Restoring X7 to 8.1

[robmich]

Need a little help. Usually I am pretty good with this but for the life of me I can't get it to go. I need to restore one of my X7's to 8.1. I created a restore USB drive and converted to English. When I try to restore, it is just looping around and it doesn't work. I am sure I am hitting the wrong button. So,

How do I either restore from the existing restore partition on the X7 or what are the actual steps to use the restore USB.

Thanks!

Rob

[Guest]

Need a little help. Usually I am pretty good with this but for the life of me I can't get it to go. I need to restore one of my X7's to 8.1. I created a restore USB drive and converted to English. When I try to restore, it is just looping around and it doesn't work. I am sure I am hitting the wrong button. So,

How do I either restore from the existing restore partition on the X7 or what are the actual steps to use the restore USB.

Thanks!

Rob

Hey same problem which i ran into today..... i installed windows 8.1 with bing from usb again.

[Finless]

Did you make an image backup? If not just having a recovery USB stick wont do a full re-install.
Unfortunately you cannot make a image backup to a USB stick. Windows wont allow that. It has to be a removable hard drive.

So you make a USB repair stick and do a image backup to a hard drive and then you can recovery fully from that.

Bob

[robmich]

Did you make an image backup? If not just having a recovery USB stick wont do a full re-install.
Unfortunately you cannot make a image backup to a USB stick. Windows wont allow that. It has to be a removable hard drive.

So you make a USB repair stick and do a image backup to a hard drive and then you can recovery fully from that.

Bob

Ok, so no image backup, just the recovery. Does that mean I am stuck? Need to get it back to 8.1 for an arcade unit.

Rob

[lifeisfun]

You can make image backup to network location

[stevejc]

If you have still the recovery partition you can restore as factory init.

I made it on my pipo W5, I want to restore a backup image, but my backup was corrupted !

So after many tries, I have tested almost all the chinese menus after booting

but don't remember which menu exactly, my usb stick doesn't boot also

The restore action comes and now I have a new tablet.

I think it will be the same for you

[loko]

Method 1: If you have more than one device, you can probably use a backup from another device.

Method 2 : As already reported in the LATEST FIRMWARE RELEASED 20150123 thread, you can download and install the official PiPo provided Windows 8.1 factory image from the PiPo baidu link or the GeekBuying mediafire link.

Method 3: If you happen to get hold of the original Windows 8.1 with Bing (CoreConnected) ISO image, as some users have already reported on this forum, you can make a clean Windows 8.1 with Bing installation, which will become activated with the already included original license that exists in the BIOS, since it is the same version of Windows. Links of the ISO image cannot be posted due to copyright issues.

[xumpblu]

Why would anyone want to revert to original 8.1w/Bing? This version lacks so many useful features (for example, doesn't support mstsc rdp connections), and the original installation relies on WIMboot technology, which is good for initial setup, but after long period of WinUpdate'ing it will grow larger and larger.
I think, the best solution for such devices is Windows 8.1 Embedded Industry Pro:
1. It has all 8.1 Pro features
2. It comes without any Metro-apps preinstalled (the Windows Store is there at your service if you really want some of them)
3. Using "Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase" you can regularly remove all older versions of dll's in SxS folder, so the system will not grow couple of gigabytes each month.
4. It can be legally obtained via MS DreamSpark program, everything you need is a valid student's ID, not obligatory yours ;-)
Of course, the original hidden system/recovery partition with the .wim files will no longer be needed, so it could be deleted using diskpart in the installation process.

[bahnstormer]

Why would anyone want to revert to original 8.1w/Bing?

One good reason (although it wasn't there in Feb).... Bing is included in the Pipo hardware license embedded in UEFI and is eligible for a free upgrade to win10 home.

edit: @ xumblue - in case I wasn't clear before, this means that you could also free up some win8.1 pro licenses if win10 home has the features you need: roll 8.1 back in, upgrade the license to win10 home, then re-use the win8.1pro license elsewhere.