Did your PC ship without a recovery disc or recovery disc creation tool? Take matters into your own hands with our step-by-step guide
W
hat happens when your hard drive gives up the ghost and requires replacing? In the past, so long as you had a recent backup of your key files and settings you were fine - sure, it was irritating, but all you had to do was fit a new hard drive and reinstall or restore Windows from your installation or recovery disc.
Sadly, these days many manufacturers can't bring themselves to supply even recovery discs with their computers. Instead your recovery files - the only backup you have of Windows itself - is stored on your hard drive in its own partition. Often this partition is visible in Windows, making it vulnerable to all kinds of disaster, never mind the physical death of the drive itself.
If your PC didn't come with any recovery discs, what are you going to do if you lose your recovery partition for whatever reason? At best your PC manufacturer - assuming it's still in business - will charge you a nominal sum for a set of recovery discs; at worst you'll be left high and dry, forcing you to purchase a retail copy of Windows (again, assuming your version of Windows is still being sold) in order to use your PC again.
It's not all bad news, though. While many manufacturers baulk at providing recovery discs, they do at least provide a utility for creating your own set of recovery discs. This is the preferred method of backing up your recovery partition, so look on the Start > All Programs menu or desktop for such a utility - you may find it under a folder named after your PC manufacturer. Alternatively, check the support section of the manufacturer's web site for more advice.
Create your own recovery discs
If no recovery disc creation tool is supplied, the next best thing is to take an image of your Windows drive or partition while it's still working, which gives you something to roll back to in case of disaster. This is best done shortly after restoring or reinstalling Windows, and if you can keep your data on a separate hard drive or partition it's better still. For a guide to taking a fail-safe backup of your drive image, check out our tutorial here.
The final, least satisfactory option is to create a fail-safe backup of your recovery partition itself. It's the least satisfactory option because it's far more fiddly than the other two techniques mentioned here, but one advantage is that it's likely to require less than 10GB of available hard drive space or a couple of rewritable DVDs. The first step-by-step guide reveals the initial steps you need to take.
Step-by-step:
Back up your recovery partition
1. INSTALL MACRIUM REFLECT FREE
Click here followed by the Download Now link twice to download Macrium Reflect Free to your hard drive. Once downloaded, install the program and then launch it from its new desktop shortcut. Follow the guides to register your copy of the program and then wait for the main interface to appear. When it does, click Create a backup image... under Backup Tasks.
2. SELECT RECOVERY PARTITION
Click Next at the first screen, then tick your recovery partition from the list of drives displayed - it should be easily recognisable by its label and/or size, which should be 10GB or less in size. Click Next again.
3. CHOOSE BACK-UP LOCATION
Select where to store your backup: if you choose CD / DVD Burner you'll need to use rewritable DVDs to store your backup on, so bear that in mind. If choosing a local disk, make sure it's a separate hard disk (not partition) to the one your recovery partition is currently stored on - an external hard drive is the best bet here. Click Next - if prompted, click Yes to format the first of your rewritable discs.
4. REVIEW SETTINGS
The existing settings should be fine, so click Finish. You'll be prompted to run the backup now, so untick Save this backup as an XML Backup Definition File and click OK. The backup will now start - wait for it to complete, and if necessary have a second blank rewritable DVD ready for inserting if required.
5. VERIFY IMAGE
A corrupt image is no better than no backup at all, so before doing anything else click Close when the backup has finished and then choose Other Tasks > Verify Image & Backup Files. Insert the last DVD of your back-up set if necessary and click Next. Select the folder containing your backup (look under Recent Locations) and then click on the backup itself. Next, click Next followed by Verify. If you backed up to DVD, you'll be prompted for the location of the back-up file, so remove the last disc and insert your first disc before clicking OK.
Wait for your image to be verified - again, this can take some time, but you can get on with something else while it does so. Click OK followed by Close to finish.
6. CREATE RESCUE DISC
Next, select Other Tasks > Create Rescue CD. Leave the Linux option selected and click Next. If you installed Macrium Reflect Free a while ago, click Updates; otherwise click Advanced and tick Compatibility Mode. Insert a blank CD and click Finish to create your rescue disc.
Test your recovery disc
It's imperative that you can rely on your Macrium rescue disc when the time comes, so it makes perfect sense to try booting from it now to verify that it works. You may need to select your CD as the primary boot device when starting your PC (a message giving you the option to select a boot device should appear right at the beginning of the startup sequence) in order for the CD to be recognised.
Once the disc has been verified, label it and store it in a safe place with - if applicable - the back-up DVD or DVDs you created of your restore partition. The Expert Tip box opposite reveals one way in which you can render the need for this last-ditch recovery tool obsolete by keeping a close eye on the health of your hard drive, but in case the worst happens, make a note of the steps outlined below, which should transfer your recovery partition to your new hard drive.
UPGRADE TO A NEW HARD DRIVE
One way to avoid all the trauma involved with recreating your recovery disc is to keep a close eye on your hard drive's health using a free tool like HD Sentinel (click here).
This will alert you to the fact your existing hard drive is on the way out - if you're quick, you can buy a replacement hard drive, fit it and simply transfer everything from old drive to new. We've even got a tutorial showing you how it's done - click here to view it.
Step-by-step:
Restore your recovery partition
1. SELECT FILE TO RESTORE
Once your new hard drive has been physically fitted, restart your PC with your Macrium Reflect Free rescue CD inserted. You should only see your CD/DVD drive and - if it's attached - external hard drive listed. If you're restoring from disc, eject your rescue CD and insert the last of your recovery discs. Wait a few minutes then select the drive and/or folder containing your recovery file, which should appear in the right-hand menu. Select this and click Next.
2. SET RESTORE PARAMETERS (1)
You should see your recovery partition listed, so tick it and click Next again. Your new hard drive will be listed as "Unallocated" and "Empty", so tick the box and click Next again. Make sure Active is selected on the next screen - so your PC can boot to the recovery partition after the restore process has finished - and click Next.
3. SET RESTORE PARAMETERS (2)
Don't resize the partition when prompted - just click Next again. You can verify the image again if you wish by choosing Yes at the next screen, but it's not compulsory. Click Next. Leave the recommended option (Replace with the Master Boot Record from the backup (Recommended)) selected and click Next again - if you have problems after restoring the backup, repeat the restore process, but select the bottom option from here. Leave No select at the next screen and click Next.
4. RESTORE PARTITION
Review the options you've selected and click Finish to start the restoration process. If prompted to locate a file, eject the last back-up disc in your set and insert the first one. Click OK, wait a few moments and then select your CD drive, which should now display the required file. Click OK to continue the process. If your backup is spread over multiple discs, you'll be prompted to insert the next one following the same procedure. Once complete, click OK. Remove any discs from the drive and click Cancel followed by OK to reboot.
Post restoration
Hopefully, after restoring your partition you'll be booted straight into your PC's recovery options, which will enable you to reinstall Windows from scratch on your new hard drive. If you're given any options, let the recovery process destroy all existing data on your hard drive (your recovery partition won't be touched), so a fresh installation is put into place, ready for you to carry on with.
