Just got G750JS Laptop Back after warranty claim. Backtracker back-up, clean install?

[amirzubair80]

Hi there guys few days back my HD failed. I gave my laptop to Asus for warranty claim. Now they replaced both HDs and Installed fresh windows, recovery and the bloatware. Now for the fresh start i wanted to know..

What is backtrack and how to use it?
If I want to Install fresh genuine copy of Windows 8 how can I do that without going pirate? I dont have W8 Disc.
If I repartition Windows drive and all other drives leaving recovery drive, will recovery work?

p.s. I have Asus G750JS

[JonnyQball79]

curious, how much did it cost you to send it in for repair?

[amirzubair80]

JonnyQball79 wrote:
curious, how much did it cost you to send it in for repair?

Zero. I gave it to the local Asus service centre. They ordered replacement hds.

[code9523]

Got same problem with activation OEM windows. I called to local Microsoft support and asked them about my key: What copy of windows it belongs to the guy answered me that it's for Windows 8 x64 OEM and told me that he can email me with a link for downloading ISO file of windows 8.1with installation key and after clean install call them again and ask about activation of win 8.1 with key from win 8. So I done it and now I have everything activated and backed up for ever))) Also advice is to use RW everything to get your key from bios it will help to locate what windows do you have and which you need to install!

[hmscott]

amirzubair80 wrote:
Hi there guys few days back my HD failed. I gave my laptop to Asus for warranty claim. Now they replaced both HDs and Installed fresh windows, recovery and the bloatware. Now for the fresh start i wanted to know..
What is backtrack and how to use it?
If I want to Install fresh genuine copy of Windows 8 how can I do that without going pirate? I dont have W8 Disc.
If I repartition Windows drive and all other drives leaving recovery drive, will recovery work?
p.s. I have Asus G750JS

amirzubair80, the recovery volume depends on the other volumes being the same as release, any change might mess up the F9 refresh/restore/reset capability. Don't make any changes until you have a successful / tested Asus Backtracker USB 3.0 16GB Flash drive created and tested.

Asus Backtracker makes a bootable flash drive that you can use to restore the original out of the box OS onto an SSD/HDD. Backtracker will reformat any internal drive it finds, so remove your 2nd bay drive before restoring or you will lose any data on it as well as the boot drive.

Most important - don't test the restore capability onto your only bootable HDD 🙂

If the restore fails, the format of the drive will already have been done, and you won't be able to boot on it to make another Backtracker flash drive.

Use another 2.5" drive to test the restore, like your new SSD for example.

If you get a failure on restore, it can be a few things. First, your USB drive might not be compatible. Second, try the restore with the USB flash drive in different USB ports - the Right lower/front USB port seems to work best. Third, some have reported problems restoring to drives with odd partitioning. Try formatting the destination drive as a GPT drive with no partitions before doing the restore.

Once you have successfully created the Backtracker USB 3.0 16GB flash drive, and tested the restore, you can set it and the original HDD aside and run from the new SSD/HDD you want to keep in the laptop. Don't reuse the USB drive for other purposes - otherwise when you need it you won't have it.

Keeping the original boot drive on the shelf gives you one more layer of backup protection - you can always swap it back in to create another Backtracker USB 3.0 flash drive should you lose the first one.

With 2 backups, you can safely delete the 2nd mounted partition and the recovery partitions that come after the C drive, and add that space to the C partition.

Anyone knows how to merge C & D disk/drive into one?
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?51245-Anyone-knows-how-to-merge-C-amp-D-disk-drive-into-on...

Another thing I do, after completing all of that, and all the Windows updates and driver updates, I use Macrium Reflect to create a restore image I can use to recover to a current state should I have a disk failure.

The Backtracker restore is nice, but it only backs up the original out of the box configuration, using Macrium Reflect every once in a while, I can restore back all the OS updates, Application installs, and configuration changes I make along the way.

Macrium Reflect Free
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

You can do everything with the free version, but if you like it and use it long term I recommend helping out the developers and purchasing the product 🙂

As far as a from scratch Microsoft Media install of Windows vs. using the Asus OS build, I recommend sticking with the Asus OS build and uninstalling the apps you don't need.

It takes 5 minutes to do the uninstalls of the Asus stuff you don't want, it can take hours, days even, to get a from scratch Windows install done correctly / completely with full functionality that the Asus Build already has done for you.

There is no performance difference between a from scratch install and the Asus Build after uninstalling the apps we don't want.

I am running the Asus Build myself, and all my benchmarks are as high or higher than anyone else I have seen on the G750JH.

There is no reason to redo all the work Asus has done.

Here is what I don't uninstall:

Asus Splendid - use the ICC profiles from the installer, but don't install the product.
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?57748-G751JY-Color-Calibration-to-share&p=476412&viewfull=1...

Asus Power4Gear Hybrid - just use the Windows power plans, High Performance for benchmarking, Balanced for gaming/every day use - if you see lag in games try High Performance.

Asus Live Update - 99% useless - Asus doesn't update the drivers for release product, you need to hunt down new drivers in new hardware releases that use the same hardware components.
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?55572-Asus-G751-Support-Download-areas&p=473863&viewfull=1#...

Asus Gaming Mouse - caused crashes for some, if you have an Asus mouse install that specific driver instead.

AsusDVD - If your Asus laptop came with a Blu-ray drive this will play Blu-ray movies, otherwise only DVD's. It is an older version of Cyberlink PowerDVD - I bought / use the newer version so I don't need this. You can also get the Free Leawo Blu-ray Player
http://www.leawo.com/blu-ray-player/

Cyberlink Power2Go - I don't need it.

Asus Vibe - I don't need it.


Intel Extreme Tuning Utility to tweak the Core/cache multipliers up to maximum supported - Intel ships CPU's downclocked in case the cooling can't handle full TDP.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/search?keyword=xtu



MSI Afterburner to allow +135mhz on GPU speed, and matching increase on memory clock. You can use Asus GPU Tweak to allow Full fan, but the OC there is only 5% so uninstall it so it doesn't interfere with MSI Afterburner - or just disable OC option in Asus GPU Tweak.
http://gaming.msi.com/features/afterburner



Read the forums, there are lots of good posts here on how to tune, tweak, and fix things.

Read both the G750 and G751 forums, much of the hardware is the same.

Have fun 🙂

[amirzubair80]

hmscott wrote:
amirzubair80, the recovery volume depends on the other volumes being the same as release, any change might mess up the F9 refresh/restore/reset capability. Don't make any changes until you have a successful / tested Asus Backtracker USB 3.0 16GB Flash drive created and tested.

Asus Backtracker makes a bootable flash drive that you can use to restore the original out of the box OS onto an SSD/HDD. Backtracker will reformat any internal drive it finds, so remove your 2nd bay drive before restoring or you will lose any data on it as well as the boot drive.

OK backtrack is not for me then. It formats the other HD too well that sucks. And is not that reliable, other setback.

So can I make a backup image with macrium reflect and do the re partition, will the back up work with new layout of partitions?

[hmscott]

amirzubair80 wrote:
OK backtrack is not for me then. It formats the other HD too well that sucks. And is not that reliable, other setback.

So can I make a backup image with macrium reflect and do the re partition, will the back up work with new layout of partitions?

amirzubair80, given the warnings, Asus Backtracker is reliable and thousands have used it successfully. It is the only Asus method for providing a recovery media as a bootable Flash drive.

To erase the recovery partition without backing it up with Asus Backtracker is to assure that someday you will be one of the sad sorry sots that post asking for someone else's recovery partition 😞

It's sad to see, and noone usually is able to respond. Asus won't send you a recovery flash drive, and the only way to get it back is to send in your laptop for RMA asking Asus to restore the OS.

Even if you end up using Macrium Reflect, it's good to have the original OS / recovery partition backed up through Backtracker and/or original HDD set on the shelf. 🙂

Macrium Reflect will make a clone image that will be restorable - read the docs - exactly as it was copied, and you can vary the source / destination Partitions selection / size - which means you can leave off the recovery partition and the 2nd mountable partition, and resize C partition to take up the rest of the free space on the destination - check the URL showing the interface above.

[amirzubair80]

hmscott wrote:
amirzubair80, given the warnings, Asus Backtracker is reliable and thousands have used it successfully. It is the only Asus method for providing a recovery media as a bootable Flash drive.

To erase the recovery partition without backing it up with Asus Backtracker is to assure that someday you will be one of the sad sorry sots that post asking for someone else's recovery partition 😞

Macrium Reflect will make a clone image that will be restorable - read the docs - exactly as it was copied, and you can vary the source / destination Partitions selection / size - which means you can leave off the recovery partition and the 2nd mountable partition, and resize C partition to take up the rest of the free space on the destination - check the URL showing the interface above.

Thanks for helping me out.

OK after making recovery USB with backtrack and making macrium reflect backup. can I make changes in partitions? I want to resize C and give more space to other positions. Will both recoveries work after that?

Because I made backup with Easeus todo backup in my previous laptop and made changes in partitions, after that I was unable to recover my system.

And what is meant by restoring to dissimilar hardware in backup programs.?

[hmscott]

amirzubair80 wrote:
Thanks for helping me out.

OK after making recovery USB with backtrack and making macrium reflect backup. can I make changes in partitions? I want to resize C and give more space to other positions. Will both recoveries work after that?

Because I made backup with Easeus todo backup in my previous laptop and made changes in partitions, after that I was unable to recover my system.

And what is meant by restoring to dissimilar hardware in backup programs.?

amirzubair80, the idea is you want 2 ways to restore should a failure occurs. So the Backtracker flash recovery is 1, and either keeping the recovery partition is 2 or putting that original HDD on the shelf is 2.

HDD's are cheap, like $50 for the one from Asus. You can get a faster HDD cheap, like $70, and an SSD for not much more (at least 256GB), then you restore to that new HDD/SSD with Backtracker flash recovery drive.

The restoring to dissimilar hardware can mean a couple of things. For restoring to the same laptop it can refer to restoring to another HDD/SSD sized differently than the original drive. If you are trying to restore to another laptop of a different make/model that is also restoring to dissimilar hardware.

The Macrium Reflect restore takes into account GPT partitions and UEFI requirements, it was updated a long time ago to support cloning partitions as used on the G750/G751.

Once you have restored to the new HDD/SSD, and have the 2 backups, you can delete the recovery partition and 2nd mounted partition and absorb the free space into the C partition.

See the URL I posted earlier on how to use diskpart to override protections to delete system partitions.

[amirzubair80]

Hi hmscott how should I remove McAfee. Is there any tool like Norton or just simple uninstall?

Iam going to make 2 images of my fresh system one with macrium reflect and one with easeus to-do backup. And later backup my recovery partition on USB. Iam thinking of not changing the partition size.