Creating a system repair or recovery disc
A Windows repair disc is a handy tool to have just in case you
encounter issues with Windows 8 that might require media, including
corrupted or missing system files or even a computer refresh. System
repair discs enable you to start an unresponsive computer and use
utilities and tools to fix problems with your Windows installation.
Important
RECOVERY MEDIA SIZE
Any media used for recovery must be at least 256 MB in size.
To create a Windows 8 system repair disc, complete the following steps:
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Navigate to Control Panel.
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Tap or click Recovery.
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Tap or click Create A Recovery Drive.
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In the Recovery Drive Wizard, tap or click Next.
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Select the USB drive you want to use for the system repair disk, and
then tap or click Next. On the Create The Recovery Drive page, click
Create.
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When the system recovery drive is ready, tap or click Finish.
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To use the repair media that has been created, restart your computer with the repair media inserted.
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When the system restarts, select the keyboard layout/language to be used.
Note
SELECTION OF RESET OR REFRESH OPTIONS
Selecting Refresh Your PC cleans up Windows files on the computer without affecting your files. Selecting Reset Your PC removes all your data and reinstalls Windows on your computer.
Selecting Advanced options from the PC Settings page provides the following tools:
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System Restore
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System Image Recovery
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Automatic Repair
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Command Prompt
The advanced
recovery utilities are designed to facilitate troubleshooting computers
running Windows 8. Some of the tools are designed to replace Windows on
your computer, similar to installing Windows from a USB drive or DVD.
The Automatic Repair tool can diagnose issues that prevent Windows from
starting.
Note
ACCESSING RECOVERY TOOLS
You can also use the Windows 8 installation media to access the recovery tools contained on a repair disc.
Using Windows Recovery Environment
Windows includes a recovery method built on the pre-installation
version of Windows (Windows PE) that is used when a computer does not
start. In the event of a startup problem, your Windows PC automatically
restarts in Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) to run the startup repair tool to help diagnose the problem with the startup process.
Windows 8 Recovery Environment is an excellent set of
troubleshooting tools that can provide efficient solutions to help a
client computer function again. For example, a user from the marketing
department opens a support ticket because her computer is “acting up.”
You see that the computer appears to be stuck in a restart loop. Using
a system recovery disk (or the Windows 8 media), you start Windows
RE to troubleshoot the problem further. Because the issue appears to be
startup related and has been occurring for only a short time, selecting
Automatic Repair might be the only step needed to start this computer
successfully. If the computer continues to fail at startup, a system
refresh or reset, as mentioned previously, is also available from
Windows RE and could remedy the problem.
Windows RE can also be accessed by completing the following steps:
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Open the Settings charm and select Change PC Settings.
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Select General from the navigation pane.
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In Advanced Startup, select Restart Now.
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From the Choose An Option page, shown in Figure 1, select Troubleshoot.
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On the Troubleshoot page, shown in Figure 2, select Advanced Options. On the Advanced Options page, select Startup Settings, and then tap or click Restart.
This restarts the computer and opens the Startup Settings menu, from which you can perform the following actions:
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Enable Debugging
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Enable Boot Logging
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Enable Safe Mode
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Enable Safe Mode With Networking
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Enable Safe Mode With Command Prompt
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Disable Driver Signature Enforcement
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Disable Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection
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Disable Automatic Restart After Failure
Note
BEGINNING AGAIN
You have one additional option to access the recovery console: press F10 and select Launch Recovery Environment. This causes Windows to restart and open at the beginning of the Advanced Startup menu, enabling you to begin the startup option selection process from the beginning.
