restoring win 10 with Win 8.0 recovery image

2bretired · 13 Aug 2016

I have an ASUS laptop which came with 8.0. When I got it I made a restore image copy. The laptop was then upgraded to win 10. I did not make a new restore image copy. Now I have a problem the laptop keeps rebooting tried restore but after a while will reboot again! It asks for a image restore but the only one I have is a win 8.0 version. Will this work or will it reset to win 8. I think the win 10 upgrade has now ended!

Thanks Bob

dalchina · 13 Aug 2016

Hi,
Can you confirm your PC was running Win 10 successfully for some significant period before this restarting began to occur, or has it been rebooting erratically since you upgraded?

1. Once you have installed Win 10 on a device, you can freely reinstall it. I've even seen discussion about a tool supporting change of motherboard on the same PC, and reinstallation being allowed. No need to worry about the free year upgrade period.
2. If your disk image is your Windows 8 build, restoring the disk image will restore that of course. What is in that image will be restored- you will lose all data and changes since then
3. I understand you to be saying that you can boot the PC up and log in "after a while" it reboots.
This could suggest a hardware problem.
If so that could be your disk or the laptop.

You need to check and discriminate those possibilities.
Start by getting the SMART parameters for the hard disk.
This can be done by
- removing and connecting the hard disk to another PC and running e.g. Crystal Diskinfo on that PC
- booting your PC from an appropriate bootable medium which loads a version of Windows with such a tool

4. A very crude way to see if there's a hardware problem is to
a. remove your hard disk
b. boot from e.g. a Windows 10 disk
c. Wait and see if your PC restarts.

Further tests on memory etc would be needed.

Note that if the SMART test shows your disk is failing, your priority should be to try to recover what data yo can you haven't already backed up.

Many possibilities from simple data corruption on disk, to a RAM problem to some other hardware issue, to some conflicting program...

2bretired · 13 Aug 2016

Yes, it has been working fine since the original win 10 upgrade. It only seems to be rebooting since the latest win 10 updates!. I presumed that restore to previous version would work but alas it still occasional reboots. I have given the laptop to my wife who I blame for screwing it up!

Thanks Bob

dalchina · 13 Aug 2016

Hi, if after restoring your Win 8 build it still reboots erratically, and didn't when you ran that build previously that points to a hardware problem.

2bretired · 13 Aug 2016

OK, did a ASUS backtracker and it restored back to, looks like original Win 10 install, kept old files but deleted a bunch of programs and apps, although it gave me a copy of what was deleted. Which in some ways it has got rid of a lot of unused programs. Now it will be time consuming to reinstall all the Deleted ASUS programs that came with the laptop. At least I now know what to do and what will happen if it happens again. I will now make a restore USB of Win 10 before any re-installs cause a problem. It is the 13th after all.

Thanks for all your help, it is a Microsoft learning experience. Bob

PS dalchina I am also a expat Brit, been here a long time.

dalchina · 14 Aug 2016

If it's stable after that, you might want to check if there's a BIOS update. That fixed a problem for someone with an ASUS after upgrading.. could be worth checking.

There's still the possibility of a program you had installed which was incompatible. I had 3 minor ones incompatible after the anniversary upgrade- of those, one caused a problem, but understandably as it modified the GUI.

(Was an ex-pat for some years in various countries.. now repatriated).

Recommend you start using disk imaging (e.g. Macrium Reflect free) - allows you to restore the working states you've imaged- and even recover easily if your disk fails. Preserves your PC, data and your sanity.

2bretired · 14 Aug 2016

Update, It seems all the deleted ASUS programs are bloat ware. When looking in ASUS I noticed all the deleted programs are under Win 8.1 so decided not to reinstall unless needed at a later date. Am reinstalling programs one at a time and testing system for a day or so to see if there are any conflicts. So far it seems to be working. I noticed I can make a restore disk in case the hard drive died from Win 10 system but am looking into using Macrium Reflect also.

Thanks again Bob

( cannot see going back to "Blighty" too much rain, here in California mostly Sunny except for the drought, but beer makes up for that.)

dalchina · 14 Aug 2016

People here generally have found Backup and Restore (Windows 7) less reliable and certainly much less flexible than Macrium.
Veeam Endpoint (free) is also interesting. Aomei Backupper has some problems- it's fine for straightforward partition imaging, but I've come across some issues having used it for a long time.

Commercial: E.g. Easeus ToDo, Paragon, O&O Disk Image. I've tried or used 2 of those.

Beer: enjoyed on a trip in Europe when it was hot.. but I don't drink it here, where it's mostly been cooler but rather too dry- at least in the Midlands. Different up north.