Windows 7 UEIF and Image recovery

[Joe S]

I don't have any experience with UEIF machines. My nephew is autistic and learning disabled and I got him a new HP Windows 7 PC and it is UEIF. I've been setting it up for him. I made the repair disk and figured out how to boot from it but it says disk error or not a system disc. I burned an ISO from Digital River and it does boot. Can I use that disk to recover the image if I create one with Windows 7? I think you just click install on the first screen then go into Repair options like for startup repair. I wondered if anybody else has experience with this. Also I' never tried the Windows backup for images. I tried my old Acronis boot disk but it doesn't work there.
Joe

 

[whs]

Yes that will work. But with Windows images and on the high seas you never know what is going to happen. It would be much safer if you made your images with free Macrium. That is a reliable, easy to use imaging program. I have made a tutorial that will help you to use it.

For the recovery CD, Link Removed and burn that to CD. This is the latest version and downloading it from my OneDrive will save you a couple of hours downloading the WAIK that you would need to produce it yourself.

And don't just make 1 single image but make new images frequently (e.g. once a week) so that you are always up-to-date in case you have to employ it. An image that is a year old is pretty useless.

 

[Joe S]

Thanks I'll check out your tutorial out and try that. I've used Acronis TI for a long time but with the UEIF my version won't boot. I've noticed Windows backup seems to be a bit iffy. I was looking for something free. I normally make a Windows image after the monthly updated and everything is OK or after I update or install software and things are OK. I also partition my HD so the system is separate from most data.
Joe

 

[Saltgrass]

The Windows 7 Recovery CDs have never been able to boot using the UEFI configuration. Install media should work fine.

If you ever try to make a bootable Falsh Drive, it also needs an additional step to make it UEFI bootable.

And I only use the built-in System imaging utility. It is limited in options for restoring the system, but has been reliable. I do not use the file backup utility when I make images.

It is a little different for a Windows 7 PC to be configured as UEFI. Most OEMs did not start that until Windows 8 came out, but perhaps the availability of UEFI capable motherboards has made it more common.

 

[Joe S]

That's a a great tutorial. I think I'll try that instead of Windows backup. With Acronis you can boot from the rescue disk and run the backup from there. Can you do the same with Macrium? If you are running on the rescue disk it does eliminate possible problems with things updating automatically or AV scans etc than may cause a problem.
Thanks
Joe

Yes that will work. But with Windows images and on the high seas you never know what is going to happen. It would be much safer if you made your images with free Macrium. That is a reliable, easy to use imaging program. I have made a tutorial that will help you to use it.

For the recovery CD, Link Removed and burn that to CD. This is the latest version and downloading it from my OneDrive will save you a couple of hours downloading the WAIK that you would need to produce it yourself.

And don't just make 1 single image but make new images frequently (e.g. once a week) so that you are always up-to-date in case you have to employ it. An image that is a year old is pretty useless.

I burned the ISO and tested it for boot found I could run the backup from there without actually installing Marcrium. I'm verifying image now. The one thing I notied it is slow compared to Acronis TI. I think it will work for what I want.
Joe

 

[whs]

One of the disadvantages running the images from the CD is that you cannot save the HMTLs and have to redefine them every time. With an installed Macrium, the HMTLs are being kept in a folder in Documents. When you make the same image again, you just highlight the HMTL (in the Macrium window) and click on the cog wheel. That is certainly handy if you image weekly like me to different outboard devices (redundancy) of C and the data partition and that for 6 PCs. I would hate to have to redefine that 40 times per week.

Regarding the performance I have no complaints. My system images are pretty fast. I once made a little performance study. The range was 6.5 to 14.1 minutes depending on the disks used. The C partition had 35GB of data and the resulting images were 19GB.

But whilst Macrium is imaging, you can continue doing other stuff - just 'hide' Macrium. Macrium freezes the image at the beginning using VSS so any changes you make during the imaging does not effect the image. That is another advantage if you use the installed Macrium - your PC is not dedicated to Macrium.

 

[Joe S]

I'll probably install the Macrium and see how that works. This image also included the recovery partition so it was around 70 gig total on a USB 2 external. I didn't know about it freezing the image. I was worried about unexpected updates,the AV or other things that might accidentally start in the background.
Thanks for the ISO and help.
Joe

 

[whs]

You are welcome Joe.

I wonder why it imaged the recovery partition. Is that your active partition? If yes, then you need it because it contains the bootmgr. To fix that you could copy the bootmgr to C.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

Then you can forget the recovery partition. With a good set of images, you really don't need it.

 

[Joe S]

It shows the boot partition then the main and the recovery partitions. I just imaged all 3 to be safe, you can never be to careful! The last time I restored an image with Acronis it took less than 20 min. I never understood why they put the boot manager on a separate partition. I installed Windows 7 on a PC that originally had Vista and the recovery partition. I also had created a data partition so when I installed Windows it did not create the separate boot file. Sometimes it's almost as fast to restore an image is it is to mess with system restore. My adult nephew is autistic, speech and learning disabled and the computer has helped him a lot with his reading. He's quite smart. I got a wireless router so he could use his Play Station. He had hand held PS3 I think but it wouldn't work with the wireless encryption. He searched and figured out how to connect with the Play Station for internet access, when he graduated they had his reading level at third grade! Probably monthly images after Windows updates or software changes will be enough for that PC.
Joe

 

[ushere]

@whs
first, many thanks for your posts regarding uefi - went through hell when (on a new pc) i tried to restore a windows generated image only to be told i had uefi bios and need normal bios... i could have literally throttled someone. i mean you'd think m$ would think of these things...

anyway, i have imaged my uefi c: drive - containing just os and progs, all data stored on another drive (btw. c: had 3 partitions, 2 'hidden') using the free version of reflect. am at this very moment dl'ing your restore iso.

just to confirm - i can boot off this cd and then simply point to the image i want and let nature take its course. i did watch the various tuts and that's what i gathered. really no different than restoring from a win image eh?

again thanks for your time and effort - it's appreciated.

 

[whs]

just to confirm - i can boot off this cd and then simply point to the image i want and let nature take its course

That is correct.