Backup and Restore Windows 10 Pro

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.

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 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.

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..