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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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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Anonymous

2010-08-13T05:21:57+00:00

I am having the same problem (except that my hard drive was pre-imaged with Windows 7 Home Premium). I have followed all the steps above, and can also browse to the backup files through Windows and while in Repair mode. I have tried every solution I have found in other threads, including creating another backup (which failed) and placing the old backup files in the new "WindowsImageBackup" folder. Maybe I should try to get a successful backup and try again.

When I learned that Acronis can convert Windows backups to .tib files, I downloaded the trial and tried to convert the .vhd files. Acronis told me that the backup files were "corrupt or not made with" Acronis.

I "attached" the .vhd in disk management, but kept it as "read only" because I didn't want to alter the backup file. I want to know if there is any way to find out if my system image is corrupt, and if it is, is there any way to repair it? If I attach the .vhd without checking the read only box, can I boot from it? If so, will that alter it and make it unusable?

Thank you for your help. I have been dealing with this problem for the last three nights, and I'm getting very frustrated!

Thanks,

-TLC
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Anonymous

2010-08-13T22:54:15+00:00

Thanks for the response, Pegasus. Acronis seems to be a really useful and capable program, and I was pretty sure the problem was with the system image itself. I think I'll go ahead and buy True Image. It's only $30 right now, and it would be worth it to not have to deal with this headache again.

So, does anyone know the answer(s) to any other questions I asked?

          -Is there a way to check whether the files are corrupt?

          -Is there a way to repair the image?

          -Is there a way to boot from the image?

          -Is there any other way of using this image to restore my system?

If I had other system images to work with, I would just forget it and move on. However, this computer was only a month old when it started acting up. I had just recently finished copying my files over and getting all of my programs installed when the hard drive exhibited problems. I'd rather not go through all of that again already.

Thanks again for all your help.
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Anonymous

2010-12-28T09:39:19+00:00

I have the same problem.

I've created the system image twice on my external USB drive by selecting the "Create System Image" option in the Windows 7 Backup and Restore tool and following the instructions.

When I open the program again to try and restore the image, under "Restore" it tells me "Windows could not find a backup for this computer" and offers me 2 options:

1) "Select another backup to restore files from" ... this shows me an empty list.

It suggests I should connect the external drive and click refresh. The external drive has never been disconnected, I can see it in explorer and I can see the WindowsImage Backupfolder, clicking refresh does nothing It offers me the choice of browsing to a network loaction to find the file but this doesn't allow me to browse to the external hard drive that's connected to this computer.

2) "Recover system settings for your computer" ... which gives me 2 more options:

2.1) "Open system restore" ... in which I can see the system restore points. Great but not what I want.

2.2) "Advanced Recovery Methods" ... which gives me the option to "Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer". Selecting this option again tells me that it can't find any backup for the computer and offers me the option to create one now.

Why can't windows see the system image I only just created on my USB drive? How exactly do I restore the image?
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