New computer with Windows 8 needs an image program.

I'm building a new Haswell machine with Windows 8 64 bit, an SSD and UEFI BIOS. I'm new to all of these technologies and I'm in over my head. I intend on clean installing Windows 8, activating Windows 8 and then imaging the install.
Can you help me find a free or low cost imaging program for this purpose? I would prefer something that also has a rescue disk. Would Macrium Reflect free work ok? My current PC is running Windows XP SP3 32 bit. Can I install the free version on XP, make a rescue disk and would it work on Windows 8 64 bit and 7 64 bit? Which rescue cd version is best to use and is it easy to make?

 

yes macrium free work fine.
select x64 PE 4.0 when you make the rescue CD/USB. easy to do, just follow instructions.

 

Just use the built in Windows 7 recovery disc and imaging capability. It's simple and it works.

http://arstechnica.com/information-...en-backup-to-clone-and-recover-your-whole-pc/

 

Image for Linux (~$30) supports UEFI boot and can be used for both making Images and Restoring Images.

For ~$39 you get Image for Windows, Image for DOS, Image for Linux and OSD Tool Suite Professional.

For Home use, the licensing says for use on up to three PC's.

 

When running the installer under Options I see this.


Which one do I choose if I only want to make a rescue cd? If I need to install that is fine but please remember I am currently on Win XP SP3 32bit. I will be making the cd for use on my new computer that I will be installing Windows 8 64bit.

Edit: I installed the free version on Windows XP Home 32bit. When I click Create Rescue media I see this.



When I click advanced it asks if I want PE 3.1 or PE 4.0. I choose 3.1 and then click next and I see this if I choose 64bit.



When I click next it starts the 137MB download from MS. From that warning does that mean my 32bit OS doesn't have the drivers to make the 64bit rescue cd?

TheKid7, Thanks for the suggestion. I understand that Image for Windows is a really good program. I will have a look at it soon.

HAN, Thanks for the link. Can Windows 7 or 8 built in imaging programs both be run from their upgrade disks and can they do a bare metal restore?

 

Yes it does look like the x64 pe4 cannot be created on a 32 bit windows xp.
in this case, you can use the windows 8 built in imaging program. make an image from within windows, using windows installation dvd/usb, you can do bare metal restore in case you computer is not bootable.

 

No. Install the backup program in Windows 8, and create the WinPE 4 boot medium. The process will require WinRE.

 

Just my experience with the free macrium on win xp. I built the Winpe4 32 bit rescue disc and it works just fine booting and creating images on my win 7 64bit desktop.Your mileage may vary on win8, I've never tried it..

 

W7's works great so I would assume 8's would too. Plus it allows you to build a boot disc. Less important I suppose if you have 8's OEM. I was so impressed with the free Paragon versions (Giveaway of the day is always giving out just slightly watered down versions) I purchased their "12" version for like $12 as a donation. I digress, I did the same thing with Malwarebytes because I'm always reading how it cleans ransomeware so I just wanted to support it. Anyway, I use both 7 and Paragon, put the backups on two different discs and have two boot discs built with them.

 

Well I ended up making Win8/Win7 repair disk and image from the disk. It's actually labeled Windows 7 Recovery and you can find it in the Control Panel - System and Security - File History.

I also installed Macrium Reflect free and made the rescue cd and created an image with the disk.

Thanks for you help and advice!

 

Hi innerpeace

Easter here. Good to see you back posting and Congrats on the new system.

Looks like you have your choice of backup solutions made. You might also (if you're not yet aware) keep in mind that Windows 8 sports a pretty nice feature called REFRESH that even if you've installed a ton of programs to the system and flooded your desktop with transfers from XP like me, after REFRESH windows safely stores them in a folder named windows.old and you won't lose them. I done at least 3 REFRESH runs since January with complete satisfaction.

By contrast, using windows 8 system restore for me was a complete disaster so i disabled it completely. REFRESH doesn't destroy your files only collects them up and also leaves you a list of what it removed.

Regards Easter

 

Users of the new 8.1 preview have learned that the Windows 7 recovery is no more (in 8.1.) So you may want to concentrate your imaging on Macrium (or whatever you end up deciding to go with.)

 

Hello EASTER and HAN,

Thanks for your replies. I've never been surrounded with so many new technologies in my life. The last two weeks have been a blur.

When I did this last UEFI install and activated Windows I then then did a Windows 7 recovery image. I then installed the necessary drivers and then did a Macrium Reflect image. In the future would it be possible to restore the Macrium image and then do a "refresh" or "reset" to get back to an activated vanilla Windows 8 install?

Does "refresh" have an option that would allow one to refresh Windows and dispose of installed drivers but keep installed apps and settings?

 

Here are some decent guides on Win 8's Refresh and Reset. (I have NOT tested any of this but have found the HTG guides to be quite good.) (Note that I saw nothing noted about drivers in the guides. Also, nothing is mentioned about the EFI partition.)

http://www.howtogeek.com/132428/eve...t-refreshing-and-resetting-your-windows-8-pc/

http://www.howtogeek.com/108944/how-to-create-a-custom-refresh-image-in-windows-8/

http://www.howtogeek.com/75901/how-...set-in-windows-8-to-easily-reinstall-your-pc/

**EDIT**
Plus one more new article on a custom Refresh
http://www.howtogeek.com/167831/eve...reating-custom-recovery-images-for-windows-8/

 

Thank you HAN. All four links have been bookmarked.

 

Innerpeace. REFRESH returns ALL settings back to a fresh install state. No, installed apps WILL BE ROUNDED UP BUT PRESERVED not destroyed along with a precise list of the apps removed. REFRESH is a useful feature IMHO and i can live with it removing installed apps so long as it retains them completely intact but in a windows.old saved folder.

It readily renews windows afresh in event of stubborn problems and such but of course doesn't compare to a saved image with can restore settings, installed apps, and more.

Hope this helps.

Regards Easter

 

EASTER,

Pardon the late reply and thanks for your clarification. Refresh seems like a very useful feature. I could have used a feature like that on my 5 year old XP install. It's easy to see its value now when I think about my XP install.

Regards

 

Ok, my opinion: use at least two different programs, believe me, the day will come when you will be glad that you did.

You already got an excellent free one with the Windows built-in program. Pick another from the excellent recommendations above. Keep them on different external hard drives in case one of the drives fails. Me, I have my system protected by 5 different imaging programs spread among 3 different hard drives. Only one of these 5 programs did I have to purchase.

To repeat from personal experience, use more than one program. Even my favorite one failed me (once) and I was awfully ^#&$*@ glad that I had another.

Good luck,
Acadia

 

very good input. Care to share with us what imaging programs you used?

 

Ok, here goes (Acadia takes a deep breath ). My favorite mirror imaging program is the only one that I actually paid for: ShadowProtect. If you can afford it I HIGHLY recommend it. Number 2 is the built-in Windows (in my case Win7) program. It is the program that saved me the one and only time that ShadowProtect ever failed me.

Three more, which I have never actually used for recovery ... yet!

If you have a Seagate hard drive, even if is only an external drive, you can use their self-branded Acronis program, DiscWizard: free for everyone with a Seagate drive, to repeat myself, even if external. This is a version of Acronis usually a couple of versions behind with many "fancy" features disabled but all of the truly important ones still working. Be forewarned this is a huge download of at least 100mb. BTW, I use DiscWizard on my wife's pc and it has never failed for recovery, recovered about 5-10 times.

Then there is the free Paragon program, forget its name and never used it for recovery. Making a backup is easy and fast.

Finally the interesting ReDo. This program is VERY slow to make a backup probably because this program totally works from a cd and is never installed on your system. If using a pc in my later years has taught me one thing: PATIENCE. Redo might be slow but I am willing to wait for yet another layer of recovery protection to be created.

On a side note, Macrium looks interesting, tried it about a year ago, too complicated for this simple mind. Anyone, have they made it easier to use for us idiots ?

Acadia

EDIT: Should have mentioned, having all these programs installed has never caused any compatibility issues. Remember, ReDo never gets installed.

 

Thanks Acadia for sharing your experience with us.

Best,
oliverjia