Windows 10: What Happens if Hard Drive Crashes in 2-3 years???

Hi... hope this is proper place for my (in future) questions:

I've 2 laptops; Toshiba came with Win8... not upgraded to Win8.1; then a Samsung, came with Win 8, upgraded to Win8.1. Neither came with Restore DVDs nor any way to burn them.

So... suppose I bring them to Win10... and a hard drive dies/needs replacement in 2-3 years (Toshiba HD crashed 3 weeks after buying but Toshiba warrantee solved that time)??

1. Will there be a Win10 (physical) DVD or, atleast, a way to build an ISO?

2. Would I have to go back to Win8... upgrade to Win8.1... then upgrade to Win10?? Each run 1-2 hours... total waste of time there.

3. Does the current Win10 FREEBIE include Win8?? Always seem to say Win7/SP1 and Win8.1???

4. Heard that Win10 won't update/patch if one doesn't keep their System Updates within 8-10 months... again... what happens if HD needs replacements??

5. For that matter... what happens if one buys a PC after 19Jul... it'll have Win10 and, again, HD crashes (needs to be replaced) 2-3 years later... no warrantee anymore nor a System Restore capability.

I know this sounds paranoid but... been there before (whether virus killed PC, HD died, change of motherboard, etc)... wouldn't be happy if Win10 doesn't give ME "power" to repair my own problems

Thanks in advance
Steve

:)

 

What happens if i hard reset my phone?

Only Reason reson i am thinking to hard reset it cause of all bugs.

After new firmware update,

my touch screen doesnt work some times

ovi store and maps keep on crashing.

music player takes forever to open

music player wont update library



n bug that carried on

i loose pictures n music from my memory card automatically. cause of this i had to uninstall a lots of apps.

files get corrupt by itself.



so i was thinking i want to go back to orignal firmware(which was installed from nokia),

and then upgrade to latest one. n also uninstall all apps.



one more thing if i hard reset, does it also reformat phone memory?

 

What happens if i hard reset my phone?

Does your phone have a built in memory or do you use a micro sd card ?

It's always advisable after updating software to start with a clean phone. So I would transfer ant media on your mass memory/sd card to computer by drag and drop then format it, then backup contacts and calendar NOTHING ELSE, do the soft reset then re-install
the latest software, then do another soft reset. After this set up your phone from scratch, it will be loke brand new and should work well as any errors will be removed. Re-download and install any apps you want , put music and photo's etc on it, and set it
up as you like it. It's not as bad as it sounds, and everything should work really well. If you use 'old stuff' it could have been that , that caused your problems, so all the hard work and time will be wasted !!

Good Luck

 

1. Hopefully you will get access to ISO images, expected. Microsoft will allow you to perform clean reinstall from the scratch after it is upgraded for the first time.

2. No, just install windows 10. Upgrade way will not be needed than the first time only.

3. It is win 7 and win 8.1. Win 8 will not be upgraded to win 10.

4. Nothing relates to the HDD. For OEM computers, the motherboard may be a factor.

5. Again, nothing is related to the HDD. You can replace it whenever you want. Windows 10 activations will be per device, and device is the motherboard, not the HDD.

 

You have not mentioned any backup program (disk imaging). Making an image before and after implementing Win10 gives you additional protection from HD crashes and/or a way to get back to square one should the need arise. There are some excellent free backup programs including Macrium, Easeus ToDo, Aomei, etc.

Rich

 

Thanks to both of you (ARC & RMONROE)!!! Couple of more comments... just as FYI in case anyone has more to offer:

1. ISOs would DEFINITELY be the answer I would hope for. As I said... TWO Win8 laptops and not found a way to make ISO from those machines...

2. I "homed" in on HDD because that's where both manufacturers put their System Restore partition... hitting their Hot Key jumps over into a reformat/reinstall. BUT, if the HDD was dead and I replaced with a Staples "special"... then that partition isn't available and PCs would be a brick.

3. I backup data... rely on System Restore DVDs for disasters. Besides, if HDD is dead... then I would have NO Windows to run ANY Backup Recovery from.

4. I'm retired... so I "do stupid" things with my PCs... write Apps, test "demonstration" software from Internet, change hardware (TV tuners right now), and so on... sometimes I really muck up a PC to point of requiring a reformat/reinstall... in fact... have on right now where it boots half-way... jumps to Blue-Screen-of-Death... and reboots.

So... just trying to figure out whether moving forward will give ME "control back" after I've screwed the pooch here.

Thanks again,
Steve

 

Steve,
Retired also and pushing 80 and love to play with software and that's why I backup frequently using disk images. Third party backup programs come with instructions on how to create bootable media that can get you up and running even when HD crashes. One saves images on a different hard drive or external drive. Have had to restore in this fashion many times because I "live dangerously".
Keep having fun,
Rich

 

I've created recovery drives with both Samsung and Toshiba computers by going to the Start Menu and searching for "Recovery".
Do you not see a search result named "Create A Recovery Drive"?

 

Window 10 ISO will be available to download after you upgrade a qualifying OS (you'll need to update the Win8 machine to qualify it for the free Win10 upgrade). I don't have any more information than that.

For Win8 and Win8.1, see Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 ISO - Download or Create

To back up your system for quick recovery, see: System Image - Create in Windows 8

For a utility USB, perhaps with the Toshiba Recovery data, see: Recovery Drive - Create with USB Flash Drive in Windows 8 . At a minimum, you'll have a utility USB to use in the event of catastrophic system error.

All tutorials have related tutorials at the bottom of Post# 1 - have a look around if you don't see what you need.

I'm surprised that Toshiba doesn't have a Recovery Drive shortcut in their Start menu. Most OEMs do, perhaps it's in a Toshiba assistant utility.

Toshiba references:
Creating Recovery Media for Windows 8 - TOSHIBA FORUMS
How to restore your Toshiba computer/tablet to its factory fresh software condition using system recovery

Search Toshiba results: Recovery media

 

Kinda true but misleading. It doesn't matter if a straight copy of Win 8 isn't included for the Win 10 upgrade because it's easy enough to upgrade Win 8 for free to Win 8.1 and then upgrade Win 8.1 to Windows 10.

Here's what I did so i'll have all good fresh backed up copies of Win 8, 8.1 and 10 to reinstall If I need to. I call these my Master Copies.

I used a free program called Macrium Reflect (Link Here -->Macrium Reflect Free) to make a Ghost or Clone image copy of each OS. - That is to say, Install Win 8, set it up to my liking and Image (ghost) it with Macrium. Upgrade that to 8.1 and ghost it. Upgrade that to Win 10 then ghost that. Now you have a good copy of each you can reinstall when needed. This will be much faster on the install than a Windows Setup ISO and has the added benefit of having the apps installed and set up that you want already. (You simply add apps and set it up to your liking before you ghost it.)

Macrium Reflect requires you to make a rescue ISO (on CD,DVD or USB) that you use to in turn install your backed up ghosted copies of each OS.

 

I remember when I first had my Win 8 machine, I got pop-ups about making a USB recovery media. That is the replacement for Recovery discs that we don't get nowadays. You should make one of those since we are all guessing here what's gonna happen "if". Then make an image backup of your current setup that you can use put your system back where it was after the recovery.

 

I have a laptop that was shipped with 8, I since updated to 8.1 Pro with retail key. Pretty sure all I will have to do in the event of a failure is use the 10 ISO to install, will read the 8 key in BIOS. Then use my most recent image, something everyone should do, to bring everything back to the way it was. Am I assuming too much?

 

Last thing I'm worrying about is OS, data is more important. Windows could be replaced many ways but data like precious personal and business files may be irreplaceable or cost big money to retrieve from dead/ half dead disks. Those should be backed up and never left on boot drive/partition.

 

Absolutely agreed, Count! I keep my documents/etc. on an external hard drive and in the cloud on OneDrive.