Backup and Restore Windows 10 Pro

I am reading what you are saying about the the shadow copy not being the culprit for me not being able to make a copy of my WindowsImageBackup folder and your being able to do it to another HDD, but what you don't seem to address is the issue of space or size of the HDD where you were able to make the copy, which I explained why I wasn't able to do it in a partition smaller than the 1 Tb, which was the size of the disk in the laptop that created the backup, even though the actual contents were only a bit over 500 Gb. Windows told me I needed an extra 400 Gb to be able to copy it.

Anyways, independent of the fact that you just stated that Windows does not list a USB stick as an approved place to store a backup, I received the 2Tb stick today and am presently doing the copying of the image folder, which is going very slowly because it is a cheap stick, but the point I am trying to make at the moment, regardaless of whether I will be able to use the stick is that the shadow copy, even in you state it does not go with the copy, does impose a limitation on the drive size where you copying to.

The reason why I bought this stick is because the only HDD that is big enough, 2 Tb, for the copy is the one where the original folder is located and I have other partitions with other backups which I can't erase. The funny and confusing part of this whole thing is that the original backup didn't require 1 Tb space as the copy does.

I was already thinking of buying a 5 Tb external disk to add to my collection of external drives since all of them are old and could fail anytime and if the restore operation does not work from the stick I will buy the 5 Tb drive. I hope I can duplicate what one of you guys said that you were able to restore from a copy given that the original is still visible or the drive containing it is connected to the laptop.

The copying to the USB stick will take over a day because of what I stated before, but I can be patient if I can finally will be able to restore my backup

I don't think the shadow copy is messing with your copy/paste because it doesn't go with the copy. It gets left behind. I did a "vssadmin list shadows" after copying my WindowsImageBackup folder to a second external HDD, & the shadow count remained the same. It only gets created as the last act of Backup & Restore & stays on the HDD it was created on. It goes into the System Volume Information folder, I think. And it stays there even if you delete the WindowsImageBackup folder.

I'm against making a copy of the WindowsImageBackup folder. I think it really has to be kept on the HDD it was made on to work properly. But you can't make one onto a USB stick. That isn't offered as an option by Backup & Restore. It has to be to an external HDD. Maybe it will go to a separate internal HDD too.

...snip...

Another thing I discovered, and maybe PCR can comment better on this.. I originally created an image to a USB HDD to duplicate your issue.. I then copied that image to a internal drive after which both appeared and worked..

This morning I attempted to recover the image I had copied to the internal drive and it did not appear..

It turns out that after hooking up the USB HDD with the original image, the copy also was available.. It seems there is some type of link between the original and copy that requires the original to be available for the copy to appear..

This really seems to defeat the purpose of having a copy, but that is typical of the finicky stuff the Backup + Restore does..

You're ahead of me on the issue, Slance. I made a copy of WindowsImageBackup from one external HDD to another. I wanted to duplicate your earlier experiment of renaming a computername folder inside the copy...

...to see whether it would prevent the HDD to show up in a restore. It did prevent it, G:\ never showed up whether the original HDD was plugged in or not. Then I took the xxx's back off that name -- & was shocked the HDD still wouldn't show for a restore whether/not the original HDD was plugged in. I can't explain it. But in that long ago thread we were in together I had already decided never to make a copy of the original owing to other funny business. In that thread, the copy did indeed show up, but the partitions it offered to restore looked odd in some of the restore screens (before I backed out). So I personally don't really care that copies are flaky.

IIRC, it was in that ancient thread we discovered together that renaming the computername folder does work to keep the images separate & distinct when made into the same WindowsImageBackup folder. You were willing to try restoring them with success. A week/so ago I finally needed to restore one, & it's been fine.

I will. Thanks to both of you guys for all the help and time spent doing "research", which has clarified a few aspects of how this Backup and Restore works

Hi,

Good luck with that when the time comes.. Let us know how it works out..