Backup and Restore Windows 10 Pro

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.

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.

Well, it's been a few since I got my 5 Tb USB drive, which I partitioned into 1 Tb partitions and I copied my WindowsImageBackup folder into one of them, but unfortunately with the results. Windows doesn't see it or find it or recognize it. So I decided to create a new image backup to the same folder, just for fun, in the hope that once the two backups are in the same partition Windows might see both, but again with the same result. The funny part, this time, was that Windows overwrote the previous  WindowsImageBackup folder, so presumably I only had a backup of my present installation, and I created a Restore disk, to make sure I had "compatible" backup and a restore disk, but when tried to restore the image, it didn't work either. So, finally I decided to reinstall all my apps and have started doing so. My idea was to at least recuperate some of my more important files by mounting the vhdx file, which is beggining to look like a big problem because the system rejects my intent to mount the file by displying a message that says it is initialized or etc etc and to use the Disk Management snap in to fix the problems. I managed to find some information about it using an MMC command, which I was able to open the Disk Management window and create a VHD folder in one of the 1 Tb partitions, but I can't seem to mount the image file in that folder. I still get the same message that I got when trying to mount directly with the mount command.

Any of you guys can give me a hint as to how to use the snap in procedure?

Hi,

I don't know much about mounting a vhdx image as I have never tried before, but I right clicked on one and selected Mount.. I got the same error you mentioned about being Initialized..

Out of curiosity I went to Disk management and there was another drive there..

I assigned it a drive letter and it now appears in This PC.. It is obviously a duplicate of my Windows installation..

I seem to be able to access any file I want..

Too bad the new HDD didn't resolve your problem.. Since you are starting over, now may be a good time to give switch to Macrium.. I should note that Macrium requires installation to create the needed boot media to recover images.. The good part is that once you have the boot media you no longer need the installed version.. All Macrium features are available from the boot media which runs on Windows PE or RE depending upon your choice at time of creation..

What I do is install Macrium on a machine in which I can easily delete the partition after creating the media and reload a fresh Image.. Then I have media that will work on all machines without any more installation needed or existing..

BTW.. I don't think you Mount the vhdx file in a folder.. That may be your problem.. It mounts to a virtual drive..

You would then need to copy the contents you need from the virtual drive to any folder you choose..

This is what's on mine