Backup and Restore Windows 10 Pro

Uh-huh, I usually have to go check before quoting messages & stuff, myself. Yeah, after doing it once per folder, it won't happen again until the next image is made. My PCR Just PCR has my MSFT email address in it, your Owner does not. I guess that means yours isn't a MSFT account. I'm not sure which Windows version first brought "Account Unknown" to us, I'm pretty sure it wasn't always there. It didn't get moved to the copy which originally looked like this...

I'm afraid I don't understand permissions well enough to really know whether any of this is responsible for the copy being invisible to Backup & Restore. Why wouldn't it also be invisible in general then?

I must admit I use Seagate's free DiscWizard too (on each new version of Windows), just in case Backup & Restore will not even work on originals someday. But it worked fine for me just a week/so ago, & I'm still holding on. Backup & Restore is the only one that fills the Previous Versions tab of a file/folder's Properties, not that that's really necessary. You could always mount the .vhdx instead.

No one is informed of edits. I do it myself, but not after someone has replied & may not look again, unless it is just for a typo or such. Anyway, the first folder inside the WindowsImageBackup folder is what I call the computername folder, called Device Name, actually, at "right-click START, System", If you open WindowsImageBackup & change that name (I append OS Build to it right after the image is made), the next image you make into the folder will be separate & distinct like mine. They all will be offered by the restore process...

Otherwise, the image goes into the same devicename folder in an incremental way. When the increments become too many, they will be wiped & a new base image takes their place. Until then, you'd still get to choose which image to restore (if you ever get that to work), but you'd have to choose by date. When it's increments, you have to look at dates to know there's more than one image in there.

Well, I'm surprised you were able to click past the error message & make an image onto a stick. When I plug one in, it does show up (under hard disk), but I get one of two messages...

There is no way for me to click past that. Both of those are MBR, but so is the external HDD that works fine. So, I haven't tried reformatting one to NTFS.

I was hoping that making a new image into the copy would cause the drive to be seen during a restore. Too bad it wasn't, but I really wouldn't trust a copy anyway, I don't have much hope the results with a hard disk would be different regarding copies. But the HDD should be fine for original backups.

It used to be the restore process would see copies for me. But one I just made yesterday is not seen even after messing with permissions. I think for some reason copied WindowsImageBackup folders no longer work at all. Can you make originals? Rename the WindowsImageBackup folder, itself, on one of the drives. That will legitimately make it invisible to Backup & Restore. Then make a new image to the drive. Will the restore process see that? If so, although you said otherwise, I think all of yours are copies.

Edit: Hmm, let us see your Advanced Security Settings for WindowsImageBackup on what you say is an original. It may help determine whether or not that is so. That's at "Properties, Securities tab, Advanced button". But blot out any email address that is there.

Hi,

The "You don't currently have permission ... click continue to permanently gain permissions" is what I was seeing..

I just couldn't remember what it said and could not get it to appear again..

Your "PCR Just PCR" is the equivalent of my "Owner". which is my user name...

I do not remember ever seeing the "Account Unknown" in one of these files, but have seen it elsewhere..

I don't know how any of this effects whether the folders will appear or not during a recovery..

I don't know why Microsoft has set up the Backup+Restore this way.. Most other imaging utilities simply save as a large file and it does not matter if they are a copy, original, or even renamed, which is why I rarely use this feature anymore.. It does come in handy at times though, as I have a tablet that for some reason will not recover an image created with any other method..

I only have a Microsoft account which is an Administrator. I'm always in it when I make an image & examine the WindowsImageBackup folder afterward. I never had to click an "Open As Admin" type box. I probably never tried to examine its Security tab before opening it & opening all its sub-folders. (That has to be done to get a good Size reading in Properties). For each one, I have to click past "You don't currently have permission ... click continue to permanently gain permissions". But none of that has to be done on the copy, just the original. The copy has PCR Just PCR (my Microsoft identity?) as the owner.

On my original, System is the owner, &, unlike yours, it is listed in the "Properties entries" box...

Also unlike yours, there is no Backup Operator & no Owner entry. I've got that Account Unknown & PCR Just PCR, & you don't. Oddly, the latter was the owner on the copy but doesn't appear in the copy's entries box. I'm not really sure what to make of our permissions differences. If it matters, mine is a UEFI install & the original is on an MBR disk. The copy was made to a GPT disk.