Vista Restore Question

I just purchased and installed TI-11 for my Vista Home Premium computer. I did a backup to a Secure Zone on an external USB drive. It seemed to work. I did a Verify and it reported no problems. I also recreated a bootable CD with TI.

I want to do a Restore to confirm I can go full-circle. Are there any tricks, problems, got-chas, or any undocumented wisdom I should be aware of? I'm not very technical when it comes to this stuff and I really don't want any (I mean any) surprises.

Thanks, Jerry

 

HI
As belt and braces I would do another back to somewhere other than your USB just in case. You can always delete this if successful

 

Decent idea and will do that.

I've read stories, rummors, inuendo that there is a problem restoring Vista and something about the MBR and it requires the OEM Vista disk to repair..... Is this the case, was it fixed. Any info?

 

Having a secure zone on an external drive is an issue within itself. There are both benefits and limitations. Suggest you read up on the "Secure zone" threads as listed in the "sticky" reference in my signature below. Xpilot is one forum member that uses it to his advantage. Many other discourage its use on an external. You need to become an informed user. Check the other threads.


I would maintain additional backups outside the secure zone on both the same drive plus on other drives. As the proverbial saying "you don't want all your eggs in one basket".

I have a posting in your other thread about the type of backups needed.

You might want to review the posting below by MudCrab about issues with Vista.

 

TI 11 should restore Vista in a bootable state. However, if you do need to do a boot repair, having a standard MS OEM/Retail Vista DVD helps. I think Vista SP1 was supposed to be able to create a "repair" CD, but I haven't had time to look into it and I didn't find it on a quick glance.

 

From within Vista, did you "explore" the image to test whether you can copy files from the image back to the internal hard drive?

Did you boot from the TI Recovery CD and confirm that you can see all the hard drives, internal and external, and do a verify of the image on the external drive from that boot CD environment?

Did you make at least two images of the entire boot drive not just the C partition? If there are other partitions, you may not get a bootable restore to a new drive if they are not included in the image.

If you've done these things, you've done just about everything to confirm that a restore will be successful short of actually restoring an image.

The ideal test with zero risk, would be to restore to a different hard drive in the computer with the original drive disconnected. My guess is that you don't want to do that, but I suggest it as the safest test since your original drive is not involved.

If you restore to your original disk, probably it will be fine. However, if the restore is not successful, you will have to use the manufacturer's restore, and that will lose all your installed applications, settings and data.

Therefore, before doing the restore, copy all data of any value to an external drive and check that you have all your settings written down somewhere. Also, be sure you know how to use the manufacturer's restore to get the system back to the way it was when you bought it. You probably won't need any of this because the restore will go perfectly, but you want to minimize the risk.

 

Thank to all for the advice, especially John (jmk94903).

So my computer is brand new. The only application I installed was TI-11. So I'm not concerned about having to resort to the Vista factory restore option, which by the way I just found out is F8, not Ctrl-F11.

I did a backup of my C: partition. I did not backup the MBR or the additional partition that I assume has the Vista factory image on it.

My biggest concern with the TI restore is it does something nasty such that
F8 will stop working and I will not be able to get back to my factory state.

 

Thanks for the thanks.

Since your computer is new, I think you can safely do a restore of the C partition after you have done the things I mentioned.

You should make an image of the entire hard drive, both partitions, and store it in an ordinary folder on the external drive - not the Secure Zone. You want to keep this for as long as you have the computer since restoring this image to a new hard drive will restore the manufacturer's restore feature.

By the way, I don't think it starts with F8 because that is the key to start Windows in Safe Mode. F11 or Ctrl F11 are more likely, but check this.

After you have made the image of the entire drive, all you need to backup in the future is the C partition. That will be a smaller backup.

To test the restore, all you need to restore is the C partition unless you are restoring to a new hard drive. This will not interfere with the manufacturer's restore feature.

 

Just to play it safe, have your vista installation dvd nearby when you restore it. If you have a laptop that didn't come with the installation dvd, you can use the vista recovery cd.


http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

 

I used this thread as a checklist before my first ever restore, which was a suceess.

I call this full back up my Clean Install DVD's. I created a backup file to the desktop folder> burned that image to dvd. it has all my programs, none of my data music pictures as I hadn't installed them on the computer yet (they are on a data disk)

I like the choice of being able to quickly restore my computer with secure zone... I'm learning partitioning a data drive may prevent even more headaches. to be able to restore a system without having to reorganize/edit music libraries repeatedly or loosing the original photos is one reason i'm considering the partitioning strategy.

NOTE..
I have applied mudcrab's Fix Vixsta before restore ...
then, nervously, tried my first restore..
WHICH OF COURSE went off without a problem. straight back into all systems. phew... sorry i doubted you Mudcrab.

I really am starting to like this program. which is saying alot for a technocripple.

 

John,

I can assure you with 100% certainty that Vista Recovery is F8. F8 brings up a screen where you have selection of Recover, Safe Mode, etc. Recover is now an integrated part of Vista, unlike XP which, for example, Dell used a version of Ghost (I think) to perform the recovery operation.

Does this fact change you thinking about anything you commented on?

Jerry

 

What is Mudcrap's Vista fix?

 

Jerry,

Here is the link to the thread: Fix Vista so a Repair is not needed after a restore or clone