Will Aomei One Key access System Restore Points in Windows 10
Good Evening
I am already a user of Aomei Backupper Standard and regularly use it to make disk backups on my desktop PC and Lenovo ThinkPad laptop. I also have the Aomei bootable media on USB flash drives which do start the Recovery program on a testing basis - never yet had to use them in anger!!
I have another problem which I am finding unsolvable and now wonder if Aomei One Key Recovery might help me with it.
I also have Windows 10 Recovery drives for both machines which do boot up both of them when tested - the desktop allows progress through the recovery environment to allow clicking through to the box which gives access to the System Restore points already set up on the computer but the same thing is not possible on the Lenovo laptop. The eventual message is shown in the attached image.
I must stress that I do not want at this stage to reinstall Windows with these Recovery media but for now just want to be able to start a 'blocked' computer to then get back to a previous point of normal function.
Would Aomei One Key be able to get me to a point where I could use the System Restore points - or even get into Safe Mode ?
Sorry if this is not explained very clearly, but as a bit of a computer beginner I am not sure of the various correct descriptive terms that I should be using.
Do hope someone can help me.
Regards,
Roy.
I am already a user of Aomei Backupper Standard and regularly use it to make disk backups on my desktop PC and Lenovo ThinkPad laptop. I also have the Aomei bootable media on USB flash drives which do start the Recovery program on a testing basis - never yet had to use them in anger!!
I have another problem which I am finding unsolvable and now wonder if Aomei One Key Recovery might help me with it.
I also have Windows 10 Recovery drives for both machines which do boot up both of them when tested - the desktop allows progress through the recovery environment to allow clicking through to the box which gives access to the System Restore points already set up on the computer but the same thing is not possible on the Lenovo laptop. The eventual message is shown in the attached image.
I must stress that I do not want at this stage to reinstall Windows with these Recovery media but for now just want to be able to start a 'blocked' computer to then get back to a previous point of normal function.
Would Aomei One Key be able to get me to a point where I could use the System Restore points - or even get into Safe Mode ?
Sorry if this is not explained very clearly, but as a bit of a computer beginner I am not sure of the various correct descriptive terms that I should be using.
Do hope someone can help me.
Regards,
Roy.
Comments
I did know how to get into the Advanced Options screen OK by your Shift/Restart method as I had read it up earlier.
It works OK when the computer is running normally but my problem has only cropped up when I try to boot up using a Recovery Drive/ Installation media on USB flash drives produced through Windows on the laptop. It is when I test that procedure that I get the situation as described in my first post.
Your further comments in your post are inspired !! I had already been suspecting the Lenovo Recovery (Q) partition and your own suspicions would support this. Facts are :-
1) Laptop bought Sept. 2016 with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit installed. Specification says "upgradable to Windows 10 Pro".
2) Laptop upgraded (by local computer 'tech' ) to Win 10 Pro on 20/01/2020. This 'tech' has suggested removing the recovery partition, but I was worried about doing that, so didn't.
3) Laptop now running Windows 10 Pro - just because it is, not really because I wanted it. In fact I don't know what the difference is or the relative advantages over Windows Home.
I am interested in your comment about Aomei One Key being able to update the recovery partition to current active system. Do you think I should do that anyway ?
When coming across AOK on the Aomei website last night I see that they have a 50% reduction on it at the moment for the rest of today - may be worthwhile buying it now.
I have attached several screenshots associated with the subjects above which should cover everything - please let me know if more info. needed.
As before, your interest and help is very much appreciated.
Best regards,
Roy.
Is Systems Backups (on Aomei) the same as Disk Backups ? Our regime is disk backups for both desktop and laptop fortnightly on to external HDDs on an alternating basis and we save the last 3 on each one. Am I correct in understanding that these backups just return the system/disk only to the date selected ( a bit like an extended system restore point) as opposed to a full reset/install which would result from a recovery partition restore which would lose all data and programmes ?
Deleting recovery partition- how much is there a risk of this causing the laptop to become unuseable ? What are the steps I have to take to carry out the deletion ? Can you talk me through it ?
I am still confused as to why the bootable Windows media (on USB flash) is able to take me eventually to a simple system restore point selection on my Win 10 desktop, whereas a similar bootable USB done on the Win 10 laptop doesn't allow me to do the same thing there. Is it because of the presence of the Recovery (Q) partition on the laptop but there isn't one on the desktop or is the difference of one being Windows Home and the other one Pro involved in some way ?
I have attached an image of the desktop disk arrangement for you to compare with the laptop one.
With regard to Aomei One Key Recovery vs Windows capability, - are you saying that the Windows Recovery Drive and/or MCT Installation Media are the same as the Aomei OKR insofar as it would still act as essentially a 'factory reset' option ? In that case then it would not help me as I already have both Windows recovery / install systems already built and stored on individual USB flash drives.
Thank you for the advice about the Ram memory upgrade. I will try to find a computer firm locally to do that for me - things are a bit disjointed here at the moment because of the Covid difficulties but I will look into it.
Best regards,
Roy.
A couple of final (?!) points please:-
1) Deleting Partition - this looks like it is above my paygrade and so I think I will leave it alone.
2) System backup vs Disk backup - have been doing disk backups for both machines so far, but as the laptop has several partitions should I change to system backups for the laptop ?
On the system backup screen in the Aomei program for the laptop only the first 3 partitions show ( EFI system : Drive C : and 563 recovery tools ) there is no Lenovo Recovery (Q) partition.
3) Bootable Windows USBs - I have 2 x USB Flash Drives per machine with Windows recovery media created on the appropriate machine stored on them.
ESD -USB (E) is Installation Media done through Media Creation Tool.
RECOVERY (E) is Recovery Drive done directly from Windows 10.
Both of these boot the machines into the Windows recovery environment (blue screen with white boxes) and then Troubleshoot> Advanced Options > is available. Then, as you know, I can get to System Restore points on the desktop but not on the laptop - which is what started all this !!
Attached are a couple of screenshots of the Flash Drives.
I am inclined to think that doing the disk backup instead of a system backup is really better since you are essentially selecting every partition on the disk yourself instead of letting Aomei Backupper decide which partitions to select. I have seen the disk backup task display 4 partitions (drive C and 3 other partitions) while system backup task only displays three (drive C and 2 other partitions).
The Lenovo Recovery Partition is a vendor specific recovery partition and will only appear on a Lenovo computer.
I am assuming that you are using the media creation tool to download and create a bootable copy of a particular version of Windows 10 on a USB flash drive. That way you have a bootable copy of the same version of Windows that is running on a given machine.
Yes, I used the Media Creation Tool to create a bootable copy of the version of Windows ( 10 Pro ) on the laptop with the USB Flash Drive plugged into it. It is exactly specific to that machine and it's running version of Windows at that time.
Regards,
Roy.
I think we have covered all bases now.
I am immensely grateful to you for all the help and patience you have shown towards me - it means a lot to a confused novice to get that sort of confidence-building advice.
Keep well and safe,
With many thanks,
Regards,
Roy.