Windows 10 - "Create a recovery drive"...?

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Soldato
Joined
31 May 2005
Posts
15,640
Location
Nottingham
Does this backup the licence information as well so if you replace the HDD for example owing to failure, Windows 10 will activate (for the most part) without problem?

Reason for creating the recovery drive is I want to "protect" my free Windows 10 upgrade you see :D

Also, while I am here, is there an inbuilt method in Windows to do a "Full" OS Install drive backup which backs up installed programs and registry etc? If that makes sense. Would creating s system image do this?

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
There isn't any need to backup your license on an upgrade to windows 10 as it's a digital entitlement tied to the hardware and if you do need to reinstall, it'll automatically activate once you put the computer back online.
 
I thought that to be the case but was unsure as to how reliable it was.

When creating a "recovery drive", is it just the same as creating bootable install media then? It contains nothing from the "live" install?
 
All you need to do is download the media creation tool and use that to create install media (it downloads everything off the internet, so none of the install from the current OS is included), but make sure it is from a current download as specific versions of the media creation tool will only download specific versions of windows 10.
 
demonix said:
There isn't any need to backup your license on an upgrade to windows 10 as it's a digital entitlement tied to the hardware and if you do need to reinstall, it'll automatically activate once you put the computer back online.
Click to expand...

So how would that work with this Dell Vostro 1500 I'm currently on?

It came with Vista, I bought Windows 7 HP Retail and used the upgrade tool to move on to Windows 10 Home. Do Microsoft's servers store some kind of details for this computer and know I upgraded legally and will always be able to activate?
 
Gimpymoo said:
Also, while I am here, is there an inbuilt method in Windows to do a "Full" OS Install drive backup which backs up installed programs and registry etc? If that makes sense. Would creating s system image do this?
Click to expand...
Yes within File History there is a link to create a system image. This will take a full drive image of your O/S, applications installs, configuration etc. This is a great option for quickly restoring/recovering your PC in the case of a disk failure or corruption.
 
Ben Cole said:
So how would that work with this Dell Vostro 1500 I'm currently on?

It came with Vista, I bought Windows 7 HP Retail and used the upgrade tool to move on to Windows 10 Home. Do Microsoft's servers store some kind of details for this computer and know I upgraded legally and will always be able to activate?
Click to expand...

Pretty much that as information about the hardware configuration is stored on microsofts servers so once you bring it back online it'll communicate with the activation servers and will change the status to activated once everything is verified.
 
Gimpymoo, for the full ssytem image the MS system seems not that reliable - look at other thread and google it, so macrium maybe better.

BenCole about the Vostro, I thought Dell's may also have a recovery partition on the disk to restore to factory condition ie Windows 7 ? should be able to see that under disk management and delete it, if you are happily at 10 now ?
 
The original disc with Vista installed and nasty host protected area is long gone. You are correct though, it did have a recovery partition. As with just about anything I buy I blitzed it straight away and did a bloat free installation.

I then had problems as the Vostro had a button which accessed a stripped down media OS on the HPA...so if I pressed that button the machine would get stuck in an unrecoverable loop when it couldn't find the media OS.

It's had a SSD in there for about 6 years now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom