{"id":1291,"date":"2014-03-28T06:36:32","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T11:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swildow.darktech.org\/wp\/?p=1291"},"modified":"2014-03-28T06:52:09","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T11:52:09","slug":"creating-customized-recovery-images-for-win8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/?p=1291","title":{"rendered":"Creating customized recovery images for Win8"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Creating customized recovery images for Win8<\/h1>\n<div>\n<div id=\"socialmediabuttons\"><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Fred Langa\" src=\"https:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Andy-Boyd_avatar_1-100x100.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/p>\n<div>By Fred Langa on October 10, 2013 in <a title=\"View all posts in Top Story\" href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/category\/top-story\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Top Story<\/a><\/div>\n<div><!--more--><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/top-story\/creating-customized-recovery-images-for-win8\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/top-story\/creating-customized-recovery-images-for-win8\/ <\/a><\/div>\n<p>Windows 8\u2032s easy-to-use and built-in backup, restore, and rebuild tools go far beyond those found in previous versions of Windows.<\/p>\n<p>When using Win8\u2032s <strong>Refresh<\/strong> option, the advanced <strong>Recimg<\/strong> tool can preserve your current Win8 setup \u2014 including desktop apps that Refresh would, by default, remove.<\/p>\n<p>This is the fourth installment in a series detailing Windows 8\u2032s backup-and-recover system. The previous Top Stories include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/top-story\/understanding-windows-8s-file-history\/\">July 11<\/a>, \u201cUnderstanding Windows 8\u2032s File History\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/top-story\/a-no-reformat-reinstall-for-windows-8\/\">Aug. 15<\/a>, \u201cA \u2018no-reformat reinstall\u2019 for Windows 8,\u201d which discusses Win8\u2032s <i><b>Refresh<\/b><\/i> command<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/top-story\/a-clean-slate-reinstall-for-windows-8\/\">Sept. 12<\/a>, \u201cA clean-slate reinstall for Windows 8,\u201d a description of Win8\u2032s clean-slate tool, <b>Reset.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Unfortunately, in its default application, <b>Refresh<\/b> has a major drawback. Although it doesn\u2019t change your user files, native (Metro\/Modern) Win8 apps, or applications you obtained via the Windows Store, Refresh <strong><i>does<\/i><\/strong> remove traditional Windows desktop apps that you installed from other websites or from optical media. (See the explanation on a Microsoft Windows 8 Support <a href=\"http:\/\/windows.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows-8\/restore-refresh-reset-pc\">page<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>You can, however, avoid this Refresh limitation by creating and using a <b>custom system image.<\/b> It automatically rebuilds Win8 to the specific configuration you want \u2014 standard desktop apps included.<\/p>\n<p>A custom system image still gives you the benefits of the default Refresh. Win8\u2032s core files will be completely rebuilt, and your user accounts, data, passwords, and personal files will be left intact.<\/p>\n<p>Best of all, it\u2019s incredibly simple to make a custom system image. The only tool you need \u2014 <b>recimg.exe<\/b> \u2014 is already built into your copy of Windows 8!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recimg.exe<\/strong> (or Recimg for short) gets its name from a contraction of the phrase \u201c<b>rec<\/b>ord <b>im<\/b>a<b>g<\/b>e,\u201d a command-line tool. Microsoft offers instructions on using the command in support article <a href=\"http:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/kb\/2748351\/en-us\">2748351<\/a>. But those instructions leave out important details \u2014 and that\u2019s where this article will help.<\/p>\n<p>In the following steps, you\u2019ll see how to prep your system for the best Recimg results, and you\u2019ll learn how to use the tool and its various options. You\u2019ll also get some extra tips and tweaks that can make the process of creating a custom system image go faster and more smoothly, including a solution to the most common problem that can interfere with Recimg\u2019s operation.<\/p>\n<h2>Before you begin, some basic prep work<\/h2>\n<p>Because Recimg will create a custom system image based on your current Win8 setup, it stands to reason that you\u2019ll want Windows to be as nearly perfect as it can be: complete, up to date, and error-free.<\/p>\n<p>So before you begin, spend a few minutes performing some basic system maintenance:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Update all your software.<\/strong> Manually run Windows Update and ensure you\u2019re running the latest versions of all third-party software. An automated update tool such as Secunia PSI (free\/paid; <a href=\"http:\/\/secunia.com\/products\/consumer\/psi\/sys_req\/\">site<\/a>) can simplify and speed up this process. For more auto-update tools, see the July 26, 2012, <a href=\"https:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/top-story\/software-that-updates-your-other-software\/\">Top Story<\/a>, \u201cSoftware that updates your other software.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Run a reputable Registry cleaner<\/strong> to help ensure that your Registry doesn\u2019t contain errors such as references to absent software or altered system locations. Piriform\u2019s CCleaner (free\/paid; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.piriform.com\/ccleaner\">site<\/a>) is a popular tool, but there are many others \u2014 some excellent, some more trouble than help.<b>Tip #1:<\/b> Cleanup tools can also remove junk and trash files \u2014 generally a good thing. But Recimg doesn\u2019t collect and preserve junk files, so junk-file cleanup is <b><i>not<\/i><\/b> a necessary prerequisite for running the imaging tool.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Verify your disk\u2019s health<\/strong> using Windows\u2019 built-in tools \u2014 either the command-line <b>chkdsk<\/b> or the GUI-based <b>Error-checking\/Check now.<\/b> If you need a refresher on these apps, see the \u201cCheck the hard drive\u2019s physical\/logical health\u201d subsection of the Jan. 10 <a href=\"https:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/top-story\/let-your-pc-start-the-new-year-right\/\">Top Story<\/a>, \u201cLet your PC start the new year right!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With those three basic tasks done, you\u2019re ready to create your custom system image.<\/p>\n<p><b>Tip #2:<\/b> Recimg is CPU- and disk-intensive; it can take several hours to run to completion. If needed, you can keep using your PC because Recimg uses Windows\u2019 <b>shadow copy<\/b> function (more <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shadow_Copy\">info<\/a>) to process files \u2014 even if they\u2019re open, in use, or locked.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind, however, that because Recimg makes heavy demands of your system, it will cause a noticeable slowdown.<\/p>\n<p>To reduce potential frustration, and to allow Recimg to complete its task in the shortest-possible time, I suggest that you run it only when your PC would otherwise be idle and unused.<\/p>\n<p>In the same vein, you can further quicken Recimg\u2019s operations by shutting down or disabling as many background tasks as possible. For example, before running the tool, disable or postpone any scheduled backups, data syncs, malware scans, defragmentation operations, and so on.<\/p>\n<h2>Building your first custom system image<\/h2>\n<p>Using Recimg to create a custom system image is amazingly simple. Here are the steps:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To start, bring up an administrator-level command prompt by whatever method you prefer. In Windows 8, the easiest way is to simply press the Windows key + X (<b>WinX<\/b>) and then select Command Prompt (Admin). A standard admin-level command window will open.<\/li>\n<li>At the command prompt, type:<b>recimg\u00a0\/createimage\u00a0{folder path}<\/b><strong>Note:<\/strong> Replace <b>{folder path}<\/b> with the path\/folder name where you want the custom system image stored. For example, you might use <b>C:\\RefreshImage<\/b> as the path and folder name. (If the folder doesn\u2019t exist, Recimg will create one.) So the entire command would be:\n<p><b>recimg\u00a0\/createimage\u00a0C:\\RefreshImage<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Tip #3:<\/b> System images can be quite large, typically 15\u201325GB. Make sure the destination drive has sufficient room.<\/p>\n<p><b>Tip #4:<\/b> To speed Recimg\u2019s processing, create the system image on your fastest hard drive, even if you don\u2019t want to keep it there permanently. (System images can be moved after they\u2019ve been created; more on this in a moment.)<\/li>\n<li>With the command, path, and folder name entered, press Enter. Recimg will go to work in three stages: initializing, creating a <b><i>snapshot<\/i><\/b> of the current setup, and then <b><i>writing<\/i><\/b> the image to the specified location, as shown in Figure 1.The custom system-image file is always called <b>CustomRefresh.wim.<\/b> (The extension <b>.wim<\/b> stands for Windows Imaging Medium \u2014 see the MS TechNet <a href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/cc749478%28v=ws.10%29.aspx\">explanation<\/a>.)\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Recimg at work\" alt=\"Recimg at work\" src=\"https:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/W20131010-TS-Recimg.png\" \/>Figure 1. A typical <i>Recimg<\/i> progress screen. Here, the tool is beginning to write an image to <i>C:\\RefreshImage<\/i>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When the custom image is fully written (typically after several hours), Recimg will register the new <strong>CustomRefresh.wim<\/strong> file as your system\u2019s <b>active system image.<\/b> Windows 8 will automatically use the newly created image whenever you run <strong>Refresh<\/strong> on your system. (For complete information on refreshing Win8, see the Aug. 15 <a href=\"https:\/\/windowssecrets.com\/top-story\/a-no-reformat-reinstall-for-windows-8\/\">Top Story<\/a>, \u201cA \u2018no-reformat reinstall\u2019 for Windows 8.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>You can run Recimg as often as you like. If you specify the same folder over and over, only the last <strong>CustomRefresh.wim<\/strong> will be retained. But you also can specify a different destination folder each time in order to build a library of custom system-image configurations.<\/p>\n<p>You also can move <strong>CustomRefresh.wim<\/strong> files from wherever they were created to any other suitably capacious location \u2014 either to save space or for long-term archiving.<\/p>\n<p>If you move a <strong>CustomRefresh.wim<\/strong> file, or if you have multiple image files you\u2019ve created over time, use Recimg to tell Windows 8 which file should be used as the current, active system image.<\/p>\n<p>Open an administrator\u2019s command window and type<\/p>\n<p><b>recimg\u00a0\/setcurrent\u00a0{folder}<\/b><\/p>\n<p>where <b>{folder}<\/b> is the path to and name of the <strong>CustomRefresh.wim<\/strong> file you wish to use as the current source of Refresh files.<\/p>\n<p>Other Recimg options include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>recimg\u00a0\/showcurrent<\/b> \u2014 displays the folder that holds the currently active image. It\u2019s useful if you lose track of which <strong>CustomRefresh.wim<\/strong> Win8 is using.<\/li>\n<li><b>recimg\u00a0\/deregister<\/b> \u2014 enter this command if, for some reason, you want or need to return to Win8\u2032s default system image. Refresh will use the image originally provided by the PC\u2019s manufacturer \u2014 or, if no OEM file is available, the files on your original installation medium.(Using the <b>\/setcurrent<\/b> command described above, you can always return to one of your custom system-image files.)<\/li>\n<li><b>recimg\u00a0\/help<\/b> \u2014 displays a list of all available Recimg commands, plus some simple help text.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Solving the most common Recimg problem<\/h2>\n<p>Win8\u2032s custom system image\u2013creation tool can occasionally be confused by virtual volumes (logical hard drives or partitions) and\/or by symlinks (symbolic links; MSDN <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/windows\/desktop\/aa365680%28v=vs.85%29.aspx\">explanation<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>For example, popular cryptographic software such as TrueCrypt, Boxcryptor, and others commonly create their own private volumes to hold encrypted data.<\/p>\n<p>If there are any irregularities with the way those volumes are mounted or dismounted, Recimg might stop early in its initialization process and display error messages such as <b>The recovery image cannot be written<\/b> or <b>The system cannot find the file specified.<\/b> The most common error code associated with this problem is the cryptic <b>0\u00d780070003.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The solution: Temporarily uninstall whatever software created the volume or symlink and then run <strong>recimg.exe.<\/strong> Reinstall the problematic software after the custom system image has been created. (Obviously, the problem app <strong><i>won\u2019t<\/i><\/strong> be restored along with your other apps, if you use Win8\u2032s Refresh.)<\/p>\n<h2>Win8\u2032s multi-tiered backup\/recovery options<\/h2>\n<p>As you\u2019ve seen from this series, Windows 8 offers a wider range of built-in backup and recovery options than any previous version of the OS does. In summary:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>File History<\/b> provides automatic, nearly constant, always-on backups of your user data and files.<\/li>\n<li><b>Reset<\/b> lets you rapidly restore your PC to its original, fresh-from-the-box setup.<\/li>\n<li><b>Refresh<\/b> provides a quick-and-easy, nondestructive reinstall of Win8\u2032s core files \u2014 without disturbing your user files. And when combined with a <b>custom system image,<\/b> it won\u2019t remove apps that were not included with Windows or not purchased from the Windows Store.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whatever your feelings about Win8\u2032s interface, you have to agree: it\u2019s good to have all that protection built into the base operating system!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Creating customized recovery images for Win8 By Fred Langa on October 10, 2013 in Top Story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1291"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1294,"href":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291\/revisions\/1294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}