I use Ghost in DOS mode. All ways of harddrive recovery proved working though some situations you may need MBR recovery after restore.
Harddrive to Harddrive works ( No need to recover MBR )
Partition to Partition works ( Needs to recover MBR )
Ghost at DOS mode is ABSOLUTELY workable if you know how to backup and restore, no matter it is Windows 8, 8.1 or 8.1 with update. I had already tested.
One way to proceed (proved workable) is
1) Drive backup to image with command
ghost -IB
and then
2) Drive restore from image with comand
ghost -FDSP
If you perform partition to partition clone and if the new harddrive launches with the light blue screen, you just need to recover the new harddrive with
1) Launch with Windows 8, 8.1 or 8.1-update installation boot disk
2) Select repair computer and go to the recovery mode DOS command
3) Run the below commands successively at the DOS command prompt
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
It will fix the boot failure of the new harddrive. ( Also tested as well )
Don't waste time to use the recovery wizard provided by Windows 8, 8.1 or 8.1-update installation boot disk, it never works.