Cannot re-image from other internal drive
Hello and thank you for looking at my post. I'm trying to restore my desktop C: drive with an image stored my W: drive, another internal HDD. These drives are connected via SATA and the computer's start up diagnostics confirms their presence. I get as far as Select a system image backup, and then see "Windows cannot find a system image on this computer". Yet if I go into the command prompt, I can change to the W: drive and navigate to the very image files I'm trying to use. Please, what must I do to get the re-image utility to look at my other internal drive? I can see plenty of discussions on the difficulties with network drives, but nothing about internal drives. If you can show me how to fix this, I'll be very grateful. Thank you again for looking.
July 25th, 2012 3:46am

What "re-image utility" are you using? (I use Acronis and have no problem.) Rgds Milos
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July 25th, 2012 12:13pm

Hi Milos, thanks for taking an interest. I'm using the System Image Recovery utility as found in the Windows 7 start up repair tool.Peter
July 25th, 2012 12:47pm

You may move the system image to the root of the internal HDD and try again. We often restore system with external HDD, if the issue persists, you'd better copy the image to external hard disk for further test.Ivan-Liu TechNet Community Support
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July 25th, 2012 10:20pm

May I know how many HDDs on your computer? This ROOT is not C: drive, it is the root of your another internal HDD. Windows Image Recovery can restore from other internal drivers. Most of the brand computers have a recovery partition in the same physical hard disk. Firstly, make sure that the machine can detect the internal HDD, and then load the system image from the root of it's partition. I suggest you copy the image onto the root folder of a larger USB EXTERNAL HDD. Here is one article on the error message 0x800704CF can be referred to. 0x800704CF when restoring a windows system image? http://boringtech.com/blog/2011/08/0x800704cf-when-restoring-a-windows-system-image/ Hope that helps. Ivan-Liu TechNet Community Support
July 26th, 2012 4:49am

May I know how many HDDs on your computer? This ROOT is not C: drive, it is the root of your another internal HDD. Windows Image Recovery can restore from other internal drivers. Most of the brand computers have a recovery partition in the same physical hard disk. Firstly, make sure that the machine can detect the internal HDD, and then load the system image from the root of it's partition. I suggest you copy the image onto the root folder of a larger USB EXTERNAL HDD. Here is one article on the error message 0x800704CF can be referred to. 0x800704CF when restoring a windows system image? http://boringtech.com/blog/2011/08/0x800704cf-when-restoring-a-windows-system-image/ Hope that helps. Ivan-Liu TechNet Community Support
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July 26th, 2012 4:49am

Hello again Ivan-Lui and thanks for your (sadly rare!) interest. 3 x HDDs, all of which can be seen in the command window. The image file is in the root of one (W:\WindowsImageBackup) which - using the command window - I can navigate to and list all the image files. I'll follow your suggested link and let you know the outcome. Peter
July 26th, 2012 5:25am

Hello Ivan-Lui and thanks for your interest. I hadn't thought of moving the image files to C:\ - is it possible to reimage a drive when the source data is on the same drive? As to an external hard disk, I do have a copy on a network drive but my attempts to get Windows Repair to see it have failed (yes I've seen the posts on loading network drivers: I've got past the internal error message 0x800704CF - now I get no error message but sadly it fails to see the image files). I've even tried moving the 22Gb image files onto a 30GB USB drive, but Windows says there isn't enough space for them - which I understand even less... So nearly 24 hours later I'm still at my original question - why can't Windows Image Recovery restore from other internal drives? Considering it insists on their use (and forbids the C: drive) when creating a backup image, I'm surprised nobody's offered the answer. Am I really the first person ever to have this problem? Surely not!Peter
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July 27th, 2012 2:30am

Ivan-Lui, I'm sorry you marked your post of 26 July as being the answer because sadly it's not. In the end (and after many days of intense frustration and wasted time), I followed Milos's suggestion and investigated Acronis True Image Home. The trial version's bootable recovery application was immediately able to see the Windows backups on both my internal and network drives. Holding my breath and gnawing my nails, I had one go at restoring them and WOPPEE!!! It worked first time and best of all, utterly flawlessly. Needless to say, I instantly converted the trial version to fully licensed and it was worth every cent. It only remains for me to say a massive thank you to Milos and express my fervent wish that his children's parents will be eternally prosperous.Peter
August 8th, 2012 12:09pm

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