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I need to ship my Surface Pro back to Microsoft (because the pen is way off in the upper left quadrant). I was hoping to do a complete volume backup, so that my installed programs won't disappear. I now find out that that's a Windows 7 feature, but not in 8. Is there a way I can save my image and recover it on Windows 8?

erict
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2 Answers2

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In Windows 8, it's called refresh rather than restore. Normally, it deletes all desktop programs, but you can create a custom image which will allow you to keep your software.

  1. Open the command line interface as administrator. (On the Start screen, type "cmd" and right-click it... or whatever the touch screen equivalent of a right click is.)

  2. Create a folder that will contain your recovery image. For example, C:\RefreshImage.

  3. In the command prompt, type recimg - CreateImage C:\RefreshImage. Of course, this is just an example. Make sure you use the same drive, path and folder name as what you created in the previous step.

(Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2748351)

And there you go, your refresh/recovery image is going to be created. To restore from it, then, it's going to be done using the "Refresh my PC" option, in Advanced boot (something like that? You access it from the PC options, under General.)

Ariane
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I always had luck with Clonezilla for drive clones.

Find a USB >2GB clean with nothing on it. Download a tool called YUMI. Then download Clonezilla (but be sure to download the image file, not the zip.) Open YUMI, then find the iso image, and burn it to the usb.

Once the USB is made, insert it. Connect an external hdd BIGGER then the surface's hdd. Reboot then change the boot options to boot to the usb. Follow the instructions once in Clonezilla to create an image of the internal drive.

(CAUTION) I never backed-up a Win8 computer, let alone a surface tablet. It should work if it has 2 usb ports and a boot option menu. I always use this method to backup my windows 7 desktop and it never failed me.

After the backup was made, do a system restore.

**TAKE THIS ONLY AS ADVISE ON HOW TO MAKE A IMAGE OF INTERNAL STORAGE DEVICES.

***I CLAIM NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGES YOU MAY HAVE CAUSED WHILE DOING THE ABOVE MENTIONED PROCESS.

I hope you find your answer soon.

googleknowsbest
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