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
    2015-03-15T17:23:15+00:00

    I found a 100% successful solution to weird Windows problems...I switched my entire office to Linux in 2008 and have had ZERO problems. NONE.

    My mothers computer has this invalid drive error message when trying to create a System Image and so I find myself here.

    I think it will be easier to teach mom who's 80 last month to use Linux Ubuntu than to continue to deal with Windows short comings.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-07-29T23:40:11+00:00
    • That is not a valid answer there are plenty of usb drive big enough for system image

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-04-05T23:55:55+00:00

    Hello AaronSiders:

    Thanks for the suggestion, but yours and other posts in this thread are missing the point.

    The thread title is about a trying to create a System Image NOT a Recovery Drive on a USB Drive. A Recovery Drive can be put onto USB Media. That is not the problem we are trying to address.

    Another problem I see is people recommending the use of a work around proposed by someone early in the thread and repeated by others. But someone also posted that an Image created using that method cannot be restored. If you need to restore the image and it will not restore, it is false security.

    I am not trying to criticize anyone who has posted - I appreciate people trying to help. But I've been following the thread when notified about a new post and it's frustrating to see non-related solutions and non workable solutions repeated.

    This is a moderately long thread to date, but it's important to read from the beginning to understand the problem.

    I truly believe that this is a Microsoft issue and that they must decide to update the application. If you are part of the Microsoft insider program, please suggest this to them.

    dr bug

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-08-28T06:38:31+00:00

    Thanks for reply , will get back when attempted and succeeded or failed.

    Regards.

    shivj

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-06-08T14:20:13+00:00

    Is there a simple answer to the original question?

    I have a Samsung Air, i.e. SSD hard drive (the irony) and no optical r/rw.

    I'd like to be able to create a bootable updatable system image backup on a 128Gb USB Flash Drive from my 128Gb Flash HDD for obvious reasons, but keep getting the same message as everyone else..

    It takes hours and who knows how much bandwidth to update Windows 8.1, not something a client of Microsoft should have to endure every time their system crashes.

    Why has such an essential function been made so damned difficult to perform?

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