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Refresh your Windows 8 system from a Recovery Drive

In this edition of the Windows Desktop Report, I take a look at using the default mode of the Refresh your PC tool from the Recovery Drive. Have you used Windows 8's Refresh your PC tool yet? If so, did it get your system back into a stable state?

My suggestion for a new machine with Windows 8 OS (or any OS).
Before anything else, follow the instructions to create refresh disk(s) (in my manufacturer's cas it was 6 DVD's).
With this done, run the recovery to "back to as shipped from the manufacturer"
You are losing nothing and you are taking this opportunity, while under warrnaty to verify that the recovery works, with no real impact (other than time).
In my case running recovery from the revcovery partition, from the disks I created, and from the disks the manufacturer sent me all FAILED every attempt.
It tuned out that there was a known hardware problem (wireless card) that was fixed by the manufacturer. The recovery process then worked.
Again, IMHO it's better to find out right at the start on a machine with none of your applications and or data and while it is under warranty.
Differetn story of course when installing Windows 8 on a Windows 7 system...

i eagerly await this week's segment--you stated in your last segment on using windows 8 refresh in default mode that you were going to address how to save your installed programs during the refresh process. I have that exact issue--I have picked up a rootkit virus, it seems; I need to refresh windows (I have already tried the default method on my cloned drive); I have one program I will have to repurchase if I lose it. your anticipated instructions may prevent that--thanks for this particular series of articles--very useful. diana wilkes

...I'm working on that next article right now.

Hey, Greg, great article. I find your writing very easy to follow.

From your article, when doing a refresh, "the Refresh your PC tool will find and backup all your data, settings, and apps. It will then install a fresh copy of Windows and restore all of your data, settings, and apps." I presume that it reformats the Windows partition before installing the fresh copy. I would certainly hope so. In that case, where does it put the data, settings, and apps? These could be 100GB or more.

Hey Greg, a second small question.

Do "apps" include all non-OS software? Drivers, AV, Firewall, utilities, etc.?

As I noted in this article, when my system rebooted after the Refresh phase, I encountered the Choose an operating system screen shown in Figure G and was surprised to see two tiles for Windows 8. Well, I have since found an official answer as to why these two tiles appear.

In a Microsoft article titled "Two Windows 8 boot entries appear during Refresh your PC repair process"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2788405

When Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) is booted from a source that is not linked with the currently installed OS, Windows RE is unable to verify the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) boot entry for the current Windows installation. As a result, a new BCD entry is created for the Refresh process. On the first reboot of the Refresh process, two boot entries will be present in the BCD store for the same instance of Windows 8. As the Refresh completes and Windows boots into the refreshed environment, Windows is able to determine which BCD entry is needed and the duplicate entry is removed.

Went through the "Refresh" on my Surface Pro. The "Refresh" fixed the issues was having, however it also de-activated my Office 365 (and does not mention this app in the "Removed Apps" html file) and also removed the associated data! l lost mail, contacts, and associated configuration including newly created menu structures. Word to the wise - ensure you have all your data backed up! Now l just need to find where these items are located so it doesn't happen again.