Windows 8 Question for Drew, of anyone who knows about Asus computers?

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

My wife has a new Asus X750j Laptop.

I've spent the last day and a half setting it up.
Now I want to make a system image of the C:\ drive using Paragon.

I do this from a bootable DVD, but it isn't set to boot to the DVD first in the boot order.
I've looked and looked and I can't find a way to get into the bios.

I've tried tapping the F11, F8, Del, Esc and F2 keys and it just boots into Windows 8.

My computer which has an ASUS motherboard, shows a message when I boot, saying select "Delete" to boot into the UEFI Bios.

But I can't seem to get either a boot menu of the bios option on the laptop.

I've even looked on their site but I can't find anything that works.
I've tried all of these options repeatedly.

Anyone have any ideas?

Mike

 

[Jimbo22]

Restart the laptop, once you start seeing life on the screen, start tapping the delete key until the BIOS screens shows.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

That's what I thought at least that's the way it works on my computer, I'll try again.

I tried again, tapping as fast as I can from the moment the screen lights up and it just boots into Windows.
I could create the backup in Windows but I'd still need it to boot to the DVD to use it if Windows wouldn't boot.

Maybe I'll try the native backup in Windows for now it can be accessed from the recovery screen.
I can get to that through Windows but not on restart.

Mike

 

[Jimbo22]

Is this laptop setup with the UEFI BIOS?

 

[MikeHawthorne]

OK,

I'm creating an image file in Windows 8.
I guess that will do until I figure out how to change the boot order.

I just like to have a copy while everything is nice and clean.

I never had problems getting into the bios on any computer I've had before as far as I can remember.

Mike

 

[Jimbo22]

Try this.....
Settings>Power>Restart+Shift>Troubleshoot>Advanced options>UEFI Firmware Settings>Restart. Once you click restart, BIOS will appear. The trick here is to press Restart AND Shift at the same time.

It's that darn UEFI that changed how to get into BIOS.

 

[davidhk129]

Does the following mean anything to you?

copy from another person's reply of similar issue....
It turns out that Win 8.1 boots so fast that it doesn't see key presses like Esc to change the boot order or F2 to enter the BIOS menu. What you have to do is let Win 8.1 take you to the login /welcome screen where there is a power icon that, when clicked, offers a Restart option. If you click on Restart and immediately press F2, it takes you to the BIOS menu. I presume you could press Esc instead and go to the boot order screen. Neat solution.

 

[Jimbo22]

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I'll give that a try.
Thanks for the info guys.

Mike

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi again.

Ok, I finally got to the Bios.

Only I don't know exactly how to change it, it's not like my computer that clearly shows the boot order and a list of devices.

When I go to the boot order tab it shows the boot as, "Option 1, Windows Boot Manager".

Below that is a line that says, Add another boot option.
When I select that it has a line that says path to boot option, but I don't see a way to get it to the DVD drive?

The bios in my computer has a graphic interface and you can use a mouse, on the Asus it's like the old fashioned bios where you use the arrow keys to navigate.

But I don't see a list of devices that you can select to boot to anyplace.
Maybe I should just type E:\ where it says Path to boot option?

I'll look at that, but I don't want to mess it up and make it unbootable.
Most of the problems I've had, have always been caused by messing around with things I didn't quite understand. LOL

By the way the image that I created using Windows 7 file recovery does show up as an option in the recovery dialog. So assuming that I can get into recovery I can get to that.

Mike

 

[badrobot]

You don't really need a 3rd party imaging tools for Windows 8. The native system image backup tool (under Control Panel>>>File History) works really well. Image recovery is also a breeze using the system image recovery option in the BIOS which can be accessed by pressing F9 (on my ASUS T100 tablet) on boot up.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I guess you're right.

I did that and it shows in Recovery as an option.

But I have a question about the backup I made using the native Windows Imaging tool.

It worked for a long time and then said completed, it then asked it I wanted to make a Windows Repair Disk.

I said yes and made one though I won't do my much good if I can't boot to it.

But my Question is: when I right click on the backup file that I created "WindowsImageBackup" and look at properties it show a size of 0 bytes.

I'm not sure if this is some quirk related to the file, or it didn't really record anything.

Any ideas about that?

Mike

 

[davidhk129]

It worked for a long time and then said completed, it then asked it I wanted to make a Windows Repair Disk.

I said yes and made one though I won't do my much good if I can't boot to it.

But my Question is: when I right click on the backup file that I created "WindowsImageBackup" and look at properties it show a size of 0 bytes.

I'm not sure if this is some quirk related to the file, or it didn't really record anything.

Any ideas about that?

Mike

1. You don't have to create a repair disk very time after an image backup. If you have donet once, you can skip that next time.

2. RE : 0 bytes
If you open the Properties 2nd time, it will show the size.
Open the actual backup file. Does it show the file size?

 

[badrobot]

Hi

I guess you're right.

I did that and it shows in Recovery as an option.

But I have a question about the backup I made using the native Windows Imaging tool.

It worked for a long time and then said completed, it then asked it I wanted to make a Windows Repair Disk.

I said yes and made one though I won't do my much good if I can't boot to it.

But my Question is: when I right click on the backup file that I created "WindowsImageBackup" and look at properties it show a size of 0 bytes.

I'm not sure if this is some quirk related to the file, or it didn't really record anything.

Any ideas about that?

Mike

Yup. 0 bytes is normal. But if you go 3 folders down as shown on davidhk's photo above, you should be able to see the file size.

 

[davidhk129]

RE : 0 bytes
If you go back and right click at WindowsImageBackup 2nd time > Properties, you will see the file size this time .....

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Thanks guys, I'll check that out.

Mike

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Ok, once I got in there I could see the size.

That's about it, I still haven't figured out how to set it to boot to the DVD or a Flash Drive but I'm not going to worry about it for now.

I got the Windows 7 Games transfered over.
About the only thing I know is missing is Modern Mix, I'll do that tomorrow.

I took the hard drive out of her old computer and I was able to recover all of her saved email messages and contacts.

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the hard drive, the computer just died.

Mike

 

[Jason Rouer]

In case anyone wants to know, to boot from USB device and CDROM I had to make sure Windows 8 or 8.1 had Fast Boot disabled so it "fully" shutdown instead of a hybrid shutdown so it boots faster. Othewise it boots right to Windows 8 or 8.1 regardless of the keys you press. To set this it was under power options change what the power button does and then a check box near the bottom. Once down you press power and keep taping escape. Enter the BIOS setup (one of the options after tapping escape) and disable Secure Boot under security and also enable CSM can't remember what sub menu it was under. After that you can once again reboot, tap ESC repeatedly and this time the CDROM will be listed as a boot device Hope this helps.