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Best Methods to Backup the Raspberry Pi SD Card

Once fully configured according to your custom needs it's a good idea to create an raw image backup of your Raspberry Pi SD Card setup, once backed-up a user simply need to re-image the card in-case the underlying operating-system or filesystem gets corrupted. There are various methods to backup and restore the Raspberry Pi SD card, we reviewed all and here are the best options to get the task completed in shortest time with smallest file-size.

The most widely used Windows utility for RAW image backups and restores Win32 Disc Imager is an easy to use option but the resulting file-size is bigger as it is uncompressed, using any popular compression format results in smaller backup size as shown below. However, this approach consumes more time and requires manual efforts twice.

Win32 Disk Imager
SD Card Backup

Bypassing Microsoft Windows Activation Error Code 0xC004F061

While the Microsoft Windows 8 Upgrade Key is intended only for upgrades from earlier Windows versions to Windows 8, there could be valid genuine reasons when a user would like to do a clean installation of Windows 8. If a user tries to do a clean install activation using the upgrade key they are shown the error below and no activation occurs. Luckily, if a user owns valid license key for previous Windows version they can use a simple registry hack (I assume legally) which enables them to bypass this activation error message.

Invalid Product Key

"The following failure occurred while trying to use the product key:
Code:
0xC004F061

Description:
The Software Licensing Service determined that this specified product key can only be used for upgrading, not for clean installs."

Microsoft does not allow activation of clean installations using Windows 8 upgrade keys...

Microsoft offered super cheap Windows 8 Pro upgrade keys and users have been asking whether they can perform a clean installation and activate Windows 8 using the upgrade product key, and the answer is "No" and "Yes" !!

Confused!, well Microsoft will detect whether you upgraded or clean installed and block users from activating using the upgrade product key showing the error as below. But, users can still get the product key working by doing a little registry hack which will enable them to activate - this is not fair (or legal I guess).

Windows 8 Upgrade key Error

How to activate Windows 8 using your product key

After installing Microsoft Windows 8, the very first thing you should be doing is to activate your copy using an genuine product key. Microsoft Windows 8 activation procedure is similar to Windows 7 and all you need to do is to supply the activation application your correct product key and have an active internet connection.

Microsoft Windows 8 will automatically prompt a user via "Action Center" notification as soon as an active internet connection is detected after installation, all a user needs to do is to follow onscreen instructions (as also shown in images below) and complete the procedure which hardly takes few minutes for online verification of your product key with Microsoft licensing servers. Without activation of Windows 8, users are restricted to use all features of the operating-system like Personalization and are nagged from time-to-time.

Windows 8 Activation

How to create bootable DVD or USB installation media of Windows 8 from .ISO file

While Microsoft Windows 8 setup assistant utility provides and excellent way to download and create operating-system bootable installation media (CD/DVD/USB/ISO), it does not provide any means to use an existing .ISO file for creation of these bootable media options.

To create an bootable CD, DVD or USB setup disk from an previously downloaded and saved Windows 8 ISO file follow the steps demonstrated below.

Windows 8 Setup

Saving passwords in UltraVNC for instant remote desktop logins

UltraVNC is an fast and easy to use VNC viewer for Windows but it lacks any easily accessible option to save remote desktop session passwords for instant one-click login to remote sessions. Thankfully, UltraVNC supports saving session passwords and the feature can be activated as shown ahead.

Remote Desktop

Installing VNC server on Raspberry Pi for remote desktop functionality

Majority of the users must be using their little Raspberry Pi computer headless (without any keyboard, mouse or display attached), and while SSH is a great option for Linux users feeling comfortable with command line other users need an graphical user interface. Here is an quick tutorial to remotely access your Raspberry Pi's desktop remotely over an network.

Remote VNC Desktop

Detecting IP address of Raspberry Pi on your network

While it's a better idea to allocate an static or fixed IP address to your Raspberry Pi, here is a simple trick to find the DHCP allocated IP address to your RasPi on a network. This specially come handy when you are trying to connect to RasPi remotely via SSH or VNC and don't know the dynamic IP it is currently active on.

Downloading Windows 8 setup to external media using genuine product key for future installation

Windows 8 ISOMany of you must have grabbed your Windows 8 Pro license at super-discounted price before Microsoft started validating upgrades. If you only purchased the activation key to benefit from promotional pricing, and don't want to migrate from your current OS and install Windows 8 now - it is an good option to have the Windows 8 Pro installation media prepared for later usage.

In this tutorial we will see how to download and create Windows 8 Pro Retail installation on external media like bootable cd/dvd or other removable disk.

Windows 8 Install Media
This is just one of the many helpful tips we have posted, You can find more stories here,
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