Windows will not recognise my backup image on external hard drive?

JimLewandowski said:

Be clearer. You created a SYSTEM IMAGE of your OS-related drive(s) using the Windows 7 built-in Backup and Restore screen/process and placed that image on a target drive consisting of an external USB drive? yes

You then booted off of your Windows CD/DVD into the Recovery Environment of which one of the options is: Restore your computer from a System Image you created earlier. i used the CD and started fresh because I messed up the OS

You went ahead and chose the System Image (the screen defaults to the LAST system image you took) that was sitting on your external USB drive and began the restore process? yes

You cancelled this restore halfway through. How did you do this? Is there a CANCEL button during the restore process? If you did, I would guess that you OS image is now unusable as half will be from a system image from X time ago, and the other half will be what your OS looked like yesterday. i clicked cancel and then everytime i started my computer it just said missing Operating system, so then i restored a new OS from the CD/DVD

When you fired up the Windows CD/DVD again for Recovery Environment, did you have your external USB drive already attached? If not, there's a REFRESH button (I think) on that screen whereby you could NOW connect that USB drive, click Refresh and would hope to see that system image that resides upon that USB drive.

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JimLewandowski said:

So, you're saying the PRIOR time you did this, you COULD select the "restore computer from system image you created earlier", but this time, it just installs Windows 7 with no other option??

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whs said:

There is a way to salvage your image. But it is a pretty long procedure and you need a running system from which you can accdess the image. If you have no other option. I will be glad to explain it. But as I said, it is rather involved - but it works.

PS: It will be even more involved if you had a 100MB system partition.

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whs said:

There is a way to salvage your image. But it is a pretty long procedure and you need a running system from which you can accdess the image. If you have no other option. I will be glad to explain it. But as I said, it is rather involved - but it works.

PS: It will be even more involved if you had a 100MB system partition.

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whs said:

To salvage your restore point, you can do the following (on any of your PCs)

1. find the image and find the VHD within all the image files. It is usually the last file with the many bytes.

2. Go to Disk Management, click on the 'Action button' (top left) and then on Attach. Navigate to that VHD in the image and attach it. Now you should see a virtual volume in Disk Management and in My Computer. Remember the drive letter And give it a different name that you can recognize.

3. Download and install free Macrium - some other imaging program may also work for the next steps, but I have done it with Macrium and I know that this works.

4. Start Macrium and burn the recovery CD as a first step.

5. Image the attached VHD - should be easy to find by the drive letter or the name you gave it.

6. With the help of the Macrium recovery CD, restore that image to the partition from where the original image (the VHD) came from. If there is a problem with size, you might have to first shrink the VHD volume before you do steo #5. Make sure you mark the partition as 'active' and also restore the MBR.

7. If that partition (the C: partition) was originally active, your system should now boot. If you originally had the 100MB active system partition, Then you have to first fix your bootmgr. Either run startup repair 3 times with your installation/recovery disc, or use one of the tutorials from the tutorial section.

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whs said:

Nah, you can do it. There is nothing you can destroy. If it does not work first time, we'll try again. I could help you with Teamviewer which I have. But I prefer you do it yourself. Ask questions along the way when you think you are not certain what to do next.

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JimLewandowski said:

whs said:

Nah, you can do it. There is nothing you can destroy. If it does not work first time, we'll try again. I could help you with Teamviewer which I have. But I prefer you do it yourself. Ask questions along the way when you think you are not certain what to do next.

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Fundamentally, does System Image Restore (Win RE) need ANY data off the OS drive (i.e. System Volume Information)?

I know the last successful system image info is in the registry (which is why it shows in System Image screen as well as win RE system image restore screen).

I understand your process above, but wouldn't my solution technically also work?

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whs said:

Jim, To tell you the truth - I don't know. Your approach may very well work, but I have never tried that option.

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whs said:

Nah, you can do it. There is nothing you can destroy. If it does not work first time, we'll try again. I could help you with Teamviewer which I have. But I prefer you do it yourself. Ask questions along the way when you think you are not certain what to do next.

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whs said:

Don't worry. I am usually around.

Let's start with step 1. When you look at the image, is there 1 VHD or are there 2. If there are 2 (the smaller one would be the 100MB active system partition with the bootmgr) , we could attach both and try to move the bootmgr with EasyBCD. That would make step 7 a lot easier. You could boot right away.

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