Question: How Can You Create Recovery Disks for Windows 8?

Author: Eli the Computer Guy Live
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6m 30s Lenght
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I was thinking about switching over from windows 8 to some distro of linux on my laptop because I am getting fed up with issues running security software and installing updates. But JUST IN CASE, i heard that you can save an image of your windows operating system for reinstallation. I wanted to do this before switching to linux but am not entirely sure how. My laptop did not come with a disk and license key so i am not sure if it would require me to enter the key if i decided to switch back to windows 8. Can you please explain how to properly do this? Also what lightweight distro of linux would you recommend for a laptop on 4 gb of ram and an amd a6 processor? -Lucid S.

Comments

  1. at about 2:43 he forgets the word for "computer."
  2. @2:22 I had on earphones when i was watching this. That dog scared the hell out of me.
  3. I think the best thing to do is just buy a new hard drive and install linux on the new drive. If linux doesn't work out then you could just swap out the hard drive with the windows drive and poof instantly your back on windows. Or you can just put the windows drive in an external enclosure and boot from that disk.
  4. Hey i backed up my smartphone using wondershare and it is asking for money to restore it...i was not prepared for this...i made backup file from .bak to .zip and the files inside it are locked can you show how to unlock it without having password
  5. AOMEI Backupper is free for home use and allows you to make full and incremental and differential backups for free. I used to use Norton Ghost back in the day and AOMEI is almost as good and its free. I just got a new HP laptop and with HP you use HP Recovery Manager to create a set of backup discs on DVD's or a USB thumbdrive that is used to restore the laptop to a "factory new" state.
  6. Dual booth with ubuntu works fine with 4 ram
  7. Macrium Reflect Free Edition (Make Macrium Recovery CD Media after installing program). Free Version only does full backups, but great for free. You can schedule backups with the built-in Task Scheduler within Macrium Reflect. I have recovered several clients with this program, and it was a breeze with the boot media. Probably not super easy for a beginner, but worth taking a look at.
  8. Hey Eli - How about an episode showing us your RV trailer?
  9. The way I backup an entire Windows 8 system is use CloneZilla. However, you need to first boot into recovery console and run chkdsk on all of the NTFS partitions otherwise CloneZilla will say the partitions are dirty and won't copy properly (Windows 8 issue). This method is totally free but is intended for advanced users.
  10. This question is on a completely different topic.  I have forgotten the administrator password for my computer.  I have no backup options or anything (not a techie).  How do I crack that without becoming a techie.  All info I find on youtube and elsewhere is annoying.  I need an easy method.
  11. As a safeguard you should find and print out your Windows activation number.  There are several free programs that will find the keys for your software
  12. Linux magazines used to come with LIVE dvd's. Just pop the dvd in, then reboot, and it boots to linux on the dvd. Don't click install though, because it will erase your hard drive and your Windows.
  13. WHAT'S YOUR THOUGHT ON VIPRE INTERNET SECURITY 2015 ?  WHAT IS YOU ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE ON YOUR MAIN COMPUTER THANKS ENJOY YOUR VIDEO'S
  14. Why not use the Create Recovery Drive feature built into Windows 8?
  15. Don't use EaseUS todo backup, they require you to buy the software to recover (made that mistake backing up my laptop).

    As for the key, in windows 8 systems it is embedded in the firmware of the system.

    If your machine allows it, you should be able to do a windows backup of the system, then create the recovery disc / usb drive for recovery (a backup doesn't allow you to recover from scratch, you need boot medium.  And a boot disk doesn't recover your machine to it's previous state, you need a backup image for that).

    Also keep in mind if you wipe your laptop you will probably lose the recovery partition, which is used to reset your machine to factory default.
  16. Try Linux using a virtual machine.
  17. Could you change the background :D