www.aiscl.co.uk

My Asus laptop came with no DVDs and I try to make a system bootable DVD(s). AISbackup gave me 9 choices and I have a hard time to decide which one to use.

The 8th choice was “Hidden Disk drive \\\?\Volume {26f263.....} Recommended for disk recovery of data on this hidden volume. This is a Boot Volume, the PC will not start without a valid boot Volume. This 900MB drive contains 436MB of data. So I choose this option but after AIS says there is nothing to backup. WHY?

The other option which I think will be suitable is C:(OS) recommended for disaster recovery of all data and windows 8.1x64. This 279GB drive contains 69GB of data. No problem to do this backup but my question is: would this backup be Bootable?

I only have my new Asus K750JN laptop for 3 days now so there are a lot of subjects I don’t know about it including windows 8.1x64. I just went to the BIOS and from what I understand there is no option to boot from a DVD or USB. My BIOS is Aptio Setup Utility, 2012 American Megatrends

There is a utility in the laptop which offers to make a rescue drive but the only option is for a USB and it says all data on the USB will be erased (this utility needs 16GB). Since I have a 1.4TB USB HDD with data on it, I did not like that option but if I have no other option I could erase the data assuming I could use the remaining space for future data / backups

Also the 750GB HDD on the laptop has a C: and D: partitions and the D: is empty.

I wonder if AISBackup is suitable to copy my system files into my USB HDD or into the D: partition on the laptop.

The statement 'Recommended for disaster recovery' on each drive may be misleading as this only indicates the selected partition may be restored in the event of a disaster. For full disaster recovery it is best to use the 'Backup the PC' option.

As for booting the PC or laptop in the event of a disaster: Things got more complicated since it seems all PC manufacturers are moving to EFI booting and EFI only supports 64-bit Windows operating systems (on a Windows PC that is). AISBackup is a 32-bit program and will not run on from a 64-bit Windows pre-installed environment. AISBackup uses the Windows 32-bit pre-installed environment to make the bootable restore media (CD or USB). It is possible to boot from the AISBackup boot media but in many cases the PC's CMOS settings will need to be changed to temporarily enable 'Legacy' booting from this media.

Another option for disaster recovery, if you have access to another PC, is to use the second PC to make the restore and then move the restored disk into the PC or laptop you are recovering. To do this you would attach the disk you are restoring to via a SATA to USB cable. If the PC you are recovering still works then you may attach the new disk to it via a SATA to USB cable and restore each partition to the USB connected drive and then swap the disks - I used this method to upgrade the disk to a SSD in my laptop (I also purchased a SSD that came with the cable). If the SSD ever fails in the laptop I would use my desktop PC to restore to a new disk and then install this into the laptop: The backup is on a NAS that is accessible by both the laptop and PC.

There are other options for disaster recovery - and I guess these need to be documented, maybe with some new videos.

Unfortunately the industry move from legacy to EFI booting has made disaster recovery more difficult but not impossible.

Barry

Thank you Barry for the insight

Since I noticed that I have EFI booting I knew that I was up to learn new ways of booting and now I’m searching to find the most suitable way

Have a great weekend