Backup and Restore Windows 10 Pro

Anonymous

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?

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

Anonymous

2021-08-18T14:32:39+00:00

Hi,

If you still have that copy available and feel like messing with it, you might try changing the Owner of the WindowsImageBackup folder to "System" with Full Permissions and apply to sub-folders + files...
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2021-08-18T20:24:05+00:00

Thanks, I will attempt it as soon as I am done with the copying to the USB stick
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2021-08-18T21:41:40+00:00

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,,,
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2021-08-18T22:44:14+00:00
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
```
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2021-08-19T01:31:27+00:00

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...
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments