programs disappeared. How can I return/restore them?

Answer. You must understand that restoring windows 8 from a disc or other media assumes that everything installed programs are deleted, they will need to be reinstalled. However, if you installed Windows on a different drive, you can go to custom folder(Users - [username]) on the system drive used by the previous OS. In the Application Data subdirectory, look for user files with configuration files applications, they can be copied to the current user folder. That's just actually Windows applications will need to be installed from the installation files.

If you installed Windows 8 on the default system drive and lost 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 also no archiving. And now, having returned something, I do not find some files: office program, your notes, etc. Update Center not working. It is impossible to find deleted files, default is everywhere. How to restore windows 8 to normal as before?

Answer. It looks like you used a restore point to roll back to a previous version of 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 point by point.

1. The easiest way to install the office suite is by downloading the installation package on the developer's website.

2. Work center windows updates 8 Depends on the Windows Update service. Start - Run - services.msc. Find the specified service, switch to the "Automatic" state, reboot the system.

3. For recovery deleted files use specialized programs, we have written about them many times.

If you perform a system restore using usb flash drive(on Windows 8), will the system be restored to the factory settings or to the time the recovery disk was created?

Answer. Windows entry 8 to a flash drive is just a convenient way to reinstall without using a floppy drive.

You can write windows 8 to a USB flash drive and reinstall from scratch, but you will need to configure, install programs, and so on again. If you use Windows restore points, then you return to the state in which the OS was fixed at the time the point was created.

How to restore Windows 8? How to create a restore point? How to apply Windows 8 recovery without deleting user files (Refresh Your PC)? Why are there two tools in Windows 8 for creating an operating system recovery image? Where did previous versions of files go?

Friends, a lot of letters have come where you are interested in the remedy System Restore Windows 8 and I tried to answer all letters with one big article. From this article you can learn how to restore Windows 8 the most different ways, ranging from the simplest (using a restore point) to the more complex ones. The article is useful for both novice PC users and users with an average level of training.

• Note: Friends, if you have a laptop, then these detailed articles will be very useful to you. They will help you master the indispensable tools for recovering the Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating system, these tools will help you under the most disadvantageous circumstances for you.

1. using a recovery flash drive or a Windows 8 installation disc
2. if the operating system does not boot.
3. in the manufacturer's built-in Recovery program.

Bought a few days ago new laptop, with the Windows 8 operating system preinstalled, and I must say, I am generally satisfied with the system, although of course it’s not quite usual to work without the standard Start menu. I'm not going to reinstall the eight on Windows 7, I want to thoroughly understand the new operating system. And I think you need to start first of all with exactly how Windows 8 recovery works. Of course, you understand me, any user, even an experienced one, while working on a computer, can disrupt the operation of the operating system with his unsuccessful actions. The easiest way to get out of an unpleasant situation is to roll back using a restore point for a certain period of time.

I want to say that I managed to create a restore point in a running Windows 8, it also turned out to roll back using it, but here's what to do if, due to a system failure or due to viruses, I won't be able to boot Windows 8. How then get into system restore? Here is where I have some questions for you.

1. As I understand it, the F-8 key no longer works when the computer boots. So how do I get into the advanced boot options menu, and then into safe mode and into system recovery? After a long search for information on the Internet, I realized that I needed to press Shift + F8, but here I did not succeed either. I wonder why?
2. I also read that in Windows 8 there is a feature to completely restore the entire operating system, which is equivalent to reinstalling, but without deleting user files, it's called (Refresh Your PC)! You can start such a recovery even if you can’t log into a running Windows 8 at all.
3. How do I get into this Refresh Your PC if my Windows 8 still won't boot, because the Shift+F8 key combination doesn't work for me on boot?
4. Will my installed programs remain on my system drive (C:) after applying Windows 8 recovery without deleting user files (Refresh Your PC)?
5. When I tried to launch Refresh Your PC from a working system, it asked for a Windows 8 installation disk, but where can I get it, because I bought a laptop without an installation disk.
6. If I want to sell a laptop, how can I make a complete Windows 8 recovery without saving user data and installed applications (equivalent to Windows installation 8 again) if I don't have a Windows 8 installation disc.
7. How to get into safe mode or safe mode with command support Windows strings 8?
8. I also learned that in Windows 8 you can create an image to restore the entire operating system. That is, install all the programs I need and then make an image of a stable operating system, which, if necessary, can be deployed in place of an unstable operating system. BUT Windows 8 has two tools to create an image of the operating system? One image can be created using the command line, with the command recimg / createimage D: \ The second way is to use the familiar tool from the Control Panel, under the strange name for Windows 8 "Recovery Windows files 7 "Both created images in the end are different. You yourself as an administrator created these images and tried to restore Windows 8 from them, which one and for what?
9. If Windows 8 has a system imaging and recovery tool, then expensive programs Reserve copy data, third-party developers, for example Acronis True Image Home, are they not needed or is it still more convenient and easier to use them?
10. Where did the tool called " Previous Versions files"? In Windows 7, it helped me out more than once when I accidentally deleted important files past the basket.

Restoring Windows 8

First of all, let's make initial setup Windows 8 system protection settings. Make sure that System Restore is enabled for the partition on which Windows 8 is installed, usually (C:). Specify the amount of disk space required for normal functioning System protection. Next, we will learn how to create a restore point in a normally functioning Windows 8, as well as how to roll back using it. We will also consider the case when, due to a system failure, we will NOT be able to boot Windows 8, but we will still get to the system restore, even if the Shift + F8 keyboard shortcut does not work at boot. We will do this using the Windows 8 recovery disk we created or the Windows 8 installation disk.

Consider how Windows 8 is restored without deleting user files (Refresh Your PC). You can start Refresh Your PC directly from a running system, as well as if your Windows 8 does not boot. will happen reinstalling Windows 8, personal data is not affected, applications from Windows Store are saved, the programs you installed are deleted (to save the installed programs, you need to create a Windows 8 image, read on). We will need a Windows 8 installation disc or a Windows 8 image we created. I will show you how to create a Windows 8 image and then restore our operating system from it using Refresh Your PC, even if it will not boot at all.

Actually Windows tools 8 you can create two recovery images, one image works with the Refresh Your PC tool. When you use the Refresh Your PC tool, Windows 8 is completely restored, but your personal files remain intact, but installed programs are removed and system settings reset to original. So, if you create an image using the command line, as described later in the article, then the Refresh Your PC tool will use this image to restore, and not the Windows 8 installation disk. This means that the programs and system settings you installed will NOT be reset , but will be returned at the time the image was created. But you should know that the image created in this way is not suitable for recovery in case of a complete formatting of the disk (C:) or accidental deletion of the system partition. To create a backup image of Windows 8 entirely, the second method is suitable.

The second image is created using the tool we already know from the Control Panel, called "" or, I will show you both ways. Using this image, you can restore Windows 8 completely to a clean HDD. How does this happen, for example, you created an image of Windows 8 on the disk (D :), then completely removed Windows 8 from the disk (C :) and installed Windows 7, used it and you didn’t like it, you take and restore Windows 8 with all your programs and files from the image and that's it.

Note: Friends, regarding creating a system image and restoring from it, read our article on DVDs or on a portable USB hard drive and how to recover from these images, you will also learn how to connect a drive to your laptop, netbook SATA interface or an old IDE hard drive and adapt it to save backups!

At the end of the article, we will analyze the complete recovery of Windows 8 without saving user data and installed applications (equivalent to installing Windows 8 again). You will need a Windows 8 installation disc.

Safe mode. In order to get into, there are many ways, you can do it directly from a running system, or even if you can’t boot Windows 8 at all, for example, using the command bcdedit /set (globalsettings) advancedoptions true, see below for details.

The ones familiar to us from Windows 7 have been replaced by a tool called "File History". Want to know the details? Read our article!

In fact, friends, the system restore tool in Windows 8 is different from the restore tool that was in Windows 7, and I must say there is something to write about here. Moreover, computers with installed Windows 8 and people are actively using the new operating system and I have many times had to use almost all the available system recovery features of Windows 8 in practice. So I tell you what I know

Of course, most often for various problems with the new operating system, you will have to apply a simple rollback using a restore point. Therefore, first of all, let's make sure that we have system recovery enabled at all.

We mark the item Enable system protection and indicate the Maximum use of approximately 15%, this figure is quite enough for the normal operation of the System Partition Protection with Windows 8 installed. Apply and OK. If you wish, you can enable System Protection for other partitions as well.

Now let's create a restore point on our own and I advise you to do this periodically. For example, before the upcoming search for something on the Internet or before installing new program.
Click Create.

We come up with a name for our restore point. For example, on January 13, the installation of a new program. Once again Create and the Windows 8 restore point is created.

Now imagine such a situation, immediately after installing some program, we had problems: the Internet disappeared, freezes appeared, and so on. Of course, we will decide to use our restore point created before installing the program.
Options -> Control Panel->Recovery -> Starting System Restore

We mark the item Show all available restore points and open all available points. For example, we decided to stop at the restore point created on January 11, on this day I installed Microsoft program Office Word 2007
Select the restore point with the left mouse, then click on the option Finding affected programs

If you're not happy with this, choose a different restore point. But for example, I agree, I select the restore point on January 11 and click Next.

Ready.

In the previous Windows 7 operating system, it was possible to press F-8 at the initial boot phase of the computer and get into Troubleshooting (recovery environment), then start system recovery from there. In Windows 8, the F-8 key was canceled, but the keyboard shortcut Shift + F8 appeared, which is very difficult to use, since the new Windows 8 operating system greatly reduced the system boot time and the user, with all his desire, will not have time to press the keys at the right time. If you want, try it, you can do it like this: in the initial phase of loading the computer, hold Shift key and press F8 frequently.

As a result, it does not matter at all how you get to the menu: "Select action", for example using the keyboard shortcut Shift + F8 or using the recovery disk we created, or the Windows 8 installation disk, you need to do the same thing there. Click Next

System Restore

We enter such a menu Choice of action, Diagnostics,

System Restore.

Choose Windows 8

System Restore is starting.

Click Finish and the system rolls back to this restore point.

Create and use a Windows 8 recovery drive

If you can’t enter the advanced boot options menu using Shift + F8 (I personally refused to thrash the keyboard), then this can be done from the Windows 8 recovery disk. Trust me, friends, the Windows 8 recovery disk will come in handy more than once . Let's create it in our Windows 8, then boot the computer from it and enter the advanced boot options menu and then into Windows 8 system recovery.
To make a Windows 8 recovery disc, select:
Options -> Control Panel-> In Category, select Large or small icons

Recovery ->

Now let's imagine a situation. For some reason, we cannot download Windows 8, the download ends with an error or a blue screen of death. What to do and how to get into system restore. It is in this situation that the Windows 8 recovery disk you created will come in handy. Insert it into the drive and boot our computer from this disk. If you do not know how to boot a computer from a disk or flash drive, read our articles: BIOS: Booting from a disk, Booting from a disk in a laptop or How to boot a laptop from a USB flash drive and more Booting from a USB flash drive in BIOS.
In the initial window, select Diagnostics.

Extra options

System Restore

Choosing Windows 8

Start System Restore.

Done and the Windows 8 system is being restored to the restore point we need. Instead of a recovery disc, you can use a Windows 8 installation disc.

How Windows 8 is restored without deleting user files (Refresh Your PC) from a working operating system

When you need to use this tool, of course, if your operating system is unstable, and most importantly, rolling back using a restore point did not help you.
When applied this tool, will happen complete reinstallation Windows 8, but without deleting your data. You will need a Windows 8 installation disc or a pre-prepared Windows 8 image.
First, let's restore Windows 8 directly from a running operating system using the Windows 8 installation disc.
Files in user profiles will remain untouched (documents, photos, music, downloads), including those on the desktop, you will not lose applications from the Windows Store, network settings will remain unchanged.
But the programs you installed from the Program Files folders will be deleted. All system settings and services will be reset to default settings.
So, let's put into practice recovery without deleting user data (Refresh Your PC). You can do this from a running Windows 8, as well as by booting from a recovery disk or a Windows 8 installation disk. First of all, let's run Refresh Your PC from a running system.
Options ->->

We read the warning.

If you haven't inserted your Windows 8 installation disc into your drive yet, now is the time to do so.

Click Restore.

Virtually no further action is required from you. Of course, the recovery will NOT take a few minutes, in my case it took about 40 minutes.

And here we have our updated Windows 8, all our personal files are safe and sound, system settings are reset to default, personal programs will have to reinstall.

How to apply a Windows 8 recovery without deleting user files (Refresh Your PC) if your Windows 8 won't boot

So our computer or laptop does not boot, rolling back using a restore point did not help, and we decided to use the Windows 8 recovery tool without deleting user data (Refresh Your PC). Here we again need a Windows 8 installation disc.. Let's boot our computer from the Windows 8 installation disk. Click Next

Click System Restore

So the additional boot menu already familiar to us Selecting the action Diagnostics

We read the warning already familiar to us and click Next.

Windows 8.

Recovery process in progress

Our PC. As in the previous case, the recovery took about 40 minutes, all personal data remained in place, system settings were reset to default, the programs we installed were deleted.

How to apply Windows 8 recovery without deleting user files (Refresh Your PC) if the operating system does not boot and you do not have a Windows 8 installation disc Everything is the same as in the previous case, if serious problems arise, we boot from the recovery disk and try to roll back using the restore point, but this does not help. Then we decide to apply Refresh Your PC and again the problem, we don't have a windows 8 installation disc and the following error comes up: To continue, insert the Windows installation disc or system recovery media.

Friends, this situation may turn out to be hopeless, no, of course, you can try to enter safe mode and correct the situation there, for example, remove the latest programs and drivers installed, which, in your opinion, could have failed, or you can do something else. Creating a Windows 8 Recovery Image for Refresh Your PC
You need to create an image of your Windows 8 in advance and use it when restoring, not the Windows 8 installation disc, and the Refresh Your PC tool will use this image to restore, and not the Windows 8 installation disc. This means that the programs and system settings you installed will NOT be reset, but will be returned to the time the image was created.

How to Create a Windows 8 Recovery Image.

Very simple, we will use the Recimg.exe command line tool. Right click on the start menu and select Command Prompt (Admin),

We enter the command
recimg /createimage D:\backup to create a Windows 8 recovery image on drive D in the backup folder.
Image creation and registration completed successfully.
It is located, as we planned, on drive D: in the backup folder and is called CustomRefresh.wim

Well, now let's try to restore our Windows 8 from the Windows 8 recovery image we created.
We boot into the additional boot menu. Select an action using the keyboard shortcut Shift + F8 or the Windows 8 recovery disk. Diagnostics,

Restore.

Your files will remain in place.

Restore

I remind you again that a Windows 8 image created in this way is not suitable for recovery in case of a complete formatting of the disk (C:) or accidental deletion of the system partition.

Creating a Full Windows 8 Recovery Image Using this image, you can restore Windows 8 even after completely formatting the system partition (C:). How everything works. If you created an image of Windows 8 on a disk (D :), then completely removed Windows 8 from a disk (C:) and installed Windows 7, used it and didn’t like it, you take and restore Windows 8 from the image and that’s it. So let's create an image.
Note: Friends, if anyone wants to create a backup image of Windows 8 using the command line, read this post "
Parameters . Control Panel