Windows 10: Windows 10 new Reset feature ?

Yup, just a small caveat *Smile

So, back to my original statement then, what happens when your hard drive dies and you don't have an image backup (I do and always will but many/most people don't).

Shawn, if the hard drive dies, you lose the custom image unless you were smart enough to save it to another drive or flash drive. What am I missing here?

Yes, I know about imaging and I Acronis for this, I'm talking about the majority of normal, non techy users.

Where does Reconstruct.wim come from on the Recovery drive? Is it built on the fly by the Create recovery drive process? Any way to get the Create recovery drive process to use the custom recimage?

 

You would lose everything, and end up having to do a clean install on a new hard drive.

If the hard drive you saved the custom reset image on dies, then you would lose it.

It would be very smart to save the custom reset image on a separate hard drive than the one Windows is installed on.

If you mean from a recovery drive below, then it gets created during the process. You can boot from the recovery drive to do a reset that would use the created custom reset image.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4...dows-10-a.html

 

The permutations and combinations could make your head spin!

Like others, glad I use imaging! MUCH more straightforward and better in so many ways.

But, I agree that the "imagers" are in the minority. It is really scary to see so many people with all to lose if/when their C: drive craps out.

But, thanks, for this discussion of reset features.

 

According to Microsoft, this won't be supported when RTM version of Windows 10 is released. The MSDN page ( Push-button reset (Windows Drivers) ) specifically states that

"The REAgentC/setosimage command is no longer supported. Several elements of the ResetConfig.xml file are deprecated."

I guess "Reagentc /setosimage" will be only available with beta/TP versions .

Factory reset is the only option if the OS is an OEM only like the "Windows 8.1 with Bing". In my country 90% of the laptops came with "Windows 8.1 Single Language with Bing" edition. Whether you like factory bloatware or not, you are forced to use the recovery feature as there is no legal way to obtain an install media for "8.1 with Bing" editions. MS already revealed that there will be "Bing" editions for "Windows 10" too.

 

Yep, we'll have to test it in the RTM to verify if it no longer works.

It currently still works in build 10162.

 

reading the RTM reagentc release details.. It uses the current system files to create the recovery media and saves the user profile data..

Kind like sfc which uses the windows data store folder (winsxs)

Another nice feature is the keeping of windows updates - which is also a dism /cleanup-image feature

no more need for a custom recovery partition - just need to make new recovery media after windows updates..

Just hope they fix the file corruption that HAS been caused by windows updates..

because the DATA store they intend to use is the same data store for the source of the online image repair and will be the source for the recovery media

it just resets windows to the most current windows updated version - the drawback is all user installed programs will be lost..

it saves your user folders in windows.old - but if you keep data files in other directories on C - they will be lost..
So best to direct your saved data files from your programs to a DATA drive

 

Is this documented in any of the tutorials? If not, it should be as there is going to be a real need for it once Windows 10 hits the non-techy world.

Something along the lines of

1. Create Recovery drive
2. Create updated custom image
3. How to restore custom image from booted Recovery drive

 

On Windows 10 the factory reset is suppose to nuke the Foistware. It's more a Windows reset*Smile.

 

I have found several changes in the new reset feature and how windows 10 installs compared to prior versions..

Creating a Windows 10 Recovery Drive is a Window's Only recovery method..
On an MBR disk the recovery drive creates 3 partitions - System, OS and WinRE Tools (MBR Disk has 4 Partition Limit)
Also the WinRE partition is now the last partition, compared to being the first partition, in prior versions..
And resetconfig allocated all the disk space to the windows recovery..

Creating a recovery drive also creates a reconstruct.wim ( in prior versions a factory install.wim was required) you will now notice the rename from Install.wim to reconstruct.wim..

Here is another fun fact - I installed windows 10 on a MBR disk with 4 partitions - Vista - windows 7 - windows 8.1 and windows 10
Windows 10 placed the WinRE Recovery folder on the first partition (which is my vista OS and also the Boot Partition) along with a winre partition marker (tag)

So - if you decide to do a reset using the recovery drive created by windows 10 - expect everything on your hard drive to be wiped out.. Unless you edit the resetconfig and diskpart files..

And a little side note - since I find it faster to prep an install.wim and use recovery to apply the images to the partitions, rather then running through Setup

I would guess one could create a custom reconstruct.wim - instead..

I will post more of my findings after I look deeper into the reset.. The user profile is said to be carried over and I believe the system drivers - any installed programs are said not to be - this is just early testing for me..

The reconstruct.wim created was only 2.22GB when the original install.wim was 2.49GB

After mounting the reconstruct.wim - it does not follow the same layout or folder tree that an install.wim does..

You can add Windows desktop applications and other data to the device.
After doing this, you use the ScanState tool (user state migration tool) to capture the changes into a provisioning package so they can be used by the recovery tools.

 

just downloaded windows 10 RC ADK again

and when running scanstate to get the .ppkg of custonizations

get error message

So much for testing recovery and customizations - for now anyway, until the USMT is updated

 

Yes I think Scanstate is the key. There's a SET command you can use to get further, but it still crashes in 10075. I'm also awaiting the next ADK..

 

Hi


MSDN page suggests that

Source : Deploy push-button reset features using ScanState (Windows Drivers)

 

My brother, who is not particularly tech-savvy, bought a new Vista-equipped Toshiba Satellite laptop several years ago, and one of the first things I showed him was how to do a system image.

Two machines later, and via Win 7, 8, and now 8.1 and I don't think he's ever taken a single one...

I take one at least monthly - more frequently if I make a lot of changes.


.

 

Source : Deploy push-button reset features using ScanState (Windows Drivers) Yes that's the SET command I was thinking of (I was away from a computer when I posted the above and couldn't easily look it up).

However my experience in ADK10075 was that ScanState gets a little further but crashes with a different error.

 

new error message