Backup and Restore Windows 10 Pro

Since you don't want me to edit my replies, here is a correction to my last message. I did find the folder for the backup I just made of my present Windows installation. It was inside the WindowsImageBackup folder, under Backup 2021-08-18 etc folder, which is todays date, but there was nothing inside. Also the contents of the Catalog, Logs and SPPMetadataCache folders were empty.

I had not seen or read the last two replies, but I will do it later, but in the meantime let me share what happened to my experimentation with the 2 Tb USB drive. I was able to copy my image backup to it, but when I tried to do a Restore from that location, the same thing happened as with the original file, it could not see it or find it. In view of that I decided to do a new backup of my present installation in the laptop to the USB stick which started fine by showing the backup progress window and the backup already started, but then a message window popped up saying to select a location with at least 1 Tb of space, which the USB stick had and more, so I proceeded to ignore and close that message window and see what happened, and the backup process continued in the original window, so I assumed everything was fine. After the backup was completed I opened File Explorer hoping to find 2 backups in the USB stick, but I only found one, and it was not the recent backup but the old one, the one that was a copy, so I don't know where the last backup went to. Just out of curiosity I tried to do a Restore to see if Windows would find at least USB stick location, but it didn't. So, back to square one. I don't know what this proved because initially windows seemed to accept the USB stick as a backup location and went through with the backup process except that File Explorer could not find it. So, at the moment I am not sure what will happen when I buy the 5 Tb USB drive and attempt to duplicate what I just did with the 2 TB USB stick.

I recall you said that you were able to restore from a copy of a backup, but, perhaps, your situation was different in the sense that you used the same laptop and same Windows installation to do the backup, copy the backup to another location and then restore from the copy and all that stuff you say about the shadow copy being saved somewhere in the system allowed you to do that. In may case I am trying to restore from a different Windows installation, even if it is the same laptop, I am wondering if under this situation the restoring of a copy would work.

Hi,

After copying my image file and checking the Permissions and Owner, the owner was "Administrator" on the copy and "System" on the Original.. I cahnged it to "System" manually..

On a 3rd image I created and never actually opened, which would require clicking on a "Open As Admin" type box, the Security Tab and Advanced Button provided completely different results..

You may notice that there is a User "Backup Operators" which is not present on the copy..

You may also notice that "System" is the owner, but is not listed as a "User" at all for some reason ..

This image works properly.. At least it did before clicking the "Open As Admin" box.. I have not tested it since..

After returning to the WindowsImageBackup folder, double clicking, and clicking the "Open As Admin" type box, I then got different "Security Tab" and "Advanced" windows as shown below...

I changed nothing on any of these windows.. This was all done by Windows with different results dependent upon whether the "Open As Admin" had been clicked or not..

With the haphazard type rules that the Backup+Restore seems to impose upon itself, I couldn't even guess as to what effects these differences would make as to the usability of the image...

Did you get permissions on WindowsImageBackup & each of the 5 folders inside before looking at its Properties for size? Mine is 92 GB but it has 3 separate & distinct computername folders inside, So, I had to get permissions on 16 folders total before it would say 92 GB...

I copied that from one 2TB external HDD to another. It was USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 & took about 40 minutes at a steady 30 MBs. The HDD was empty to start except it did have 3 shadow copies from having made images to it in the past. They have stayed although the WindowsImageBackup folders were deleted...

X:\Sources>dir "F:\System Volume Information" /a /s

Volume in drive F is Seagate 2TB Slim Blue

Volume Serial Number is E69A-0E2A

Directory of F:\System Volume Information

08/18/2021 12:12 AM <DIR> .

08/18/2021 12:12 AM <DIR> ..

08/18/2021 12:12 AM <DIR> EDP

05/19/2019 06:56 PM 76 IndexerVolumeGuid

11/23/2020 11:08 PM 20,480 tracking.log

05/19/2019 06:56 PM 12 WPSettings.dat

03/06/2021 06:11 PM 12,441,288,704 {22ab8690-308f-11eb-b1f2-74e6e2074932}{3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752}

11/23/2020 10:30 PM 65,536 {3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752}

11/27/2020 08:03 PM 4,297,162,752 {4da27a22-2dfb-11eb-b1ef-74e6e2074932}{3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752}

03/06/2021 06:11 PM 24,998,051,840 {55973e07-7e20-11eb-b207-74e6e2074932}{3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752}

           7 File(s) 41,736,589,400 bytes 

Directory of F:\System Volume Information\EDP

08/18/2021 12:12 AM <DIR> .

08/18/2021 12:12 AM <DIR> ..

08/18/2021 12:12 AM <DIR> Recovery

           0 File(s)              0 bytes 

Directory of F:\System Volume Information\EDP\Recovery

08/18/2021 12:12 AM <DIR> .

08/18/2021 12:12 AM <DIR> ..

           0 File(s)              0 bytes 

 Total Files Listed: 

           7 File(s) 41,736,589,400 bytes 

           8 Dir(s)  1,859,625,807,872 bytes free

That can only be seen in the recovery environment (Shift+Restart). It won't show up after a boot. The space taken by the System Volume Information folder is carved off the partition (I'm unsure when) & is not reported as used or available space by File Explorer. It belongs to the system overhead. But it can be seen with "VSSAdmin List Shadows". It was F: in the recovery environment, but it is G: in Windows...

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {de17858c-05f5-4b92-9117-a825e1e4fb56}

Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 11/24/2020 2:30:34 AM

  Shadow Copy ID: {c3a13512-14d5-4337-ab2d-9a84e13d6344} 

     Original Volume: **(G:)**\\?\Volume{dbd87d1a-29ab-4645-b77d-8742584e1bda}\ 

     Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy18 

     Originating Machine: PCRsComputer 

     Service Machine: PCRsComputer 

     Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0' 

     Type: DataVolumeRollback 

     Attributes: Persistent, No auto release, No writers, Differential 

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {a8137b04-59fc-4f36-952b-4b9d72992204}

Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 11/28/2020 12:03:09 AM

  Shadow Copy ID: {5e94520f-cfc0-4ff2-bdc3-50cb02f03f72} 

     Original Volume: **(G:)**\\?\Volume{dbd87d1a-29ab-4645-b77d-8742584e1bda}\ 

     Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy19 

     Originating Machine: PCRsComputer 

     Service Machine: PCRsComputer 

     Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0' 

     Type: DataVolumeRollback 

     Attributes: Persistent, No auto release, No writers, Differential 

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {61b03cae-ea2a-43c7-b153-3e79730a28a0}

Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 3/6/2021 10:11:55 PM

  Shadow Copy ID: {48efffa9-ab12-4186-9628-a0ec87b76c9f} 

     Original Volume: **(G:)**\\?\Volume{dbd87d1a-29ab-4645-b77d-8742584e1bda}\ 

     Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy20 

     Originating Machine: PCRsComputer 

     Service Machine: PCRsComputer 

     Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0' 

     Type: DataVolumeRollback 

     Attributes: Persistent, No auto release, No writers, Differential

System already had full permissions, but I was the owner. I changed the owner to System, but still the drive won't show up in Backup & Restore...

It was,,,