System Image Recovery - Can't find System Image

Anonymous

I am trying to restore a backup system image to my repaired PC. It is wiped clean. I have the "Repair Disc Windows 7 64 Bit" that I created in Windows 7. Using Windows 7 Backup I have a system image backup on an external WD Essentiasl 1TB USB Hard Drive.

I insert the Repair Disc and start the system. Get to System Recoevery Options. I have the external Hard Disk with the system backup image connected. Select System Image Recovery option. Says "Windows cannot find a system image on this computer. Attach the backup hard disk or insert the final DVD from a bckup set and click retry. Alternatively, close this dialog for more options. Retry gives me the same message. Tried starting with drive attached, not attached, same result. Click cancel.

Next option selected is "Select a system image." No system image listed. Hit refresh, still nothing. Top of screen says "Click Advanced to add a network location or install a driver for a backup device if it does not show up in the list below." I click on the Advanced tab. Option to "Search for a system image on the network" or "Install a driver." I select install a driver. Find the right driver for the WD Essential hard drive (disk.sys and partmgr.sys) and when I click on them I get "The specified location does not contain information about your hardware." Click OK. Can't find how to load these drivers I am being asked for.

Funny thing is that on the screen where I search for driver I can see the WD Essential Hard Drive connected to the system. I can also see the system image files but when I click on them I get the same error message, "The specified location does not contain information about your hardware."

Please HELP. This is very frustrating!!!

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

While in Repair Mode, you have an option to open a Command Prompt. From there try the following commands:

Mountvol

(This command will show you all available drives, including your external disk)

dir Q:

(Replace Q: with one drive letter at a time from the letters that the mountvol command showed you, e.g.

dir D:

dir E:

etc.

until you see a folder "WindowsImageBackup" on the screen. Let's assume it is F:\WindowsImageBackup.

dir F:\WindowsImageBackup /s

(This command should show you the contents of the image folder, with files totalling more than 10 GBytes)

Now perhaps this image folder is missing, incomplete or inaccessible.

I have to add that I am disappointed with the native imaging facility under Windows 7. It is temperamental and its functionality is extremely limited. I recently bought myself a copy of Acronis TrueImage 10 and its is to the Windows imaging tool like a fully functional motor cycle is to a child's tricycle. Other brand imaging tools are just as functional - just make sure that they are certified for Windows 7.

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95 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-02-18T20:06:01+00:00

After some head scratching, I discovered that Windows-7 does not play nice with an IDE drive on a USB cable. I copied my System Image to a SATA drive then attached the same USB cable kit and the restore worked. Every I.T. guy I know has a drawer full of IDE drives and that's what I used for backing up machines I built. They always worked fine for XP restores. I just didn't try a W-7 restore until now. Who knew?
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Anonymous

2014-01-21T00:40:26+00:00

Okay, so I just struggled with this for a long time. I'm aware this thread is old, but if anyone else didn't find the command script tutorial to provide any actual solutions, this is what fixed it for me.

This is stupid, but you have to have the folder WindowsImageBackup on the root of the directory you're trying to use. I.E. D:\WindowsImageBackup. That's all. Bunch of wasted time due to something that microsoft could have posted somewhere or, better yet, written in the functionality to browse for directory. Hope that helped someone else.
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Anonymous

2013-11-17T05:23:04+00:00

RATS! BUGS! NO Network Recovery even when the Network drivers are installed, the network can be seen and the network image is found and selected - it still gives an error (something like: cant restore image in current environment) - Too much time spent on this...

Recover from a network image - Never actually seen it done - best I can do with a network image is copy it down from the network to some local device that can then be installed or plugged into and recognized by the box that needs to be recovered - like an external USB2 disk or some USB3 disks if plugged into a usb2 port... Bummer!
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Anonymous

2013-11-12T22:16:53+00:00

I LIKE IT! - I can almost see this working...

**If you install the LAN driver (Install Driver Option) for your target computer after booting with the Win 7 install CD and choosing Repair, you will be able to navigate to the shared folder location (\sourcecomputer\imagefolder) on your network.**OK, Install the LanDriver? I know and have the Lan Driver(Rt64Win7.sys), it's the common RealTek lan drivers and I have the whole ball game 32 and 64 bit with the .inf and install file setup.

So where can I find the exact Install instructions (Install Driver Option) - oh Yea...

I've got a system, backups, and Win7 Install CD to try this with tonite!

(I may have to make a new Win7 Install CD with a new directory

containing the Lan Drivers) but I have UltraIso and can do that)

Will be back tomorrow with results

Thanks rdb3-747 - you make more sense than anyone yet...

Yes, Yes, got the instrusts:

Installation instructions Realtek LAN Driver for Windows 7

ww4etn01us17.txt

This package installs an updated version of the Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) device driver for the Realtek Ethernet..

This package can be extracted under a Windows 32-bit and 64-bit operating system, such as Microsoft Windows 7.

This update requires approximately 7MB of space on your hard drive.

Print this file so that you can refer to it during the installation.

This is a real maybe!!! Recover from a network system image may work.
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