Why is my 64 GB USB Flash Drive "not a valid backup location?"

Anonymous
2011-07-30T06:11:46+00:00

I tried to tack this on to a previous question but upon reading the Code of Conduct for this forum, I discovered that doing that was improper.  My apologies for that.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1, installed using Toshiba Recovery Discs (I have a brand new Toshiba laptop, when I recovered the system I opted to not have a recovery partition).  I just cleansed all the bloatware off Windows, ran Windows update until there were no more updates to get (got SP1 this way), and now I've got a fresh, clean, windows installation that's never even been to a single website.  Now, I'm trying to create a system image on a 64 GB flash drive (I won't even end up using half of it, as my SSD only has about 19 GB used, and that includes the hibernation file (I turned off the pagefile, because pagefiles are unkind to SSDs)

I asked previously if it was possible to manually create a Windows 7 System Image on a (large) USB Flash Drive, and I got two "Yes" answers from two Community Stars. (See my question here)  It is also stated that this is possible on windows.microsoft.com, here.  Note that when windows.microsoft.com states that "the system image must be saved on a hard drive, it is referring to the automatic creation of system images.  If you keep reading, you'll see that the page indicates that if one wishes to manually create a a system image, that system image may be saved on optical discs, a USB Flash Drive, or a hard drive.  If it is possible, then why am I having the following problem?

Inserted 64 GB USB Flash Drive --> Closed Autoplay dialogue --> Opened "My Computer" --> Right-clicked Drive E (my flash drive) and selected format --> Unchecked "Quick Format" --> Selected NTFS files system and 4096 byte cluster size --> Clicked "Format" and acknowledged that all data will be erased --> waited a while for format to complete, then clicked OK --> Closed "My Computer" --> Ejected my flash drive by clicking "safely remove hardware" --> Physically unplugged flash drive --> Grabbed a diet coke with ice --> Inserted 64 GB USB Flash Drive --> Closed Autoplay dialogue --> Opened Start Menu --> Clicked "All Programs" --> Clicked Maintenence --> Clicked Backup and Restore Center --> Clicked Create System Image --> (The program scans for storage devices) --> My flash drive shows up under "On a hard disk" and the words "The drive is not a valid backup location" appear under my Flash Drive being listed.  For reference, "On one or more DVDs" is listed just below the text saying "The drive is not a valid backup location."

My understanding is that what I just tried to do is manually create a system image on an NTFS formatted (with a 4 KB cluster size) 64 GB USB Flash Drive.  But it's not letting me!  I understand I can't schedule automatic system image creation for USB Flash Drives, but according to windows.microsoft.com and two community stars, it is in fact possible to "manually" create a system image on a large USB Flash Drive, which I think is what I just tried to do.  If there is another way to create a system image, even more "manually" than what I just did (I'm definitely not scared of the command line, if I need to use it I'm more than happy to do so), please let me know.

I do have a low-quaility SATA-3.0 Gbps notebook HDD in a cheap bus-powered USB enclosure, and I was able to create a system image on that.  However, I expect that device to fail shortly.  I was also successful creating a system image on blank DVD-Rs.  I did, however, just spend $85 on a 64 GB USB Flash Drive specifically to store a system image, which I was hoping to use to store Windows 7 with World of Warcraft installed (total size of C drive will be about 50 GB; I have not yet downloaded WoW; I want to overcome this obstacle first).

Any insights would be appreciated.  Thanks!

1st Edit: Added links so people wouldn't need to copy/paste to their address bar, and clarified the last sentence of the last paragraph.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2011-10-16T14:54:52+00:00

I would suggest you get away from the Windows backup program and get yourself a good commercial backup program. This forum is frought with problem reports for the Windows one. I know I was very unimpressed when I tried it. Two I'm familiar with and like are Norton Ghost (which I've been using for 7 years without the 1st problem), and Memeo which has a 30 day free trial and you can buy it for $29.99 - you can download it from http://memeo.com . You can get Ghost for next to nothing (like I did) if you watch the sales.

CNET has a lot of backup program reviews at

http://download.cnet.com/windows/backup-software/?tag=contentBody;sideBar .

Some of these are free (last time I checked there were 315), some have free trials (over 1000), and some are purchase only (over 200).

 Good luck.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-08-28T11:19:03+00:00

    I'm still looking for a solution to this problem.  I spent $85 on a 64 GB flash drive specifically for this purpose, after reading on the Microsoft website that it is in fact possible to do what I've been trying to do, and now somehow Windows is not letting me do it.

    Any help is appreciated.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-07-31T07:59:44+00:00

    Thanks for the response!  I tried the things you mentioned, here are my results (no dice yet, unfortunately).

    Diskpart was unhelpful because it would not let me focus the partition on the flash drive, so I couldn't even tell if it was set to active.

    I did however, use MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition to reformat the drive (again) just in case Windows wasn't liking its own formatting job; the trick didn't work, but MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition did verify that the partition on the flash drive was set to active.  Strangely, this program only lists my small 1.46 GB "Boot" partition at the front of my SSD as active, but it does not list my C drive as active.

    Interestingly, the Disk Management utility found in the Windows Control Panel lists only the small 1.46 GB "Boot" partition at the front of my SSD as "active," but neither my C drive nor flash drive are listed as active.  When I try to right click my flash drive in this utility, "set to active" is grayed out.  Even more interestingly, the partition which is my C drive is not listed as active, but the option to set it as active is not grayed out, implying that it is not currently active!  Could this be part of my problem?  How is it even possible that my machine boots?  It seems to be working fine, despite the C drive being "inactive!"

    The device I'm trying to use is a Lexar JumpDrive TwistTurn 64 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive.  It appears to be a very simple device, despite it's rather large capacity and the while the Lexar website does have drivers available for some devices they make, no drivers (or any other software, for that matter) are provided for this device, implying that Lexar expects all commonly used operating systems to know what do with it.

    I have reformatted this poor flash drive probably a dozen times now trying to get the Windows 7 Backup and Restore Center to accept it as a "valid backup location" and it is most definitely empty.  I have removed almost every piece of bloatware Toshiba managed to foist onto their recovery discs, leaving only things that I assumed to be useful (like drivers).  The machine in question has not opened a web browser since it's last reformat, and has only been connected to the internet long enough to get Windows updates (including Windows 7 SP1).  Given these things, I highly doubt that some renegade process is hijacking my flash drive, especially seeing that I can format said flash drive without Windows claiming that something is using it.

    My SSD is 160 GB (which formats to 149 GB) and my Lexar flash drive is 64 GB (which formats to about 59 GB).  But, my SSD is currently holding at most 19 GB of data (which includes a 6 GB hibernation file, I turned off the pagefile because pagefiles are most unkind to SSDs), with 130 GB of space left free on my C drive.  My assumption is that my backup media need only be large enough to hold the data contained on the drives included in a system image, as opposed to needing to be large enough to contain the drives themselves (it wouldn't make sense to make a system image that included 130 GB of free space... It is common knowledge that large corporations often do irrational things that make no sense, but I don't think Microsoft would be quite that stupid).

    If you (or anyone else, for that matter) have any more suggestions, I would love to hear them, because it would be really nice to crack this puzzle.

    Thanks much!

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-07-31T02:27:25+00:00

    Hi,

    1.Have you tried doing diskpart for the flash drive and making sure it is set to active before trying to backup on it?

    I would suggest you to delete the files in the usb drive and,

    a. Ensure the drivers for the media of the backup destination are up to date. Contact the manufacturer for information about updating your drivers.

    b. Ensure there is no excessive activity on the device you are backing up to.

    The issue occurs only when the drive you are backing up to is low on disk space. 

    Hope this helps.

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