How to Recover from a Complete System Crash
What follows presumes several things, the first of which is that your system crash is not the result of hardware failure. If you do have a crash as a result of hardware failure nothing else will matter until or unless you get the faulty hardware replaced. If that faulty hardware is not the disc drive itself, then that may be all you need to do. If your computer will at least power up, get through the UEFI/BIOS stages prior to the OS loading, and try to load the OS you should be OK to proceed with a recovery.
Let’s lay out a couple of other things as well:
· The term “system image” can mean different things depending on the software you use to create it. Under Microsoft Windows File History or Backup and Restore in earlier versions, a system image includes the full operating system, all user accounts, and all data associated with both. It is far more similar to a disc image in certain ways than a system image as some other backup software uses the term. For some, “system image” means an operating system image which does not include user data. You need to know what the backup software you are using means by system image. For the remainder of this document, I will use that term the way that Microsoft File History or Backup and Restore uses it. I am also going to presume a Windows 10 environment and that you will not be trying to restore from a backup made under Windows 7, but using File History accessed from the Control Panel.
· Some people like third party backup and recovery software better than that which is included as part of Windows. Two examples are AOMEI BackUpper and Macrium Reflect. You can, in theory, use several different backup methods. Should you need to restore, you will only restore from one of them and use that product’s methods to do so.
Now, on to some more general points, some of which may be way too late for you to actually do, but you’ll know about them for the next new machine you acquire.
1. In order to use any recovery/restore software you absolutely must have the bootable recovery/restore media that it needs to get that process started for a dead system. It is possible to create this on optical media (CD/DVD) and on a USB thumb drive. The Windows 10 Recovery Drive, if created with system files included, will allow a faster restore than a System Repair Disc, discussed later. Windows 10 favors the use of a USB drive. Here is how to create your recovery media:
a. Open the Control Panel then the File History Item. Locate the Recovery link in the the File History window and activate it.
b. This opens up the Advanced Recovery Tools window. Have your media ready then activate the link “Create a recovery drive.” You will get a single dialog that has a checkbox, “Back up system files to the recovery drive,” which is checked by default. You need a USB drive that is 32GB or larger if you leave this checked and all content on that drive will be erased if you have any on it. If you do not wish to back up the system files, and it is not required, then you need at a USB drive that is at least 1 GB in size. If you do not back up the system files, and they are needed, they will be downloaded during a restore. After making your checkbox choice, activate the Next button.
c. A new dialog box will pop up saying “please wait” while the search for USB drives that you could use is done. After that a list of those will appear. Select the USB drive for the recovery media then activate the Next button. You’ll be notified when the media has been created.
2. You need to have File History turned on and use it, but you also need to take occasional system images. It is wise to take a system image on a brand new system as soon as it’s up and running and you have removed any “bloatware” that comes with it that you do not want and never want to have to deal with again. Then, my metric for taking follow-up system images is take one every time you’ve done enough work on your system installing programs, removing programs, etc., that you’d likely say some very unsavory words if you had to do this work again. You should always keep the system image of the “fresh out of the box with bloatware removed” state in case you ever want to get back to that. You need only retain the latest of the follow-up system images if you know you’re most likely to want to restore to “last known good state.” To take a system image:
a. Open Control Panel then File History
b. Locate and activate the System Image Backup link. This actually opens the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) window.
c. In the B&R window, locate and activate the Create a System Image link and follow the prompts in regard to selecting a drive on which you wish to place the system image and the drives/partitions included. I tend to stick with the defaults with regard to what’s included. If you have an external backup drive plugged in the radio button for “On a hard drive” and the drive letter for that hard drive will be prepopulated as the system image save location. Activate the Next button and the system image will be created and saved.
d. If you have never created a System Repair Disc, you will be prompted to do so once the system image is taken. The System Repair Disc will fit on a DVD and is a bare bones bootable disc that will allow you to restore system images you’ve taken, as well as a couple of other things.
3. If File History is not on, turn it on. There will be a button to turn on File History if it is off and to turn off file history if it is on. I generally use the same external drive on which I save system images (which include all user data files as they are at the moment the image is taken) to keep the user data backup part of File History. There are several links in the the File History in addition the previously mentioned System Image backup link:
a. Restore Personal Files - Which allows you to select files and folders backed up by File History for restoring
b. Select Drive - which allows you to specify which drive, which should either be an external drive or at least an internal disc drive that is not the one that holds the Windows 10 operating system. This is generally used if you buy a new external drive and want to make File History use it instead of the one you’d been using.
c. Exclude Folders - exactly what you'd think. Allows you to exclude certain folders from being kept in File History if they are not something you need a backup for
d. Advanced Settings - Allows you to choose things like the frequency with which files that have undergone changes are backed up (hourly by default - remember if a copy of a file is saved and that file remains unchanged that no further versions will be backed up until or unless it is changed in some way) and how long to keep saved versions of a file (Forever is the default). Each of these is a dropdown that lets you select the option you want for each condition. There is also a link to "Clean Up Versions" if you're running out of space and know that you don't need versions of a file that are very old, a checkbox that allows you to share the backup drive you've set up with other computers in your Homegroup [making for a remote backup drive on all those other machines], And a link, "Open File History event logs to view recent events or errors."
From this point forward I will presume that you have taken a system image and have had File History turned on. Now, let’s say disaster has struck and your computer absolutely refuses to load the Windows 10 operating system and I’ll assume this isn’t secondary to the failure of your hard disc. Now on to what you do to actually restore a system image.
Restoring a Windows System Image Using
the System Repair Disc or Recovery Drive
1. The first thing you will need to do is to get into the BIOS feature of UEFI by whatever method your hardware manufacturer specifies. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific than this, but even a single manufacturer may vary exactly how this is done based on the model of the computer. This is generally a repeated keypress when the computer is powered on until the UEFI Menu Appears.
2. Once the UEFI Menu Appears, you will choose either Boot Order, if this is included in the primary menu, or BIOS if it is not. If you had to choose BIOS then find the Boot Order feature under the BIOS settings.
3. Depending on your UEFI/BIOS the exact way you shift your boot order also varies. What you need to do is to get the drive that holds your System Repair Disc or Recovery Disc in the boot order ahead of your hard drive, which is normally the first thing in the list. Remember that if you reset this order using a method that keeps that change you will need to go back in after you’ve restored your system to put the hard disc drive back in the first boot position.
4. Exit UEFI and your computer will boot using the System Repair Disc or Recovery Disc. You will be presented with a menu that includes “System Image Recovery” among other options. Since these have changed a bit in various Windows 10 builds I will stick with the option you will choose: System Image Recovery. Have your external drive with the saved system image plugged in to the machine.
5. Once the System Image Recovery process begins it will begin looking for external drives on which a system image resides. It should automatically find the one you have plugged in. It will also automatically identify the system images that have been saved for the computer to which it’s connected and if more than one exists you will need to select the actual image you want to restore from. Once you have selected the image to restore from activate whatever button is the affirmative, e.g., recover, next, continue. I have no idea what that might be under Windows 10 since I have not yet done a recovery from a system image under this OS.
6. At this point the restore/recovery process takes over and does its thing placing the system image back on to the hard drive of the computer. This is generally a “once it’s started it cannot be interrupted” process and the outcome is one of two: complete success and you have your machine back exactly like it was prior to the crash or failure to reload.
Now That You’ve Recovered Windows 10 and the User Data
From the System Image, What’s Next?
Here is where File History comes in. Unless your computer crashed mere moments after you took your last system image there will have been numerous files added and/or updated after it was taken.
Again, open Control Panel, File History. Activate the Restore Personal Files link and go through the process of selecting the files and folders that File History has collected for you after the time you took the System Image.