Anyone know how to make an automatic recovery partition that's bootable at startup (like the one that came from the factory) that will reinstall my OS and all current applications in their current state in case of a major crash? The current one is for vista, and I don't want to have to reinstall vista again in order to use the upgrade disks.
OTE=madtownidiot;418642]Anyone know how to make an automatic recovery partition that's bootable at startup (like the one that came from the factory) that will reinstall my OS and all current applications in their current state in case of a major crash? The current one is for vista, and I don't want to have to reinstall vista again in order to use the upgrade disks.[/QUOTE]
Not the answer to your exact question, but you can make a copy of the hard drive. You can use Acronis to make the copy. Put the copy away in a safe place and it would be available to use if required.
There is another application that can used to make copies macrium reflex. You can use Acronis or Macrium to make ccomplete copy of your hard drive, for later use if needed
Type backup into the start box, in Backup Center>Create a System Image stored in a Primary formatted partition internally with a copy made to external drive in case of HDD failure.
If recovery is needed, boot from the Win7 installer/Repair disk and select Repair My Computer>Recover Using an Image which will autodetect image and reimage HD (or replacement) flawlessly in 15 minutes. This replaces reinstalls.
In order to make a partition which can boot itself to recover (marked active with F-key at bootup), you need to use one of the more expensive imaging programs like Paragon Hard Disk Manager and follow the instructions for creating a hidden recovery "capsule."
The free Backup imaging which comes with Win7 only requires the extra step to boot into Repair console on DVD/Repair disk, or by tapping F8 at bootup if you have the 100mb boot/repair partition, to begin recovery using an image.
Paragon program like this? Giveaway of the Day - free licensed software daily. Today: Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition (English Version) - Special offer for GAOTD users! Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition offers more safety to all your important data including
look at today's giveaway, will it do it?
P.S. I seem also to have some problems, seems after clean install of windows 7, My recovery function and recovery hard drive arent working. (I will check further)
Vista recov partition? Those almost never work after new install.
Best to make the recov disks off of them and delete before installing Win7.
Then make a primary partition to store your Win7 Backup image, copy to external drive.
You would have to look at specs on that Paragon program to see if it lets you make a bootable backup "capsule," as it is called on other programs like Paragon HD Mgr.
Last edited by gregrocker; 04 Dec 2009 at 16:21.
Thx for the advice, too bad microsoft is so excessively concerned with piracy that they make it impossible to install windows 7 (or any other version of windows) from a USB flash drive. DVDs are extremely prone to scratching, which makes them a lousy medium for keeping important information (like an operating system installer). Not to mention that an installation from a usb device would go much quicker than from a cd/dvd. I would wager that if it were possible to do so from a 4gb flash drive, I could have installed windows 7 in less than 20 minutes from start to finish, rather than the hour or so that it took from the upgrade dvd.
Hi there
1) you CAN install Windows from a USB stick provided your machine boots from it.
Tutorials on this Forum.
2) You can make a bootable USB recovery stick as well if you use a product like Acronis.
3) You can make "customisable" boot disks on USB devices - look at UBCD4Win or Bartpe type of applications.
UBCD for Windows
The main problem with a USB stick is that its unlikely to be large enough to hold your Windows image as well as the recovery program. A 16 GB stick *might* just be large enough for this. Split it into 2 partitions - one for the bootable recovery program and the rest to hold your system image.
Cheers
jimbo
I started writing about installing from a flash drive but jimbo beat me. Here's one of the tutorials he mentioned:
USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create
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