System Image Not Found on External USB HDD with Image as Root Folder

Well, I guess moving it isn't a problem. Does it matter if there is another folder unrelated to restore in the root?

Okay, simple things first. I did go ahead with a clean install. Had a bit of problems getting all the updates to take, but somehow got it all done. (made another image after all the basics were installed to protect myself, LOL!)

Anyway I had previously tried restore through the windows installation AND off a boot disk.

So, now I have tried to get at the image again and its still not recognized. Taking some of your tips, I have moved the files back into the root of the drive and also moved the Mediaid.bin file to the root as well...but alas...nothing!

I can get into the folder through windows and see all the files and the structure seems to match the new image I made.

I have used this drive before to recover a year ago or more.

I am going to see about mounting it now. If I can see it and navigate it (assuming I mount correctly) then the image is solid and there is a different issue. First I'm going to relocate the MediaID.bin file to the location in the jpeg.

Just in case, here is a graphic of my Backups. The only one useable is because it has to have that annotation for Windows to find it.

I am greatly interested in an answer to this as well. I've scoured the internet and various forums for the better part of 2 days trying to get a clear and concise answer to no avail. The one thing I have been able to reach concesus on is that Window's Imaging Back-up is a poorly coded, unreliable hunk of steaming poo and Windows should have never integrated and touted such a program if it had this degree of questionable integrity, especially considering the vital lifeline roll they knew it would play for users in the event of a system failure.

Now that my vent is over, I'll quickly layout the specs of my system:
- Win 7 Ultimate
- Seagate GoFlex running on USB 3.0 base.
- Dell D830 Laptop
- 3 month old harddrive
- Back-up Image is in the Root folder (F: )


My particular issue:
Late Friday afternoon my system would not boot into Windows. It would not even let me go into Safe Mode. After the BIOS screen, the screen would go black with a flashing cursor in the upper left.

Steps taken:
- I used my recovery disk to soft boot into the system and scanned everything which returned no errors.

- Next I ran a system rollback. No change.

- Subsequently, I decided to run a system restore from an image I backed up on my Seagate GoFlex External 3 months ago when I bought a new hardrive for this machine. Let's call this Back-up (Old)


NOTE: When I ran the image restore 3 months ago there was no problem. The system recognized the image and transferred everything with perfect calibration afterward.

- This time I was met with a roadblock; although I have used this very same image just 3 months prior on this machine, it refused to recognize the image instead asking me to install a driver, which is thoroughly confusing because if the drivers were not installed it ought not be able to recognize the external HDD.


- I suspected whatever had caused the original boot error might be the culprit, so I did a 'clean-all' wipe of the drive (All 0's) and reinstalled Windows 7.


- I re-ran the image restore. Again, no luck. It refused to recognize the image although I could see it in the file manager view.

- To test the restore function itself, I created a new back-up image of my new installed bare bones Win 7 (Let's call this Back-Up (New)) and mapped the destination to the external (F:). When it was completed, I re-ran the image restore function and my machine immediately recognized Back-Up (New).

- I next attempted to trick the machine by moving all the files from Back-Up (Old) into Back-Up (New)'s directory. I restarted the restore function and it recognized the Back-Up (New) directory. I ran image restore but I could tell by how fast it completed the task, which barely lasted 2 minutes, it didn't take.

- Machine restarted and nothing changed. It's still a bare bones Windows 7 system.

I am utterly at a loss. Windows is asking me for a 'driver' in order to see the old/use the old image and I cannot think of any other way to force Windows to see the image.

Any help would be appreciated.


Please note: I am not super technical. With clear, layman terms instructions, and detailed steps I have no problem hacking my way around in DOS or the Windows environment itself.

Thx.

There have been quite a few incidents like that with win sys img.

I can't answer why it happens.

If you really need it - best thing is to mount the .vhd and image the mounted .vhd with something else.

Then use that newly created macrium\paragon\whatever image to restore.

I did exactly that a few years back as a test. It worked fine, so I have been suggesting it as a workaround ever since.

The tut is useful is useful for beginners who want step by step stuff.

Heist doesn't need that - he can understand what is meant just from my few words.