There is nothing more annoying than being in the middle of a job and suddenly there is a storm and the power suddenly stops. Fortunately, if we were careful, we will have saved our data to continue working. However, our computer may have been performing a long-running task that was suddenly interrupted and requires restarting. Although we don’t have to go back to such a complicated example, we just need to come back to continue our work and our time was wasted in the process. And you know, time is gold.
How can I immediately boot a computer to its previous state? Ideally, the storage system should be fast enough to create an easily recoverable copy of RAM. But such a mechanism not only requires very fast memory, but also has to be manually activated by the operating system, so that it would not work on a system in the event of a power failure. This would permanently write to the HDD or SSD, compromising its useful life and saturating access to both.
Why are power outages rampant on all PCs?
There are places that for different reasons such as infrastructure or adverse weather conditions cause a sudden power outage and with it what is running on our PC. If it’s not something important, we really don’t mind having to turn it back on manually, but there are situations where that’s not possible and it’s best to have the computer turn back on and go back to the work he was doing.
For example, we can use a low-power PC as a server that allows us to upload files or share them or firewall. It is also possible that we have a mining RIG or even that we have created a small cloud computing infrastructure to work remotely. For example, a website hosted on WordPress.
In all these cases and in the event that we are not at home at the time of the power cut, it is interesting to know that by configuring our PC, it will restart as soon as there is a new power supply. Without us having to go ourselves to turn it back on. And it is not a difficult process that requires advanced technical knowledge. The way to do it? We explain the two essential steps to be able to do it if you have a Windows computer that you want to keep running permanently, even after a temporary power cut.
Step One: Setup UEFI or PC BIOS
This method is the better of the two, as it is, as one might assume, closest to the original hardware configuration. To activate it we will have to enter BIOS or UEFI from our computer. To do this and during the PC start-up period, simply press the key corresponding to your computer model.
| Mark | Key |
|---|---|
| ACER | SUPR on F2 |
| Asus | LED on -A series, F2 or ESC on the rest. |
| COMPAQ | F10 |
| Dell | F2 |
| Hewlett-Packard | ESC, F1 F10 or F11 depending on the model |
| SAMSUNG | F2 for their PCs and F10 for their ultrabooks |
| SONY | It can be F1, F2 or F3. If you have a VAIO, this will be the support key |
| TOSHIBA | F1, F12 or the ESC key. |
If you don’t know what it is, try pressing DEL, F2, F1 or F10, normally in that order, since the most used are the first two. Once done, you will appear in the BIOS menu, the appearance and order of options of which will change depending on the manufacturer. We have used to illustrate the images, that of the manufacturer ASUS, but the method can be used with any manufacturer.
- Once we enter BIOS or UEFI (depending on platform and motherboard), we will have to access different sections, which will be totally different between manufacturers and system types. Normally the good sections are: Power, ACPI Configuration and BOOT.
- Within them we will have to look for a fit that receives by name: Restore on AC power loss o Next boot after AC power lossgenerally does not differ from these two concepts.
- Once in this parameter, we will only have four options, two for each type of concept. In Restore on AC/Power Loss we can only enable or disable option, but if our UEFI includes Next boot after mains power loss we will have the options of: Normal boot or fast boot.
- In this case we can select what suits us best, although we suggest choosing Normal Boot so that the UEFI performs a full checksum.
- Once the option is selected, we will only have to press the key F10 so that the new BIOS settings are stored.
With this change, you’ll be able to ensure that your computer is always on and running, even after a power outage.
Second step: configure Windows
Once we have already configured the BIOS or UEFI so that the boot system boots as fast as there is power for our computer, we must go to the next step and it is that the work of starting our PC consists of starting all the components and passing the baton to the operating system, which because the contents of the RAM will have been lost will no longer remember where it was before the power failure.
Well, one of the things Windows does when this happens is to try to repair the drive on startup during the OS boot process. What is the problem? Well, if we are not present, it can give us the option of restoring unity or rebooting the system, leaving the system suspended waiting for our response.
However, this is achievable and can be done by running a simple command at the command prompt. To do this, simply enter CMD in the search box on the taskbar and right-click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as administrator”.
Once inside, you just need to write the following:
bcdedit /set {default} bootsstatuspolicy ignoreshutdownfailures
You press the Enter key and you will receive a message that the operation was carried out without any problems and correctly. This will prevent the operating system from getting stuck on startup and booting normally. Although what we will have achieved until then is that the Windows desktop will appear. For this reason, we recommend that you assign the corresponding programs that you want to have in the background so that they start immediately when Windows starts and can continue to do their work without our intervention.
