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
    2015-10-02T16:26:28+00:00

    Try this:

    • create a directory on your USB drive
    • right-click the directory and choose "Share with", "Specific people"
    • choose yourself from the list of users and click Share and Done
    • in the "Create System Image" menu choose "On a network location"
    • now enter the URL for your share (\your-computer\sharename)
    • enter your username and password and click OK

    Good luck.

    /Claus

    This is a great workaround for backing up to a flash drive. I used it, but then I could not use it to restore the image. As a matter of fact, even when I copied it to a regular drive on the network I still got error code 0x80070520.

    Why everything has to be so complicated? Why not just make the backup to flash work? People who carry laptops, would like to have backup/restore abilities available to them on the road. Flash memory is the most logical solution. Why is it not supported?

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-09T16:11:02+00:00

    What are the steps to restore the system image?  The recovery DVD does not "find" the image contained in the folder.  Moved the data to the root and tried again - Windows Recover does not "find" or display the image.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-11T19:09:18+00:00

    the size of the NTSF formatted flash drive is not the problem, nor is the timing of the system image since I will not use an automated system.

    If I use the option of DVDs to create the system image, the size advertised is about 40Gb, and my flash drive is 64 GB.  Windows 8.1 seems to reject the flash drive because its a flash drive.

    Or, some reason I cannot find is making me look stupid rather than MS being stupid.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-10-11T21:20:51+00:00

    I used the network option and have created a folder on the USB drive to be shared with myself on the PC.

    The FOLDER has a system image of about 25 GB.

    I am not familiar with network sharing and see no way to use this system image to restore my computer.  I have no prompts that lead me to believe the computer recognizes this file as the system image it needs to load. 

    So how do I get the computer to recognize it is THE system image and use that image to reset my computer.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-11-05T12:57:33+00:00

    Yes the image is useless while you are not able to select it as a system image when doing the system recovery.

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