Do I need my Win 8 disk to recover my PC?

Question

Hello!

So I built my own gaming pc a couple of months back and stupidly only only used a 200gb SSD drive as the main drive (using a 2 tb drive as a second one not really thinking). Anyway, it has filled up and so I am thinking about just resetting my pc all the way back to its first state (nothing on it apart from the OS) then just reinstalling everything that I do need.

I accidentally lost the OS DVD however. Do I need it to reset my pc? I was online looking at something called a recovery DVD that I could buy on ebay for 3 pounds but I'm not sure what that does.

Do I need the windows 8 DVD to reset my pc back to the state that it was in when I built it or will it just delete everything and just automatically reinstall win 8 on my second drive (I am thinking about taking out the SSD drive, and just using the 2
Tb hard drive as the main pool and then adding the SSD drive in afterwards as a place to store some games)

Thanks

Tom

Answer 1

You may not need to go to such extreme measures.



Windows lets you set alternate locations for your user profile folders. Just look for the Location tab in the folder properties, press the Move key, pick a location on the HDD, and allow the folder contents to be moved.



You can also use the 'robocopy /copyall /xj /mir' command and directory junctions (mklink /j command) to move other system or user folders, even the entire Users folder. You may have to go into Recovery mode to do this, since the system may complain when attempting this in Normal mode. Less important programs can also be moved this way, and possibly in Normal mode.



Any folders that aren't system or user related can be moved or deleted after careful examination. (For instance, AMD uses root-level folders as a staging area for graphics drivers. Once the driver is fully installed, the root-level folder is no longer needed.)



It is generally a good idea to use an HDD for your personal files. If an SSD crashes, it typically loses everything instantly; while a crashing hard drive often gives you enough time to prepare a replacement and offload before complete failure.



"I accidentally lost the OS DVD however."

Why would you lose something so important? If by chance you don't have a legitimate OS, you may have deeper problems with the people who likely have access to everything that has passed through your computer.

Answer 2

Hi,



Couple things ...



Yes, You will need the install DVD because Your system is a custom build, and there's no "Recovery partition" from the factory.



You COULD also use a utility that will copy the drive's stuff into the larger drive like "PC Mover" or Norton Ghost, etc ... There are a LOT these utilities available ... but Your personal preferences will decide which one works for You.



Now for the fun part, You could actually drop te SSD altogether and just get another 2Tb drive if You wanted to, remove Your current 2Tb, use the copier utility, thern just place the new 2Tb as the main and the old 2Tb as the secondary drives ... and voila - 4Tb system.





You should also look into something called "RAID storage" that Your motherboard most likely supports ... but it's VERY technical and not for novice repair people.





G'Luck!!

Answer 3

Windows 7 / 8 do have inbuilt programs for creating a system image for restoration purposes;

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/create-system-image-in-windows-7-8/

Or you can use Macrium Reflect free version which you can use to either create a CD / DVD with just the Windows installation on it, or clone the entire disc to reinstall it later;

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

If you want to use that then download it and register it with your e-mail address and they will immediately send an e-mail to you telling you how to use it which you should print off so that you can access it whilst your PC is in pieces and not working.

RAID is for multiple hard discs and Macrium will install it for you if you need it, but if I remember correctly it is a rather large lump of data space.

Up to you on the best way to go, regards, Bob.