Recovery Discs

[Hilldene]

I was completing a Refresh of Windows 8.1 and connected to HP Support Assitant to download deleted apps.The deleted apps were reinstalled.

I was then advised to create  Recovery Media but I did this this two years ago and you are told you can only do this once.

I can only assume that I have received a message that is not really necessary or that the  apps I installed have changed and it may be advisable to create new Recovery Media.

What to do.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

Hilldene

Personally, I don't trust recovery media made with any built-in function, as we see too many threads here from folks who have done this and then, years later, when they really NEED the media, they try to use it and it fails!

My guess is that the message is issued because you reset the laptop, and if you want to make another set of media, it's up to you.

My own preference is to use a product I have relied on for years that has never let me down -- Macrium Reflect.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR)
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition.  This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 10 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.  Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry.  This allows you then to boot into WinRE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

Good Luck
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