Windows 7: Backup Will Not Restore to New Disc

Hi,

I have backed up my system image to an external hard drive which is 500gig and I have installed a new hard drive which is 500gig. The old one that I have removed is only 320gig so I know there is no issues there. If I try and restore to the old drive (320gig) it will try and restore but if I swap it over for the new one it will not start backup and I get the message 'The system image restore failed'



No disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found.

Is this because the lettering of the drive is different and if so how do I change please?

1) Are you using Windows imaging?
2) Have you successfully restored images to your existing 320GB HDD?
3) What is your new 500GB HDD?
4) Do you connected it alone to the same sata connector the 320GB is normally connected? You could boot to the downloaded Partition Wizard boot CD and check the new HDD out. Try formatting it NTFS primary with Partition Wizard and repeat the exercise of reimaging.

When you boot from a live boot CD (eg system repair CD) drives letters can be all over the place.

I have since discovered that Windows is not seeing the drive. The new one that is. I can add it as a second drive under Windows 7 and it will discover and install but if I load it on its own it asks for drivers whether I try to install from a backup or try a fresh install. I have not seen any drivers on Seagates site.

Strange that this is the case on my laptop because I have installed it no problem on my PC.

The drive is a Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid which is 500 Gig.

Laptop is HP G61

Hi, Can anyone please advise?

I have downloaded the drivers for the storage from Hewlett Packard but when I load them into Windows with a fresh install it states that they are not correct. They most definitely are.

I had this problem when I was beta testing vista but you expect those kind of problems with a unreleased operating system.

If I load this in my PC then it recognises it straight away so why can't my Hewlett Packard laptop do the same.

Can someone please help as this is driving me crazy?

Thanks.

Steverido, you are now introducing that what your trying to restore is to a new hard disk in a laptop?

what make model and such?

That might make a difference on advising you to solve the problem.

Rich

Hi Rich,

My first post mentions that I have a new drive but apologies if I did not make this clear.

The Hewlett Packard is a G61 410SA. I have downloaded the drivers from HP site and put them on a memory stick but when I try to do a fresh install to the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid (500 Gig) it does not recognise them as being the drivers.

I get the installation to the point where it wants you to load drivers and format.

Like I said before I can put this into my PC and it picks it up straight away. I am running this type of drive as my main drive in the PC because they are the closest you can get to SSD without the price tag.


If you need any further information please let me know and thanks for helping Rich

Am I correct in assuming that the driver you downloaded from HP is a single .exe file? If so, Windows Setup won't know what to do with it. It expects a driver package with an .inf file, I believe - so what you'll want to do is try to extract the .exe file into a folder, this will probably work with WinRAR for example.
Hope that helps!

Yes you are right it is an .exe file and unfortunately I have extracted it onto my memory stick and it still does not see it. I can get it to see a list of the files but it tries to load them and still states that there is no suitable drivers.

What software did you use to make the "backup"?

I have tried Windows 7 after backing up, Acronis true image home and the HP built in software. Because I can't seem to get the Drivers to install it will not restore to the new disc. I have also tried to do a clean install but it again asks for drivers to enable the hard disk and again it will not recognise the drivers.

Not sure if I have to do anything with the drivers once I extract them!! I have put them in a folder and I can see a list of the and have trie various attempts at installing them but it just will not see them.