Windows BU successful or not

pbirch3074 · 11 Aug 2015

HI,
My wifes win7 pc stated giving us SMART warnings that the hdd was in the process of failings. We immediately began a Windows BU making a complete system image onto an external USB HD. The drive was larger than the "C" drive we were backing up. The C drive had about 350GB of space used on it and it took over 30 hours to do the BU but Windows said that the BU was successfully completed. The PC only has USB 2 so the BU was not going to be fast but I was surprised at the time and perhaps that points to a failing drive in itself?

I have been very surprised by two things but it might be normal and I'm looking for advice/opinions.

First, the external "F" drive now has over 620 GB of space used on it which is almost double the usage of the C drive that was backed up to it. Is this possible or normal?

Secondly, when I click on the F drive to see what it contains it shows a folder called "Name of PC", also a folder named Windows Image BU and finally a MediaID .bin file. With the sole exception of the .bin file the folders do not indicate any data amount in GB. If I right click on them and go to Properties they both say "0" bytes. Is this normal or is there an issue here?

Assuming nothing is amiss here am I correct that I have everything I need to successfully remove the failing C drive, put in a new one, boot off the "F" drive using Windows Image BU and copy all the programs and data from the "F" drive onto the new "C" drive.?

Yes, I do realize it is time to buy a new PC!

Thanks for the help, in advance.

ignatzatsonic · 11 Aug 2015

pbirch3074 said:

Assuming nothing is amiss here am I correct that I have everything I need to successfully remove the failing C drive, put in a new one, boot off the "F" drive using Windows Image BU and copy all the programs and data from the "F" drive onto the new "C" drive.?

I'd be EXTREMELY wary of assuming nothing is amiss, given what you describe and given that you apparently have little experience with Windows Backup. It's a bit of a strange bird well known for confusing the inexperienced.

It's hard to say what you have backed up. Maybe just C. Maybe C and some other partitions. Maybe nothing you can successfully get at or recover.

What would I do?

I'd conduct myself as if I could NOT recover Windows until proven otherwise. Know what you would do if that turns out to be true.

I'd backup my DATA as opposed to Windows to a known good destination using nothing more complicated than a mouse and keyboard. Plain old copy, ignoring Windows entirely.

Then I'd attempt to make some sort of headway with an imaging application that is more user-friendly.

Unless of course you can get some expert help in here on Windows Backup and Restore, which might happen.

I don't think it's going to allow you to "boot off the F drive". That isn't how backup applications typically work. Nor will you get very far with a "copy all the programs and data" from F to the new C. That's not how imaging works.

It doesn't do you any good now, but the time to get familiar with backup, restore, and imaging is when things are going well, not after you are in a jam with a failing drive. I do realize you knew that before making your post.

Good luck. I can't help you further with Windows Backup.

pbirch3074 · 11 Aug 2015

Sound like the voice of very experienced wisdom! Our experience with Win bu is "zero"! We did not know it was another MS non-friendly user app. The computer still works so our ability to try other options seems to still exist at the moment. I intend to start by some simple drop and drag data files to another drive. Thanks