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
    2015-04-12T22:52:11+00:00

    You should consider writing fiction novels. Your last post was completely fiction.   Why don't you zip it or write something  related to the subject of this forum.

    Speaking of "ZIP" drives...any luck getting zip drives to work with win 7 backup ??

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-06-18T20:06:38+00:00

    You can't copy a system image of a 320GB HD onto a 64GB USB flash drive using this method because  windows 7 copies everything on the HD INCLUDING the empty bits ; it's an EXACT copy. You would need a flash drive at least 320GB to work. Daft but true on this idiot piece of software.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-07-09T16:57:52+00:00

    Because the image file is larger than your USB/thumb drive.

    If you connect a (sufficiently large) external hard drive and continue

    to the next dialog, it will state:

    "The backup could take up to xxx GB of disk space."

    It would be vastly more useful if Windows would display

    this information instead of the cryptic

    "...not a valid backup location..."

    Two points to bear in mind:

    1. A 32GB stick does  not have quite a 32GB capacity. For example, my

    Sony_32W actually reports 28.9GB capacity.

    1. Sticks can be faulty. One of my (64GB) sticks reported 32GB exactly

    after NTFS formatting.

    An exact figure should raise suspicion.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-12-23T18:27:57+00:00

    I think that MS had a team of attorneys design Windows 7 backup.

    In any case, you can break their laws by doing the following,

    1. Format your USB stick as NTFS
    2. Share your USB stick as a network drive
    3. Insure the advanced share allow permissions are set to full control
    4. Start Windows Backup and select System Image
    5. Select network drive as your backup location
    6. Browse to your own computer and select the USB share
    7. Enter your computer's logon credentials, if your password is blank use 1 space

    Hit OK and you are off and running.

    Top man - this WORKS for me.

    Finding the correct "allow permissions" area is the hard bit - there seem to be two places where that is specified and you need both, or the correct one.  So if at first this does not work, assume that is the problem and keep poking around until you find the "allow share" unchecked box and check it.       

    Thanks...this did the trick for me

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