samsung recovery solution 5 live image or windows 8pro builtin disc image software?

Hi,
I want to ghost my drive before starting to play around with installing and uninstalling stuff and I was wondering what do you guys recommend, use samsung recovery solution 5 liveimaging software or Win 8 builtin disc ghosting softare.

My laptop is the Series 7 Cronos np700z3c-s02us if that makes a difference.

Thanks.

 

I have a NP700Z3A (similar to yours, but Sandy Bridge instead of Ivy Bridge, and AMD instead of NVidia). I am always testing things and messing around, and make extensive use of partition imaging to backup and restore my two Windows partitions (Win7 and Win8 respectively). I use an image backup tool from Terabyte Unlimited which I bought 10 years ago which still works great. Many here are avid users of Acronis, though I am sure Ghost should work as well. Others have reported success using Windows's built-in imaging (in Win8 oddly named Windows 7 File Recovery).

There is a warning I would make, though: If you backup and later restore images of your Recovery partition using a 3rd party tool, you are most likely to lose the ability to F4 boot Recovery. You'll see me almost constantly engaged in several discussions around here to help out with such situations.

In fact, some partition editing tools can be dangerous too, even if you DO NOT touch the Recovery partition, because they update the entire partition table (instead of just the entries for individual partitions) and thus inadvertently destroy the F4 link stored there. See the thread linked below for a current likely example of this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/727481-samsung-recovery-problem-windows-8-1-a.html

Thus, if you want to be on the safe side, I recommend making backups of Recovery so that you can re-create it if an accident should happen. Even with no accidents, being able to restore to factory is handy, in case you ever need Samsung Service (they may request it to prove you didn't just mess it up) or if you want to sell the PC.

The thread linked below summarizes the backup steps for both SRS5 (Win7 models) and SRS6 (Win8 models). It also contains links to the more detailed procedures.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...-partition-samsung-notebooks.html#post9312497

Please post any updates or follow-up questions in that thread, as we're trying to gather what has until now been discussion scattered across numerous threads.

 

Wow, thanks for all that info. I will make sure to ask any follow ups and post anything worth sharing in that thread.

 

Quick question, I bought this laptop used. It initially came with Win 7, and the original owner got the option for a free win 8 upgrade so he upgraded to Win 8 Pro which is what the laptop is currently running. He did not give me any physical media or even the activation code for Win 8, so, my question, I made a complete image of my physical drive using windows 7 file recovery function in win 8 and i also made a recovery disc to be able to boot the laptop, in the case of catastrophic HDD failure. The image should have copied the HDD intact with all three partitions, System (100mb), C (678.16GB) and Recovery (20.35GB).
Now I want to also backup the Recovery partition by itself like you had suggested (as extra insurance), using SR5 and Win 7 File Recovery. Should I even bother though, meaning, will the recovery partition if used to reset the computer reset it back to the original Win 7 or will it be Win 8.
This is the main reason I am doing an image (apart from the convenience of having a fresh build with minimal hassle), I don't have any physical media to reinstall anything should my hdd go awry. I have the win 7 activation code because its stuck on the bottom of the laptop (and I have a physical but other than that nothing else really.

 

Your Recovery contains Win7, not Win8. The only reason to back it up is if you'd like to be able to restore to factory (Win7), either because you need Samsung Service (who may ask for it) or in case you want to sell the computer. In your situation I can see that the chance of ever needing that Recovery is slim.

But if you DO decide to back up your Recovery, you will have to follow the instructions given in the second thread I linked. Partition image backups created with Win7 File Recovery (or other partition imaging tools) probably won't be able to restore it anyway.

What is more important, is to get Win8 install media. I used the Microsoft upgrade offer as well, and made sure download an ISO when I was given the opportunity. If the seller didn't give you that, maybe you can get it using what's described in this post.

But even more importantly do you need your Win8 Product Key, which in your case was purchased from Microsoft. There are tools that can extract it from your Win8 installation. A few members mentioned it in posts, but I don't remember where. You will have to Google it.