System Image Restore can't see USB hard drive
Hi I've just spent a day taking System Image backup images of three different hard drives. Well ok I didn't just sit and watch the bar move across the screen although it did hold up my computer. Anyway, what a waste of a day from my PC because when I try to restore using System Image backup from my USB drive, the USB drive cannot be found. I have followed the procedure on page 750 of Configuring Windows 7, 70-680 precisely. I tried booting from an OS DVD and a Windows Repair DVD, but no USB drive. I tried using a blank usb stick and that can't be found either. The USB drive can be seen when I logon to Windows to get the images on it. Might this be more to do with hardware such as adjusting BIOS boot settings, or updating BIOS firmware. There seems to be others with unresolved problems like this. Should I join them and buy Acronis instead? Tx
April 1st, 2012 6:35pm

Tried it but no joys. I get the same thing as when booting off of a Windows Repair DVD. By this I mean I carried out your procedure above, rebooted to go into the recovery mode and then get the message "Windows cannot find a system image on this system". I do not retry because I get the same thing and my only option is to select a backup I want to restore. When I do that I get no backup listed. Just a thought but what if the backup on the usb hard drive is like our banks (corrupt). Shouldn't I still be able to see the usb drive anyway? Does the backup file have to be a backup of the existing hard drive rather than that of another hard drive?
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April 3rd, 2012 6:21pm

Tried it but no joys. I get the same thing as when booting off of a Windows Repair DVD. By this I mean I carried out your procedure above, rebooted to go into the recovery mode and then get the message "Windows cannot find a system image on this system". I do not retry because I get the same thing and my only option is to select a backup I want to restore. When I do that I get no backup listed. Just a thought but what if the backup on the usb hard drive is like our banks (corrupt). Shouldn't I still be able to see the usb drive anyway? Does the backup file have to be a backup of the existing hard drive rather than that of another hard drive? Have you tried plugging into an alternate USB port on your sys? Have you unplugged the external from: 1. The wall to let it reset? 2. The sys, and then into an alternate port? Just a thought...and BTW...after you've unplugged all, boot your sys without the external and then tried the above? (after the reboot plug all back in to see if win picks it back up) Good luck Horatio
April 6th, 2012 7:53am

Hi, Could you please check the following newsgroup posts for your answer. The posts lists different scenarios that might work for you. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsbackup/thread/9a082b90-bd7c-46f8-9eb3-9581f9d5efdd http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsbackup/thread/11d8c552-a841-49ac-ab2e-445e6f95e704 http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsbackup/thread/9a082b90-bd7c-46f8-9eb3-9581f9d5efdd Best Regards, Kim ZhouPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
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April 7th, 2012 1:36pm

Hi, We can back up non-critical volume while creating System Image backup. For reference: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Back-up-your-programs-system-settings-and-files Best Regards, Kim ZhouPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
April 9th, 2012 4:58am

Hi The link shows how to manually create a system image. My point is that the procedure does not allow you to select a folder on a drive to send the image. You only get a selection of drive. Neither can you give the image a useful name to help you identify it later on from other system images. It can only be called WindowsImageBackup. I have several hard disks that are fitted into a SATA swap bay. Unless I have misread the article I cannot see how the Microsoft Image Backup can help me. Please let me know if I am missing something though because that is really easy for me to do.
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April 11th, 2012 4:49am

This suggestion below helped me resolve my issue: i simply had other folders inside the "WindowsImageBackup" folder that were from other computers. i moved them out of that folder leaving only the correct folder for this restore and it worked right away. Thanks for the HELP, I was going nuts wondering why it wasn't working. 3. make sure you haven't added any other folders in the "WindowsImageBackup" folder unless they are disk images of other computers. Any other folder (like an empty folder) that is aphabetically ahead of a Windows Image Folder will prevent all alphabetically trailing System Images from being found.
August 23rd, 2012 1:43pm

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