Using a System Image to Restore an HP Computer in Windows 8

Hello everyone,
I would like to bring to everyone's attention, the latest HP Help video for PSG. It demonstrates how to use a System Image to restore an HP Computer in Windows 8.
Learn how to restore your HP computer using a system image in Windows 8. With Windows 8, you can backup every file and setting on your computer at once and save it as a system image. If you ever have a software problem, you can restore your PC back to exactly as it was when you created the system image.
For other helpful videos go to hp.com/supportvideos or youtube.com/howto4u.
↙-----------How do I give Kudos?| How do I mark a post as Solved? ----------------↓
This question was solved.
View Solution.

I hope this video helps.
↙-----------How do I give Kudos?| How do I mark a post as Solved? ----------------↓

Similar Messages

HT201250 I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was?

I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was? I want to make sure I will still have various important files on my new computer, like my songs in iTunes, my photos in iPhoto, etc, etc. Thanks so much in advance!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
When you turn on the new iMac for the first time, Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the external disk and follow steps to restore all your files to your new iMac. Your new Mac will have the same settings and programs as your old computer.
In other cases, I would recommend to restore the whole backup without using Migration Assistant or Setup Assistant, but a Late 2012 iMac uses a special OS X build, so the OS X version that you're using on your old Mac won't work on the new one. For more information, see > http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

Using Bootcamp system image on Non-Mac PC

Hi Guys,
I'm in the process on moving my bootcamp system to a separate computer but it's not a mac system. I am wondering if there are things I should watch out for. Like what happens to apple related applications like icloud panel, bootcamp panel, itunes, apple drivers etc. Will those corrupt my windows?

Just back up your documents/important data and install Windows from scratch on your new machine. Doing a migration any other way opens you up to far more headaches.

Can I use HP System Recovery Disks on a new hard drive replacement with a lower storage capacity?

Can I use the HP System Recovery Disks from my HP Pavilion dv7t-4000 CTO Select Edition Entertaimnent Notebook PC when I replace the failing hard drive with a smaller storage capacity hard drive? Right now it is a Toshiba 750GB SATA hard disk drive, 5400 RPM, 2.5 inch small form factor (SFF) and I am planning to replace it with the Toshiba HDKCB26 500GB 2.5 inch Hybrid Hard Drive. I read that I cannot use a System Image to restore the hard drive because it is a smaller capacity then the original Hard Drive. If this is true, it seems that my only option is to use the HP Recovery Disks.

Hi:
Normally the HP recovery disks don't work on a smaller hard drive either, but it may be possible in your case if HP offered a 500 GB HDD in that model series.
No guarantees though.

When HP Recovery isn't available... system image using Windows 8 as backup?

Would like to start out with a big shout out to Paul T for his VERY useful thread here ! http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-Systems-and-Software/Windows-8-Product-Key-for-Pavilion-G6/m-p/3882966/highlight/false#M205987 A friend's family asked me to work on their laptop since I know more about computers than they do ... they're very good people, was happy to help them out but true to form like a lot of PC users they didn't bother keeping ANY of the documentation that came with the laptop (HP Pavilion g6-2298nr ), nor did they bother to burn recovery DVD's using HP's built in recovery software program that comes standard on the laptops... if I'm interpreting what HP's website had to say about the laptop , model HP Pavilion g6-2298nr, correctly, according to it's serial number it no longer qualifies for free tech support and I'd have to pay HP a fee just to talk to someone and order the recovery DVD's (friend's family bought it back in Dec 2014 so to me it seems REALLY strange that I wouldn't be able to just order the recovery DVD's without having to pay tech support a fee just to ask to order the recover DVD's ! .. but anyways...)... This is where having the product key "built into" the BIOS really comes in handy ! I crossed my fingers, used the method mentioned in the thread linked above, and it worked ! ... have to admit it was a bit strange at first not using the product key sticker like the old days but I can see how this works better in the long run - helps to prevent piracy, you don't have to worry if someone who doesn't realize the importance of the product key sticker peels it off and throws it away ... Unfortunately it looks like when you reinstall Windows this way you lose the HP Backup and Recovery Program ... in this case my friend's family had the misfortune of paying someone to repair this laptop who didn't bother to tell them " Hey, I replaced the hard drive that's going bad but if you don't get a laptop cooler for this sucker the laptop's just going to overheat again ! " ... sure enough, the money they paid this so called "tech repair" person went down the drain when the laptop fried a second hard drive, or maybe the tech saddled them with a bad hard drive who knows? (the tech bought an OEM hard drive off ebay) ... ... sorry to sound harsh about this tech guy, I will admit I only worked in the PC repair field for a few months over a decade ago before leaving it to be a stay-at-home-dad (wife is a pharmacist so I'm lucky enough to be able to stay home) so my experience is VERY limited compared to other people .. but back then I always treated my customers the way I'd treat a friend, and if it's a friend you offer advice on how to prevent problems like this in the future... this laptop gets HOT like you wouldn't believe , I have it sitting on a very reliable laptop cooler (thick slab of aluminum that does a great job as a heatsink with fans, this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834953038 and I've let my friend's family know in no uncertain terms they need to order this laptop cooler if they're going to use this laptop) ... The hard drive replacement I installed seems to be working fine but of course it's not an "official WD hard drive" .... when I tried to install the photolink cyberdirector software for example at the link below got a " this isn't a WD hard drive so can't install this software" error message... http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-g6-2200-notebook-pc-series/5296082/model/5333338#Z7_3054ICK0K8UDA0AQC11TA930O2 which is fine I really don't think my friend's family will care about that program... but it makes me wonder, even if I trusted the download at this link below http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5190-hp-backup-and-recovery-manager.html if the HP Backup and Recovery manager program would even work to begin with since it's not an official WD hard drive (I also ordered an OEM hard drive off ebay .. but not charging my friend's family for the hard drive since they've been good to my munchkins and didn't want them to pay through the nose for a more expensive hard drive so of course I wanted to minimize my own expenses...)... also I think that sort of program relies on a " C " and " D " drive being set up like it was when the laptop shipped with the original hard drive and saves a backup copy on the " D " drive.. I suppose I could use disk management to create a different partition, label it " D " and see if HP Backup and Recovery worked but it seems a bit.. iffy... not to mention that I feel uncomfortable downloading something that isn't directly on HP's website as an "official" download... I know that Windows 8 has a "system image" utility built into it that lets you make just that.. a system image.. like I said my friend's family are good people but I'm guessing sooner or later they're going to screw this laptop up again like a lot of computer users do .. it would be nice if I could burn a system image of what's on the laptop right now onto DVD and hang onto it so when they come back to me in the future hollering "Help , laptop isn't working again ! " I can just restore from the system image on DVD rather than having to go through the hassle of reinstalling Windows, graphics/audio/et cetera drivers, zillion and one Windows updates et cetera all over again. What I'm wondering is... would this even work? I've never tried to use system image in a situation like this with the product key being "built into" the BIOS , that sort of thing is brand new to me... is it worth burning the DVD's and hanging onto them just in case? Sorry for the long essay and thanks in advance to anyone who actually takes the time to read all of this !

Thanks man it's really helpful to know that someone else has used this exact same method successfully to back up their HP computers ! Will do just that... yep, yep I know it'll be at least 10 DVD's or something crazy like that after all those windows updates download ... problem with using an external hard drive is I can't convince my friend's family to buy one no matter how many times I warn them it's not "if" your PC gets messed up it's " when " ..... and my external hard drives are all in use with system image backups of my own PC's ... so will burn the DVD's for 'em then just hang on to them and wait for the inevitable And thanks for the kind words about my work for them too ! .. it's a lot of effort but they've been super nice to me so it's the least I can do ... they're actually parents of one of my daughter's best friends and they've taken my munchkin out to various places and flat out refused to let me pay them back for it so it feels good to be able to help them out this way... though I wish they'd come to me first instead of letting themselves get ripped off by the so called PC tech I mentioned earlier (would it have killed the guy to burn them a set of recovery DVD's? Heck if he wanted to be selfish and greedy he could have just offered it to them for an "additional fee" but it would have saved them and me a lot of trouble ! Though I'm not sure if the recovery DVD's would cooperate given that it's not an "official HP hard drive" I put in there? ) It occured to me that if I call tech support they probably can't charge me if I don't give them a credit card number .. so I did (1-888-698-3762).. they said the warranty on this laptop expired Dec 2013 ! Friend's family said they bought it in Dec 2014 from QVC, hope QVC didn't sell them a used laptop ! ... HP wanted over a hundred dollars for an "official" HP hard drive said no thanks to that... HP says despite me putting in a non-HP hard drive that recovery DVD's should work ... HP wanted $ for recovery DVD's (tried to help me order recovery DVD's off HP website, they couldn't find the link on there to them either for some reason... maybe 'cause laptop is an older model??? ) ... HP asked for thirty dollars (cheapest option!) for recovery DVD's ... but mentioned that if the laptop really was purchased Dec 2014 and if I e-mail them proof of purchase they'll ship out recovery DVD's for free instead since it would be within it's one year warranty period.. I'm waiting on the friend's family to give me the proof of purchase for me to scan and e-mail to HP ... though I think I'm going to go ahead and use system image to burn the DVD's first THEN run the HP recovery DVD's (if they do in fact turn out ot be free) in case the HP rep made a mistake and the HP recovery DVD's don't like the "unofficial" HP hard drive on this laptop...

Help: Windows cannot restore a system image to a computer with different firmware

I want to recover a complete image of a Windows 7 operating system I have backed up to my other server. But I am getting the error "Windows cannot restore a system image to a computer with different firmware. The System Image was created by a computer using BIOS and this computer is using EFI"
The image was definitely taken from this machine - the firmware has not changed!
What do I need to do to restore the image?
Background Story ..
I bought a new HP 255 laptop per-installed with Windows 7 without Operating Systems instal disks (I will NEVER be stupid enough to do that again!).
I took a complete image of the systems, as suggested so that I was well backed up.
However, my machine corrupted its operating systems with a few weeks. The boot recovery CD did not work (would not boot). So in desperation, and because time was short I went out and bought another, legitimate copy of Windows 7 DVD with a license key (So now I have 2, legitimate copies of the operating system!).
I installed the new copy of Windows 7 - but it was dreadful, because many drivers were missing. Mostly the missing drivers were not available on the HP support site for this machine. ALso, boot up was increadibly slow compared to the original OS installation.
So I created a new boot recovery disk from the new version of Windows, and tried to restore using that. New boot disk loads ok, I can find the old image on my network (after loading a few network drivers). But I won't instal the image - giving the above error message.
I tried deleting the EFI partition from the disk (using GPARTED to reformat that partition). That killed the Windows 7 on the machine - but still gives the same error message when I try to re-image the machine.
I have tried going into the BIOS settings .. HP 255 has a "Legacy Mode" - which I have enabled, but this makes no difference at all!
I think that the kind of solutions I am looking for might be:
1. There is a clever way of disabling EFI on my 255 so that it looks like a legacy BIOS machine, or
2. This EFI this is wired into my new boot recovery disk - and there is a way of creating a boot recovery disk that does not use EFI
This has taken me about 2 weeks so far,please help with any suggestions!

DonOxley wrote:
Erico,
I suspect that "MSDOS" is what the Gparted tool calls "MBR" for a partition table, as explained here:
http://superuser.com/questions/700770/mbr-equals-msdos-for-gparted
I think that you are suggesting I give up on trying to recover the image I have stored on my server and just to instal Windows 7 from my new copy. There are two problems with this.
1. After having systematically downloaded all of the drivers from the HP 255 notebook support page, I am still seeing missing drivers listed. Install the AMD graphics softpaq driver first. It also contains the chipset drivers.
2. The machine is taking a hugely long time to boot up, and seems much slower with this version. Maybe that is a product of using "EFI" rather than "bios" - I don't know.
My assumption is that HP had some special set-up option with their version of Windows which makes the machine more performant. It does not seem to be a coincidence that the image they deliver the machine with is not quite compatible with a 'normal' Windows 7 instal.
So my original question stands: How do I recover the image that I saved away (as per instructed) when I first bough the machine?
You still have not said what you used to create the system image. What is the "image" file's extension?
You are mistaken in your comparison. MSDOS is an operating sytem MBR is a partitioning scheme. that is comparing apples to oranges.
The article is making an oblique reference in that using GPARTED is more or less equated to using the diskpart utility at the command line. Everything done at the comand line is essentially done by use of MSDOS commands. GPARTED does the same thing with LINUX commands via a graphical interface so you don't have to type in the commands in a Linux console.
Do you mean making a backup? a backup is not a clone which can be reproduced on different hardware. The SSD disk replacement does make the hardware differ from the original configuration.
Follow the instaructions on the following tutorial to make your disk a GPT type before installing.
http://www.disk-partition.com/articles/mbr-partition-table-to-gpt.html
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

System image restore process failed - WSE2012

I need some help. My system drive failed and I'm forced to attempt a recovery using the server backup located on my backup volume. Using a bootable USB stick, I successfully boot in to the installation media, navigate to the repair screen, and select System
Restore. The software attempts to find a suitable backup, which it does and recommends the backup dated 2/5/2013 (about a week ago). I click NEXT, select the EXCLUDE drives to exclude those drives that are part of my storage pool (I've also not selected anything
to exclude. Here's my selection:
Disk 4 - USB STICK w/Install Media
Disk 5 - NEW REPLACEMENT DRIVE (fresh)
Disk 6 - Storage Space
Disk 7 - Storage Space
It reports that Disk 3 is automatically excluded because it contains the backup. So far all this seems in order.
I proceed to click NEXT to get to the final recovery options page. In addition to the server name and date of the backup, I'm presented with the following:
\\?\Volume{824f6b2f-3b3a-11e2-93ed-806e6f6e6963}, C:
Upon clicking FINISH and receiving the warning that all drives will be reformatted and partitioned, I'm presented with a dialog box in about 5 seconds that states the following:
The system image restore failed
An error occurred while performing the recovery operation. Details (link)
Clicking the link presents me with another dialog box that shows various options for ensuring the drive is connected (which it is, Disk 5) and it asks that all USB drives are removed. However, if you remove the installation media, you can't continue anyway.
Here are my questions:
What on in the name of Microsoft is going on here -- has anyone run into this problem before? According to the instructions, this should be super easy. I've reviewed the following: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj593197.aspx
Should I disconnect the Storage Space drives all together, leaving the new system drive, the backup drive and the USB stick and try again?
Should I install a new copy of Windows Server (with storage drives unplugged) and then attempt to restore.
If the backup was corrupt, wouldn't I get a different error message?
What other options can I try?
I've already made a simple volume on the NEW drive as I read elsewhere that solved someone with a Windows 7 recovery that sounded the same. This did not work for me. I've tried to remove the USB drive, and then process complains and says it can't find the
path to the install media.
My server is headless and DVD-less, so USB is the only way I'm going to get this to install. I've also already tried moving my USB stick into just about every USB port available.
Finally, this is a Gigabyte UEFI motherboard.
Someone smarter than me please step up and show me the light! I can't believe the restore process is failing like this.

A brief update since my last post. I've left all the drives plugged in and decided to replace the bootable USB stick method with the tried-and-true external USB DVD drive. Upon boot, I again attempted the recovery option outlined before. However, this time,
I receive the following message:
Windows cannot restore a system image to a computer that has a different firmware. The system image was created on a computer using BIOS and this computer is using EFI.
I don't believe this is true, but to test the error, I proceeded to configure my BIOS for legacy BIOS support and turned OFF all UEFI support. I again booted to the system and proceeded to attempt the recovery option outlined before. This time, it appeared
to start working, but then resulted in the same exact error message I reported previously just a short 30 seconds later. I attribute this problem to the slower speed of the USB DVD drive.
I reconfigured my system again for UEFI and installed a fresh copy of the WSE2012. This seemed to go without any trouble. Once in the new instance of WSE2012, I attempted to recover from the original backup. At this time, I can only attempt to replace folders
and files and not the entire drive. Needless to say, the process did not complete correctly and I have a half baked of new and my original drive, complete with Dashboard plugins that don't work. The next thing I'm going to try is to install fresh again and
from within WSE2012 attempt to restore from the image again. However, I doubtful that the result will be positive. Stay tuned, more to come.

Is Windows 8.1 system image backup an ISO image

I ran out of space on my windows partition, so I created a system image backup of that partition (windows 8.1) and then removed the partition via bootcamp assistant. My intent was to reinstall a new, resized partition and use the system image backup file that I had created as the ISO image in the process. It doesn't seem to be that easy. There is not one ISO file in the system image backup that was created. Thoughts?
Could I potentially just reinstall windows 8.1 then restore from that backup I created?

Yes, you can reinstall W8.1 on a larger partition. Was the System Image Backup created using Windows Backup/Restore? Be aware that if you restore a Windows System Image, it restores the old volume size. You will need to use a Linux Live CD with GParted to resize the old volume to occupy the new partition size.

Can I create a system image with System Image Utility and then transfer the image folder to another server?

I am currently in the process of creating several images to restore for classroom purposes. I am wondering if it is possible to use the System Image Utility on a computer which has Server Admin Tools installed, then transfer that image folder directly to the "NetBoot" folder on our current Apple Netboot Server. Has anyone tried this and/or succeeded? I'd like to get some feedback before attempting it myself on our college's netboot server. Thanks!

We've run into a few problems concerning this process. When we create the image on a seperate machine from the server using SIU and then place it in the NetBoot folder, not every .nbi folder created works properly. We're running into errors that say "Could not find any scan information. The source needs to be imagescanned before it can be restored". This does not happen with every image, but it does happen with computers which have a lot of programs installed on them. Is there a way to imagescan the .nbi folder and/or resolve this issue without going through the process of making a completely new NetRestore image?

System Image - A665-S6094

Hi.
I have satellite A665-S6094 (US Version). I created system image and used it before.
After that HDD broken and changed.
But service installed windows7 Turkish version. But my original windows7 is US.
Now when i want to use my system image, it doesnt work.
But as i said before, i use my system image on my old hdd. So dvd has not error.
What can i do now, how to load my system image to new hdd?

Sorry, your image won't work even if they had installed usa version it would not work! cause when you create a image in the background it puts exclussive system rights codes to the image [ like a passcode ] and only the origanator windows can access the image! Microsoft done this on purpose to hold their rights, so users could not replicate to other systems!

System image backup error (0x80070021)

I have attempted to use the system image backup tool so I do not have to re-install everything in the event of HDD failure.
However, I receive an error (specified in title) that a process has locked a file, and it fails.
I have already tried closing every background task I can, but to no avail.
I am backing up to a LAN drive. (Seagate Central 3TB) It is running the latest firmware.
Thanks.

Using process monitor
FWIW what I was imagining might be possible is finding a file name which is causing the problem symptom. E.g. find where in the trace the message that you see is being written and then use that for context to see what was occurring just before that.
I mostly use ProcMon as a guide to my analysis of the existing diagnostics and, since I don't have access to the source or support documentation, as a supplement to their meaning. E.g. to get a list of all the files which are being written to
while your trace was running you can use the Count... tool. E.g. first filter on Operation Is Write then use Count... to see how many unique Path values there are associated with it. Once you have inferred where a particular message was written
you can then turn off your filter and go back to see what other registry and file accesses might have contributed to it. Otherwise it is easy to be overwhelmed by all the possible red herrings in a ProcMon trace. <eg>
I suspect that the two processes that you have found doing stuff are supposed to be doing those things. However, since I was unfamiliar with them I had to do a web search for each. The results of that would suggest looking in the Event log for
clues. So, if ProcMon shows your processes writing to the Event log, definitely have a look at them.
Good luck
Robert Aldwinckle

System Image Utility - Error

I noticed when useing the System Image Utility to create a NetInstall set that the Percent listed in the log files goes from 87.2938 to -1. The process does continue working and eventually does complete, but the NetInstall set doesn't work. Has anyone else noticed this when using the System Image Utility? This is also when using it in custom mode and not quick easy mode.

I noticed when useing the System Image Utility to create a NetInstall set that the Percent listed in the log files goes from 87.2938 to -1. The process does continue working and eventually does complete, but the NetInstall set doesn't work. Has anyone else noticed this when using the System Image Utility? This is also when using it in custom mode and not quick easy mode.

System Image Utility - Create User - Activate Remote Management

When creating an image with system image utility, based on a DVD image instead of a cloned image, I cannot create a user and activate Remote Management.
I have created an installer package with Apple Remote Desktop that is supposed to do both, however it doesn't work. I do not get an error, but no user is created.
I have tried a post-install script however the dscl command is not recognized even if I put the path /usr/bin/dscl.
I even tried to use a popular package out there called "createUser" but that fails as well.
Has anyone had any luck with this when trying to make a moduler image with System Image Utility?
Message was edited by: NeedSomeAnswer

After configuring all the appropriate settings, I
push the "Create" button and it appears to start
working, prompts me for a location to save the actual
image itself, creates a folder with the default name
and then nothing happens.
ok here's the deal: i created a folder in my OSX server home directory labelled "images" and keep our multiple images there. although you CAN have your images on other drives or on the network, that would take a LOOOOOOOONG time to do the data transfer to the invisible netboot folder on your server. my advice: keep local copies of all images. save a ton of time for yourself, eh?
then, when it's time to use the system image suntility to load up an image, i go to that same location each time, call it up and have the app set to the prefs i want or need. i'm on 10.4.7 server and have had no problem using the software.
so try using images locally and then, if that doesn't work, upgrade to 10.4.7

System Imaging Utility + Scripts to create a Netinstall

I need everyone's help on this one!
We have an Xserve G5 server that is running Leopard Server 10.5.2. What we want to be able to do is Netinstall Windows’s script to image a drive on a dual boot Mac Pro, meaning partition the drive for Mac and Windows. Currently Netinstall only supports Tiger dual boot it won't work on Leopard. I'm not sure when Bombich will be releasing this on his web site for Leopard. However, is there a script that will work with Windows using the System Imaging Utility that is in Leopard?
Can someone please give me the steps to do?
Thank you
Phil

I know this is kinda old but netrestore has been updated so i think you should be set now

System Image Utility not working on Intel Macs?

I have a client who has the following problem:-
We are still not able to create a Net Install image of a full system setup.
Master Clone Mac - Intel iMac 17", 10.4.10, 40Gb partition 17Gb Used.
System Image Utility v10.4.10 on Another Intel iMac, 10.4.10, over 100 Gb storage for image
I get loads of errors and the final image is less than 2Gb when created.
Have just managed to create a 10.4.4 image (system only). But this is far from what we need it to do. Any ideas?

There is an inherent issue with creating images from 10.4.9 or later... see <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=929625&tstart=0>.
But it sounds as if your client has bigger problems. More information about the errors reported will be needed to offer any real help.

Using a System Image to Restore an HP Computer in Windows 8

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for