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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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-06T19:18:39+00:00

    I think ck1968 posted on january 26, 2014 had the right answer but I tired of trying to get the USB drive to share correctly. I went for a software solution called Macrium Reflect (free). You can download it here:

    http://download.cnet.com/Macrium-Reflect-Free/3000-2242\_4-10845728.html 

    or here:

    http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

    It worked like a charm and saved a 39.86 GB image copy (included 9MB dell backup utility, 5.11GB recovery partition and 34.74 GB image copy of hard drive) onto a 32GB sandisk cruzer glide (compression) leaving approx. 9 GB free on the cruzer glide.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-15T22:04:38+00:00

    Hi Manasa--I tried the refresh image to create image on a USB drive it didn't work the message I received said system cannot find the file specified.

    Thanks for trying to help I will buy an external drive and create it on DVD'S.

    Thanks again,

    Dave.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-07-17T04:15:35+00:00

    "Windows 7 Backup and Restore did not allow USB flash drives to be used for System Image back up.  Saving a System Image in a USB drive is not recommended. The size of the System Image could be bigger than the size of the USB drive"

    That is really fuking stupid.  I just bought two 128 GB flash drives to back up two 80 GB hard drives.  I think there's enough room.

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