Preserve factory state of hard drive in new desktop computer

-1

This may be paranoid or control freakish but the goal is to preserve and restore the factory state of the HD of a new desktop computer prior to it's first boot.

To avoid accidentally booting from the HD and possibly changing it's state the plan is to pull the HD and put it in another computer as a slave. A boot floppy/CD/Thumbdrive could simplify this but a misconfiguration could result in accidentally booting from the HD. Call it an abundance of caution.

The hope is to have a file in another computer that holds the HD's factory state. A file flexible enough that it could be used transfer that state to any HD that is large enough to hold the data.

To prove that this all works a completely different HD will be installed and booted from when finished. Likely a SSD.

In case it matters the OS of the subject HD is windows 8.1.

At least that's the plan. What flaws can you find with the plan and what software is needed to pull this off?

To sum up all 3 requirements:

1 TB source HD unchanged - never booted - never re-partitioned
Contents of source HD in the form of a file (preferably smaller than 1 TB)
Destination HD with os in pristine state (most likely on a smaller SSD)

candied_orange

Posted 2015-04-20T02:48:25.583

Reputation: 171

1That's called a disk image or cloning. There is tons of software that will do that, and many are free. You can also do it with a command, like dd in Linux. Start with a Google search on cloning, or use the Super User search box for information here. – fixer1234 – 2015-04-20T03:13:56.170

@fixer1234 I thought a clone required the destination HD be exactly the same size and format as the source. – candied_orange – 2015-04-20T03:35:25.703

In its simplest form, cloning requires a destination drive at least as large as the source drive. However, some software is sparing of space in creating the clone. For example, as Journeyman Geek mentioned, Clonezilla will copy only the used space. Some software will let you restore a clone to a smaller drive. AOMEI Backupper, which whs mentioned, and Paragon Backup and Recovery are two well-known free programs that can do that. – fixer1234 – 2015-04-20T04:43:52.167

Answers

clonezilla would let you back up to a disk image, not write to the source drive, and do a more efficient backup with only used space backed up.

If you wanted a bit perfect copy, I'd very carefully use dd. Then do a md5 sum of the image to make sure any future copies arn't corrupted. Then maybe mount a copy of a copy of the dd image and md5sum all the files there.

Journeyman Geek

Posted 2015-04-20T02:48:25.583

Reputation: 119 122

I understand dd to be very good at being brainlessly exact. What I need is the flexibility to use the disk image on a smaller HD. It sound's like you're saying clonezilla is the tool for that? – candied_orange – 2015-04-20T04:29:29.410

Oh smaller HDD would be a different problem. MOST tools would make you resize the install first, and in this case it won't be exactly the same as a factory install. – Journeyman Geek – 2015-04-20T04:30:43.877

So there is no way to move the os from a 1 TB HD to a smaller SSD without first writing changes to the 1 TB source drive? – candied_orange – 2015-04-20T04:36:04.143

Cloning to a smaller disk is not possible with the programs I know. Restoring an image to a smaller disk is possible. – whs – 2015-04-20T04:42:08.270

@whs so would I have to clone the source HD to a sacrificial HD of the same size (1 TB), re-partition the sacrificial one down to size, and then send it to a smaller SSD? – candied_orange – 2015-04-20T05:13:51.583

If you want to transfer the OS to a SSD which is smaller than the HDD, you do that via imaging (not cloning). Imaging programs that I know can downsize the partitions as long as the data fits. But there is a lot more to it. I suggest you have a look at my tutorial ==> http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/149969-ssd-install-transfer-operating-system.html

– whs – 2015-04-20T16:31:29.567

@whs from your tutorial: "shrink the C: partition on the HDD prior to imaging it". This seems to indicate that I will need a sacrificial HD to make this work the way I want. Nice tutorial BTW. – candied_orange – 2015-04-21T04:45:13.253

If the data fits on the SSD, Macrium can image it to a smaller partition. That is with the recent Macrium releases. When I wrote the tutorial, it was not clear whether that works. I have updated the tutorial. Thanks for pointing that out. – whs – 2015-04-21T15:43:37.797

Your plan looks a bit strange to me. Why don't you burn a recovery/installation flash drive from the recovery partition. That gives you the exact factory state.

Go to the start page and type Recovery. On the top right you will see "Create a recovery media". Have a 32GB flash drive handy to burn the recovery/installation stick.

Another option would be to make a clone as was already said. For that you can use either free Macrium or free AOMEI Backupper. Both are easy to use and reliable but there are many other options too.

A third option is to make an image of the system with either one of the above mentioned programs or with this command in an elevated command prompt:

wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:X: -include:C: -AllCritical -quiet

You have to replace "X" with the volume letter of your backup device.

whs

Posted 2015-04-20T02:48:25.583

Reputation: 1 251

It really is about control. I want to treat the new HD strictly as data and not run a single line of code from it until I'm done. – candied_orange – 2015-04-20T03:41:57.140

Until you are done with what ? – whs – 2015-04-20T03:48:25.993

I assume, backing it up. – Nathanial Meek – 2015-04-20T04:28:07.073

Then run he wbadmin command that I posted above. That does not require any program installation. And disconnect the internet when you boot the OS, then you get no updates. – whs – 2015-04-20T04:39:36.467

Booting the OS will cause writes. If nothing else it will create log files. I don't want anything changing a single bit on the source HD. – candied_orange – 2015-04-20T05:11:47.633

It just does not make sense. But I assume you have your reasons that are not known to us. If you create the installation media from the recovery partition, you can recreate that 'virgin' state any time and as often as you like. – whs – 2015-04-20T16:25:42.663

I am sorry but I am really puzzled by the purpose of the exercise. If it is for transferring the OS from a HDD to a SSD, then you should spell that out. That is an easy job which I have done at least 50 times and could tell you how to do it. – whs – 2015-04-20T16:50:18.383

@whs The same purpose climbing a mountain serves I suppose. It just galls me to think I have to change something to copy it. I want to leave it untouched. Even if I just put it on a shelf afterwords. – candied_orange – 2015-04-21T04:55:56.793