How to make a complete backup
What is the recommended way to make a complete (image?) backup with Win8?

- Win8 Refresh removes all desktop apps.
   Reinstalling them did cost me a day.
- Restoring via Windows 7 file recovery seems not to work

RecImg
- does not to support backing up to network drives
- seems not to restore all settings (Ex: Outlook 2013 account settings)
- lets the PC go to sleep while backing up

I am reluctant to go back to using Acronis because with Win7 I could never get automatic backups waking the PC from sleep to work properly and looking in their forum there are problems like this again with TI 2013 and Win8.

I read Windows Backup vs File History vs Volume Image (Wbadmin)
October 29th, 2012 6:15pm

Norton Ghost is very good. You might be able to pick up a time based trial version. You can create a bootable CD, DVD or Floppy Disk so that the image is created outside of the Windows environment. It will copy absolutely everything on the HDD into an image file.
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October 29th, 2012 6:35pm

Hi,

You could try to Create a System Image to back up your system. When you need to restore the system, just go to Windows RE and restore this image.

October 31st, 2012 12:37pm

Hi Juke,

as stated in my initial post, restoring a system image seems not to work.

Here the link (including steps to reproduce) again: How to restore a Windows 7 file recovery image?




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October 31st, 2012 1:14pm

The Windows "7" Recovery option in Control Panel does work, but make sure you make a System Repair Disc from that option in Control Panel as well.  I made it onto a USB Key.  Using a Windows 7 System Repair Disc will not work, it has to be a Windows 8 Repair Disc.

RECIMG works but you do have to do a lot of work on the desktop.  Making a total image is better as this will re-instate the machine (while getting on with something else in life!).

October 31st, 2012 2:51pm

Hi,

Boot from any Linux live CD, then open a terminal window and run the following command

su -

dd if = /dev/sda bs=64M of = /dev/sdb

It will copy the whole contents of your main disk (typically /dev/sda to an external disk /dev/sdb)

It's a byte-by-byte copy, it's an exact copy of the disk. I used it in XP and 7, runs perfectly well.

To restore, you just run the inverse process

su -

dd if = /dev/sdb bs=64M of = /dev/sda

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October 31st, 2012 3:26pm

Tony,

good to hear that re-imaging Win8 using Windows 7 file recovery does work.

Did you re-image from a directly attached drive or from a network drive?
I am unable to re-image from a network drive:

  • From within Win8 I get the error "..not able to find any backup sets" as described in the thread linked above.
  • From the Win8 install DVD or a recovery CD it get "Access is denied".
    Recreating the network share and its permission did not help. The machines are not in a Domain. I am trying to connect with an admin account of the workstation sharing the backup disk.
October 31st, 2012 5:33pm

Hi,

I backed up the image to a directly attached external USB HDD.  The System Repair Disc was saved to a USB Key.  Re-installing an image is far more efficient to me than fiddling with RECIMG as that basically zapps all "desktop" programs - or did when I experimented with it !!

(FYI My main drive is a 500 GB SSD, the directly attached external HDD is a 500 GB "Spinner")

See the following thread as well regarding the System Repair Disc:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-GB/w8itprogeneral/thread/ca136823-3dda-4012-9494-7c8503aa11ac

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October 31st, 2012 8:45pm

So the resume of this discussion is: the best way to do a complete Win8 backup/restore with built-in tools still is using "Windows 7 file recovery".
EDIT:
My conclusion above is only valid if one has a substantial amount of desktop applications. If one only has "modern" apps using Win8 Refresh seems to be find.


I still did not find a solution for How to restore a Windows 7 file recovery image from a network drive?

October 31st, 2012 10:04pm

Norton Ghost 15 will not work with Windows 8.
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January 4th, 2013 5:40pm

Norton Ghost 15 will not work with Windows 8.
Ghost 11 does, it might even be freeware now but I am not sure. Booting from a bootable CD/DVD does the trick ;)
July 21st, 2013 11:20am

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