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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95 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-10-15T04:14:18+00:00

OK. What do you do next?
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Anonymous

2017-01-07T21:39:47+00:00

Not sure if anyone is still in the Win7 world, but I just encountered this and was able to move ahead. I have Win7 64bit. My Windows Backup utility generated backup file was on an external drive along with backups for other home computers. I experienced the same issue as many and when I tried to do a full system restore (dead harddrive, using system repair disk to boot) I wasn't seeing the backup file I needed.

I connected the external drive to another computer. Opened Windows Explorer and reset the permissions for the WindowsImageBackup folder. Then, I renamed the other backup files in that folder such that the one I wanted was alphabetically first. Went back to the brick computer, booted on repair disk, went to restore, and voila, the backup file I needed was there.

So, the trick appears to be that (at least with Win7) when doing the full image restore, you need to make sure that if you have multiple files (folders really) in your WindowsImageBackup folder, the one you want to use needs to be the FIRST in the list. Hey, it worked for me.

Hope that this helps someone.
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Anonymous

2017-02-26T19:23:56+00:00

My client had created the system image on a WD My Passport external hard drive that was password protected. When she booted from a Windows 7 repair disc and chose to Restore System Image it could not be found because there was no way to enter the password.

So I copied the WindowsImageBackup from the password protected external hard drive to one that didn't have a password.

We rebooted from the repair disc and it immediately found the system image.
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Anonymous

2017-04-23T15:04:47+00:00

I too had this problem recently and it was extremely frustrating. Frederick Long's answer was workable for retrieving some files off of the image, but not for completely restoring it.

I found the reason for the problem to be that I had not created a boot disc along with the backup image, and there is some kind of identity established between the O/S that you boot with and the image that you try to restore. So, booting with the original Windows 10 installation media wouldn't recognize my image, no matter what I tried. (And I tried in many ways to out-smart it by manipulating the files associated with the backup image.)

The solution to the problem is that you have to convert the VHDX file to a Windows Image file (WIM) using a powershell command, then use DISM to apply that image to your C: drive volume.

Here's the link that solved it for me: https://superuser.com/questions/791855/how-to-complete-restore-using-just-a-vhdx-file

The only thing I had to do differently from the instructions in the link was before using DISM to apply the image I had to format the drive to which I was applying the image, because I had already reloaded Windows 10 from the original media.

To do that I ran DISKPART, and used the following commands:

LIST VOLUME (to see which temporary drive letter was assigned to my re-installed O/S volume -- mine was drive E:)

SELECT VOLUME 1 (your number might be different, but it will be in the results of the prior command)

FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="WINDOWS" QUICK

EXIT

Then I proceeded with the DISM command listed in the link, rebooted and raised both arms in victory as I logged into my recovered system.
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