Restoring Windows 7 WindowsImageBackup to new blank hard drive

micahgill85 · 17 Dec 2012

My situation:
I did a windows 7 back up to my Seagate 2TB external hard drive.
--> see attached images
My HP pavilion internal 120 GB SATA Hard Drive with windows 7 OS died.
I bought and installed a new internal 320 GB SATA Hard Drive.
I plug USB 2TB hard drive with backup image into HP pavilion laptop.
I put USB Hard drive as first in boot mode in HP pavilion BIOS.
When i run it says "operating system not found".

My question:
How do i get the HP pavilion to install the image file from the 2TB external harddrive onto the new 320 GB hard drive?

Brink · 17 Dec 2012

Hello micahgill,

Double check using the tutorial below to make sure you are properly doing the system image recovery.

System Image Recovery

Hope this helps for now, :)
Shawn

micahgill85 · 17 Dec 2012

From the attached images does it look like i have the right files?
From the tutorial link, it says to open a command prompt at boot. Can i open a command prompt on a hard drive that is brand new and empty?
All the screen says is Operating system not found
I understand if I am going to image the hard drive I need a command prompt

Brink · 18 Dec 2012

Clicking on the links within the steps of the tutorial can give you more details on how to do that action if needed.

The STEP ONE section is only to be used if you had renamed your WindowsImageBackup folder.

In your case, you could use step 3 in the STEP TWO section to create a System Repair Disc to use to boot to the System Recovery Options screen, and then select to do a System Image Recovery.

Mark Phelps · 18 Dec 2012

I could be wrong, since I don't use it, but you said you did an image backup of Win7 to the external drive -- and I don't think that makes the drive bootable -- which would be why it would give that error message.

Saying this only because I use Macrium Reflect to do this and that does not make the drive or image bootable, instead, I have to use a separate Boot CD.

kado897 · 18 Dec 2012

You need either to boot from an Installation disk or from a repair disk to restore a Windows image.System Repair Disc - Create