usb flash drive not a valid backup location for system image

Anonymous
2013-08-14T13:07:06+00:00

OK, Microsoft continuing to confuse me and others it would seem.

Tried to make system image to USB flash drive in Windows 8 and Yes it would not work. It States " the drive is not a valid backup location ".

Yes its formatted to NTFS. and I have read various sites where it gives instructions how and ive read sites and Microsoft who seem to have conflicting statements.

Please can someone HELP all I want to do is go to windows 7 file recovery in windows 8 - press make system image - select usb drive and sit back.

Windows for home | Other | Recovery and backup

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-29T20:55:10+00:00

    This is the only true fix...why couldn't Microsoft provide this info.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-28T03:54:07+00:00

    Thank You Claus,

    That did the trick for me! :)

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-24T23:42:23+00:00

    Hello Ron451:

    Again, we are talking about a System Image, not a bootable Recovery Drive which as I noted above, I was able to set up on a 128 GB USB Flash Drive. Note that you can create a recovery set which includes an image, but I don't think that it can be created on flash media either. Using flash media for a Recovery Drive is still easier than burning it onto DVD media plus it will load faster.

    The Recovery Drive contains system files needed to boot Windows and once it loads up, it provides access to recovery tools that are normally in Windows. Once you boot into the recovery console, one of the options is to restore an image saved on a hard drive or on DVD media.

    But if you want to save a System Image onto flash media, it's still a problem using Windows or even third party software.

    dr bug

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-24T14:53:06+00:00

    A little tidbit that Microsoft fails to tell you is that this bootable Recovery backup can take 47 Gb of space.  So, even a rather large flash drive might well not be big enough.  This may be one reason for that "location not suitable" message.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-02-22T18:59:32+00:00

    Ain't about luck.  It's good directions that solved the problem.  Thank you.

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