I am trying to obtain back up media for my recently purchased Laptop.....

To start with - I have updated it to Win 8.1 from Win 8 - this deleted the back up burner utility from the desktop......

I have been on to laptop support and they tell me to use a (non-existant) utility to create my own back up

I have tried MS own back up evaluation copy (in the hope that it would allow me to "convert" it to OEM) - It didn't even allow a download !!! 

I have tried MS backup ISO creator utility and was told that this didn't work in my region (UK !!)

I also have had problems finding my product key - no label - but when I tried running magical jelly bean - it gave me a totally different key than did Belarc - neither worked on MS backup ISO creator !

Why does MS not simply offer downloads of ISO's - as did/does Digital River with Win 7 ?

I am simply trying to create an ISO image to prevent future problems

What more can I try ?

I am still unsure why their is any difference licence-wise between OEM and RETAIL - in Win 7, there was no difference... a Downloaded ISO from Digital River worked on ANY licenced device !!

• Edited by Steeboo Sunday, November 24, 2013 11:15 AM

You could create USB recovery drive instead:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/create-usb-recovery-drive

Then create file history for on-going backup:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/how-use-file-history

You could create USB recovery drive instead:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/create-usb-recovery-drive

Then create file history for on-going backup:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/how-use-file-history

Thanks - but this is simply a utility that allows recovery of data - not the full rebuild that I am looking for !!

I tend to carry out a full rebuild of my PC's once a year - my data is backed up weekly anyway to an external drive !!

It is in the 1st link, create recovery drive. If you provide a DVD, you can copy the recovery partition to it and it should do whatever it is the recovery partition is designed to do.