Windows 10 Recovery or backup?

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Fenway16

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Jan 6, 2017
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Confusion reigns..
I have had at least 5 power state failures since purchasing the Dell with win10 (which I purchased November 2018). Yesterday I had one and decided to go to the Dell website for help. I had a remote session which lasted about an hour. Tech ran the Dell diagnostics, increased memory allotment and started the 1809 windows update. He said if the update was problematic, I may have to re-install windows. This is where the confusion comes in - I have backed up my system with Macrium thinking that would be the source for putting everything back in order. He asked if I had a recovery device - I said yes, everything is backed up on Macrium. He said, no, that's backup not recovery. What the heck thinks me. I queried him about this and his response was, that Macrium backup would contain the windows that came with the system which is now corrupted (due to 1809 I guess). So I would be restoring a corrupt windows OS. I'm sure he is correct but I sure find it confusing. Can someone enlighten me. Thanks. He said to purchase a 8gb flash drive to install a recovery. Thanks so much for any thoughts.
 
Solution
He's completely correct, the backup you did would contain the currently broken windows. Yet a restore USB would restore you back to the original windows that came with the machine before you updated.

Now if I were you, I'd grab the media creation tool from Microsoft, create the USB install media with it and just do a clean install of the latest windows.
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He's completely correct, the backup you did would contain the currently broken windows. Yet a restore USB would restore you back to the original windows that came with the machine before you updated.

Now if I were you, I'd grab the media creation tool from Microsoft, create the USB install media with it and just do a clean install of the latest windows.
 
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Solution
Part One:
Download the Windows media creation tool.
-Copy the same into the USB flash drive on which the recovery media needs to be created and launch the software.
  • On the What do you want to do? page, select Create installation media for another PC, and then select Next.
  • Select the Language as English, Select the edition as Windows 10 and architecture as 64 bit( Do not select use recommended options for this PC) and click on Next
  • Click on USB flash drive, click on Next and then click on the inserted flash drive from the list of options and click on next again.
It will take about 30 minutes for the process to be over and you will get a confirmation message that the recovery media is created successfully. Then insert the USB into the computer you want to reinstall the operating system on(remove all other external USB devices connected to the computer, only the recovery media should be connected).

The above are the instructions the tech gave me. He said unless 1809 became problematic, there would be no need to reinstall windows10. My question to you is are the above steps only to create the recovery piece - the installation of windows are in steps that follow which I have not listed here as you know how to do that. Correct?
Since reinstallation of windows takes everything back to factory I would like to avoid that unless the update is creating problems.

Part two: Since the Macrium backup would contain a corrupted windowsOS, can I retrieve all of the other data that I have backed up without affecting a new installation?

Thanks for your input. Most appreciated.
 
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Seems like a lot of ways of doing things with this "stuff". So I guess I've been going along thinking I was all set with Macrium backup and now find out not the case. I guess I do need to buy a flash drive - 8gb. Thanks.
 
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You should be able to select "Keep data and programs" and it should replace Windows components.
 
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??. Do you mean within the Macrium process or the windows recovery process on the flash drive? Also it seems to me that the Macrium process is sort of worthless in that a corrupt windows OS will make it unusable. I'm sure all of this is quite clear to most people and maybe I don't need to worry about it so -- but it is all rather a pia. Thanks again.
 
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