I've been able to make a system image of Win 8 and have it stored on a 15 Gb flash drive. I've just found that win wants a program to open this file, it seems I have the data but windows doesn't know what to do with it.   It is a winre.wim  339, 345 KB
Carl2

Data,
  I'm in the process of " Acquiring Windows Preinstallation Environment " seems it will take all day,  I'm thinking that the usb flash drive should be bootable which at this time it is not.
I have a newer computer from HP which is able to do the system image, if the computer will not boot it will switch to a repair mode and a reinstall using the system image is an option. I switched to a SSD and it saw the drive was not the original size and refused to install.  I ended buying Win 8.1 and installed that on the SSD.  3% complete for about 1/2 hour
Thanks
Carl2