I cannot restore any system image which was created in Windows 10 v1709 using Backup and Restore.

I am at the amateur level but here is a suggestion. I have only used Microsoft system image restore when I have had a failure. And it has not been trouble free.

I have used both Seagate and Samsung free "migration software" with a new hard drive. They will only work if they see the same brand hardware in the computer. But, it does not have to be the same drive. That is, if you have a usb externaI Seagate drive it will let you use the software even if that brand drive will not be involved.

I see that you have a new Western Digital drive. WD has free Acronis software on their website for migration.

Sometimes the software will only let you use a USB to SATA adapter (about 35$) and not hook into an SATA port. I think that is to make sure that you will not be writing over the system drive

If you stay at 2 TB or smaller then it is A LOT easier.

This way you can "migrate" your computer to another hard drive, take out the old hard drive, put in the new one and see if it boots. If it does then that is great. If it does not, then just put the original hard drive back in and at least you have not lost anything except time which no one can replace.

I've been following this discussion with interest as I'm trying to decide what is a good strategy to try and mitigate the effects of a potential primary HDD failure. My HDD is > 5-years old, a 500-Gb Seagate Barracuda and to date three other Seagate's have failed. I have also been through the grief of having BSODs and having to have Win 10 repaired, which got my files back but then had to spend weeks recovering/getting it back to the way it was ("it" is a desktop PC with Asus MB, Intel i5 Win 10 Pro upgrade from Win 7 Pro 64-bit which was a clean OEM install in 2012). It also contains a lot of work going back many years.

I'm not in any way computer literate (C++ coder), but have so far been totally confused by cloning, mirrors, images etc. I do a file history type backup onto a NAS device routinely (that had two of the failed Seagate's until changed to WD Red).

My gut instinct was to go for a system image and recovery medium on a USB stick. But, there seem to be as many opinions on exactly how to do it as the number of Google searches done to date.

I have installed a second HDD (Western Digital Gold Enterprise SATA 1-Tb which is ready to go.

I have looked at Acronis TI Western Digital edition, but despite all the flack directed at MS, I thought by now, they should know how to safeguard their own operating system etc.

I always wondered why I was being directed to Win 7 for SIB and having seen "deprecated", "not supported", the doubts crept in.

However, having seen fg2001's items, I am more encouraged to use the Win 10 SIB.

From settings info on my PC

System type 64-bit OS, x64 processor

Edition Win 10 Pro

Version 1709

OS build 16299.309

I would be grateful for any advice on how to go, general strategy, third party methods. Re-boots scare me, but I just about know how to go through the BIOS settings, so the less stressful the better.

Thanks

The following is the complete procedure. If you really know what you are doing, you will realise you can miss out some of the steps.

1. Disconnect the machine from the network.
2. Install Windows10 from the media. Select 'I don't have a product key'. Select 'Custom: Install Windows Only'. This will create all the partitions (C: EFI Recovery) and give you a Windows 10 machine to work on.
3. Login in.
4. Create the folder C:\MountedVHDX
5. Create the folder C:\WindowsImage and copy the folder matching your machine from your backups WindowsImage folder.
6. Attach an external disk with at least as much free space as your SIB. *I assume that the external disk is E:*
7. Create the folder E:\CapturedWIM
8. Launch powershell and execute...

Mount-WindowsImage -ImagePath fullpathofvhdxindoublequotes -Path c:\MountedVHDX -Index 1

New-WindowsImage -CapturePath C:\MountedVHDX -Name Win10Backup -ImagePath E:\CapturedWIM\sib.wim -Description "Windows 10 Backup" -Verify

Dismount-WindowsImage -Path C:\MountedVHDX -Discard

9. Restart Windows.
10. At the login screen click on the power icon and click restart while holding the shift key. The machine will restart in recovery mode.
11. Select Troubleshoot->Advanced->Command Prompt
12. When the command window appears execute...

Format c:

*Dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:E:\CapturedWIM\sib.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:C:*

13. That's it. When you restart, your windows will still be activated.

Hello , Can you or anyone supply some followup input?   “I need my image drive to work or allot of days are lost...........

So" based on all comments, so many that are confusing to me …. I get the same message when attempting to reload as shown below:

The system image restore failed.

Error details: A Volume Shadow Copy Service component encountered an unexpected error. Check the Application event log for more information…..(0x80042302)

I just had my HP ENVY 360 laptop HP-Repair completed yesterday with a fresh Windows 10 home v1709 – OS 16299.15 .. a fresh new installation ON new drive - nothing else on system. Prior to repair, I using windows,  created a system image diskusing my Windows 10 home -v1709 - OS 16299 125. When complete,  it stated SIB was successful.  My prior repaired HP Envy system image backup resides on an external 2GB Seagate backup-plus portable USB hard drive. . I tried using the restore / repair usb disk to assist at transferring image backup to newly repaired laptop with new same size 1TB drive without any success.  The current drive has ( Drive C primaryand D HP recovery. Same as prior repair.

The image started for 2/10ths second and then error in red print above pops up… ANY WAY TO RECOVER/ TRANSFER MY IMAGE. ???

HELP.............. :(

I wish I knew of this windows OS inability prior.. I would had backed up differently....

Any Windows Image Backup that was taken before build 16299.214 will fail the restore, (latest build is 16299.309).

The procedure suggested by rwb1012 is a workaround to the Microsoft backup/restore bug.

The procedure to restore the C drive image works if you follow it correctly.  

If you have any question about the procedure please be specific about which step you are having problems with. 

If you just want to recover specific files and folders you can mount the .vhdx file for the C volume  from the backup using disk management (action, attach vhd) and then copy the stuff you need on your newly installed system. 

Once you recover the files you need, make sure you update your windows system to the latest level otherwise you will still have the same image backup/restore bug when you create the next image.

The following is the complete procedure. If you really know what you are doing, you will realise you can miss out some of the steps.

1. Disconnect the machine from the network.
2. Install Windows10 from the media. Select 'I don't have a product key'. Select 'Custom: Install Windows Only'. This will create all the partitions (C: EFI Recovery) and give you a Windows 10 machine to work on.
3. Login in.
4. Create the folder C:\MountedVHDX
5. Create the folder C:\WindowsImage and copy the folder matching your machine from your backups WindowsImage folder.
6. Attach an external disk with at least as much free space as your SIB. *I assume that the external disk is E:*
7. Create the folder E:\CapturedWIM
8. Launch powershell and execute...

Mount-WindowsImage -ImagePath fullpathofvhdxindoublequotes -Path c:\MountedVHDX -Index 1

New-WindowsImage -CapturePath C:\MountedVHDX -Name Win10Backup -ImagePath E:\CapturedWIM\sib.wim -Description "Windows 10 Backup" -Verify

Dismount-WindowsImage -Path C:\MountedVHDX -Discard

9. Restart Windows.
10. At the login screen click on the power icon and click restart while holding the shift key. The machine will restart in recovery mode.
11. Select Troubleshoot->Advanced->Command Prompt
12. When the command window appears execute...

Format c:

*Dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:E:\CapturedWIM\sib.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:C:*

13. That's it. When you restart, your windows will still be activated.

Hello , Can you or anyone supply some followup input?   “I need my image drive to work or allot of days are lost...........

So" based on all comments, so many that are confusing to me …. I get the same message when attempting to reload as shown below:

The system image restore failed.

Error details: A Volume Shadow Copy Service component encountered an unexpected error. Check the Application event log for more information…..(0x80042302)

I just had my HP ENVY 360 laptop HP-Repair completed yesterday with a fresh Windows 10 home v1709 – OS 16299.15 .. a fresh new installation ON new drive - nothing else on system. Prior to repair, I using windows,  created a system image diskusing my Windows 10 home -v1709 - OS 16299 125. When complete,  it stated SIB was successful.  My prior repaired HP Envy system image backup resides on an external 2GB Seagate backup-plus portable USB hard drive. . I tried using the restore / repair usb disk to assist at transferring image backup to newly repaired laptop with new same size 1TB drive without any success.  The current drive has ( Drive C primaryand D HP recovery. Same as prior repair.

The image started for 2/10ths second and then error in red print above pops up… ANY WAY TO RECOVER/ TRANSFER MY IMAGE. ???

HELP.............. :(

I wish I knew of this windows OS inability prior.. I would had backed up differently....

Hi Travis,

For us to isolate and provide you an accurate resolution regarding your concern with 1709, we would like to know the following:

• What is the exact issue are you experiencing with 1709?
• Are you getting any error messages? If yes, what is the exact error message?
• To make sure that we have not missed on anything, what troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

We look forward to your response.

Can you please stop asking stupid questions like an idiot and read all the comments and questions people have posted here... the user who posted this question has clearly mentioned the error message and the error code....

Give us answers for your faults and bugs without asking damn stupid questions...

We have paid for all these and when we lost everything I will sue MS for the loss of my data if I cannot recover my data back...

Your post was back on Nov 8 2017, we are now on Feb 28th 2018. Many changes since then.

The image backup/restore has been fixed with build 16299.214 and 16299.248.

Unfortunately if your backup was taken with build 16299.192 or earlier you will not be able to restore unless you use some workaround method which you may find on this thread. 

If you look at the beginning of page 5 in this thread there is a description of a workaround method to restore your disk C from a image backup .vhdx file.

I had your problem and I followed the suggested procedure by rwb1012, it worked for me.  

Since then I updated my windows 10 pro 1709 to build 16299.248 and now the image backup/restore works fine.

MS never described what was changed in those 2 updates that made the SIB work again. I just hope that Microsoft does not break it once more on the next build.