Cannot Restore image from external HD!

Si, why do you think they won't improve it to at least allow choice of where to reimage? Are there some kind of piracy concerns? It's as if they want to limit it's functionality.

Hi Greg,

It seems to me MS have given the user as few options as possible deliberately.

Makes sense - most users have never heard of a system image. When they are asked to make one , they will probably agree.

At least they then have something to fall back on - it will do the job most of the time for the beginner.

Give them options and they won't know what to do.


BTW - just last week I asked about ten people if they knew what a boot disc was - or how to boot from a disc or usb.

None of them had any idea, neither had they even heard of it.

They are all daily users of windows pc's/laptops and have been for years.

They are all pretty intelligent and well educated.

Most people haven't the slightest clue - they just know how to do desktop stuff, what to click so they can get on the net, play a game , etc.

Why do you think MS hide even file extensions from the public?

MS confuse the average user by not clearly separating their file/folder Backup capability from their imaging capability.
Their standalone imaging is simple to use. The filename change / folder move workaround could have easily been added with a simple user interface for users wanting more flexible capabilities.

The biggest problem with MS imaging is lack of robustness - too many single points of failure (eg. a separate 16 byte MediaID file). People often seem to complain about having an image but windows refuses to see it. They have failed the very market segment they are targeting.
I wonder what the user satisfaction level actually is for products like Macrium, Acronis etc.?

Nevertheless, I still use it along with Macrium.

I like Acronis cloning and imaging. Resizing while cloning, Universal Restore allowing me to apply any image to new hardware, reimaging easier over network.

Some say it is too expensive but it's free if you have a WD or Seagate plugged in.

There were two machines recently where their boot disk wouldn't work correctly, so I guess there are downsides to even the best of them.

I have spent hours trying to pull a Win7 image over the network - shouldn't typing the filepath have died with DOS for consumer software even if it worked?

Unlike Win7, it doesn't "just work."