How to recreate and use my windows 8 recovery usb?

[JeffMD]

So before installing windows 10 I used the windows backup feature to make a complete copy of my Asus laptops custom recovery (9gb) of windows 8.1 to a usb drive. I then used imgburn to copy the usb drive into an iso. Now I want to restore my laptop to 8.1 and do so keeping secure boot intact. The windows 7 usb tool kept failing at %99 despite the drive being a complete single partition, so I took to using Rufus. I had it create the drive as gpt/uefi Large Fat32.

Plugging in the usb drive to my laptop and telling it to boot from it instantly shows Windows's 0xc000000f bluescreen and no recovery options are available, only going back to bios. Anyone know if there is a dance you need to go through to do this with secure boot?

 

[TheELF]

I then used imgburn to copy the usb drive into an iso.

Bad move, usb drives are different from cd/dvd.

Try to open up the iso and just copy everything back to your usb,then use easybcd to add the usb to your normal boot menu,should work.

 

[Puffnstuff]

If you upgraded your 8.1 to 10 then use the roll back feature in 10 to go back if that is what you're trying to do.

 

[JeffMD]

Puff, I wiped all data from previous install since I figured I had the usb stick.

theELF, I very well hope not considering USB is the only method windows 8.1 allows due to the size of the recovery image.

 

[Dahak]

Generally you cannot copy the Manufactures recovery to create a recovery usb stick, at least not that I have been able to (HP Laptops mostly) other than a whole disk image backup, to an image file or clone to another disk(TrueImage,Ghost Etc.)

If you need Win 8.1 Media, you can use the Windows 8.1 Media Creator
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

As the product key for 8 is in the firmware for the asus laptop you dont have to worry about it if you want to revert back

 

[pickman]

To create a USB recovery drive

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Search.)

Enter recovery drive in the search box, and then tap or click Create a recovery drive. Administrator permission required You might be asked for an admin password or to confirm your choice.

After the recovery drive tool opens, make sure the Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive check box is selected, and then tap or click Next.

Note

The checkbox is greyed out when your PC doesn’t have a recovery partition. The recovery drive will include only the recovery tools and a bootable image, but not a recovery image to use for refreshing or resetting your PC.

Insert a USB flash drive into your PC that is at least as large as the size indicated on the screen.

Tap or click the USB drive you would like to use for your recovery drive, then tap or click Next.

Tap or click Create.

The recovery image and necessary recovery tools will be copied to your USB flash drive, which will take a while, depending on your PC and the size of the recovery image.

When the process is done, do one of the following:

If you want to keep the recovery partition on your PC, tap or click Finish.

If you want to remove the recovery partition from your PC and free up disk space, tap or click Delete the recovery partition. Then tap or click Delete. This will free up the disk space used to store your recovery image. When the removal is done, tap or click Finish.

Note

Some PCs don't offer the option to remove a recovery partition. If you experience this, there isn't a recovery partition on your PC that's using additional disc space.

Remove the USB flash drive.

This is now your Windows 8.1 recovery drive, and you'll need it if you ever need to refresh or reset your PC. Keep it in a safe place and don't use it to store other files or data.

Note

If your PC came with Windows 8 and you upgraded it to Windows 8.1, your recovery drive will include Windows 8, and you’ll need to upgrade to Windows 8.1 after you refresh or reset your PC.

 

[JeffMD]

Ok, guess that is what I will need to do. Was nice not having to mess with the drivers much and the pre installed asus tools. ^^ Yea I've used several programs now, partition editors to create the perfect partition wanted by uefi, and my bios sees it as a uefi device but either I get that blue screen or I get the red invalid signature screen. I will have to ask them what the whole point of the building a recovery image was for. ^^

 

[Dahak]

I will have to ask them what the whole point of the building a recovery image was for. ^^

Well it is there to recover the machine back to factory defaults, but usually the way it is built it has to run from the first hard drive. Also it has a different boot options as it boots usually from a winpe boot and runs a script that runs the recovery that will recreate the partitions and such.

Unless Asus had a tool inside windows to create either as usb or dvd media thats about the only easy way to do it.

 

[JeffMD]

Well it wasn't asus, but windows that created the usb media, so it SHOULD install just fine from the USB drive. Well I just did a pretty smooth install using the tool, just finishing windows updates now which will take an hour. ^^

 

[Dahak]

Well it wasn't asus, but windows that created the usb media, so it SHOULD install just fine from the USB drive. Well I just did a pretty smooth install using the tool, just finishing windows updates now which will take an hour. ^^

Sorry, I meant that to create a recovery usb/dvd from the factory image there could have been an Asus program in windows to create it (although there could not be either)

The media creator tool would work just fine as you have mentioned