Backup and Restore Windows 10 Pro

Anonymous
2021-08-16T20:47:11+00:00

I have had 4 laptops with Windows 10 for many years and 3 USB hard drives, which I connect to any laptop when needed, that I have used for backups and I use windows 7 image backups. I have restored the image files many, many times from all my laptops with no problems until now. All my laptops have the latest Windows updates. I recently had a problem with one of my laptops where I had to reformat and reinstall windows without activating it because the activation info was in my backup, and I tried to restore my latest backup but Windows could not find or recognize the USB drives as backup locations. File Explorer could read the hard drives with no problem and I could locate the backup I wanted to use. I contacted Windows chat support, went to the second level of support with no luck and they scheduled a call to me with third level support. The call never came.. Anyway, I attributed the failure of not being able to restore the image to the fact that I had never backed up anything with the new installation of Windows to those USB drives.

Now, out of curiosity's sake I decided to try the Restore operation in one of my other laptops, and connected one of the USB drives to it. Surprise, surprise, it didn't find a backup file either, so my problem with my previous laptop had nothing to do with what I thought, it is a Windows 10 problem caused by some update, because, as I said I have restored many many times from those USB drives with no problems, starting with when I had Windows 7 installed in them.

Another curious part is that when Windows can't find an image to restore it prompts you look in a network. Windows allows you to assign a network location to the drive or file that you want to restore, but when Windows goes to this location it, again, says there is no file that can be used.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this problem or it too new?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows update

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

47 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2021-08-16T22:14:15+00:00

    Thanks for replying, but I have not renamed the folder, it is on the root drive of a partition (H}, not a copy, and I tried creating a new Repair CD with the recent and updated installation of Windows, but the same results. The USB drive that I use in this case has several partitions and each has a letter assigned to it and there is nothing else in that partition other the image file. As I said, I have done this many many times over the years with various laptops, and, if I am not mistaken, have done it under similar conditions: reformatted drive and newly installed Windows. Again, I repeat, even when I tried to use restore with a laptop that has not had any problems, the USB drives or files in them are not seen or detected and I know I have restored an image from this laptop and the USB drives, but now it does not work?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2021-08-16T21:02:49+00:00

    Hi,

    I have encountered similar problems multiple times for seemingly various reasons..

    Renaming the WindowsImageBackup folder will cause this..

    The WindowsImageBackup folder must also be on the Root of the drive..

    D:\WindowsImageBackup as an example..

    I have found at times that the image will only be recognized on the original drive it was saved to.. Not a copy..

    Another thing that will cause this is if the Repair CD or Installation Media being used to Recover the image is not of a equal to or newer version than the image..

    Media from 2020 will not Recover an image of a 2021 build of Windows 10 for instance..

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments