Solved Help with a complete system image restore from VHD files?

[AriKona]

Not as simple as the title sounds. Believe me.

To start: I did a complete backup of my system a month ago. I saved it on an external HD. There are three directories: Backup (Date) with two VHD files in this directory, Catalog, SPPMetadataCache and a file entitled MediaID. Well, about a week ago, I was having a hard time logging on to the system. I would get to the password and the system would not allow any keyboard entry and would not respond to Ctrl-Alt-Del. After a few attempts to figurer out the problem, I decided to do an image restore. When attempting this through the Control Panel, system repair disc and Windows 7 Installation disc, nothing worked because none of them recognized the VHD files. (I should add here that this is Windows 7 Ultimate on a two 1 Terabyte drive system in Raid 0 array - ). Well, I reformatted the drives so I now have drive C: and D: and have the absolute minimal installation of Windows 7 Ult. on the computer. In doing some research I found that I could view the files with Windows Virtual Hard Drive and all the files are still there. So, this brings me to the question:

Can I (and if I can, how do I) restore the original backup of one month ago to the system?

I have read that Windows Virtual Hard Drive has a limit of 172 Gb so that might not work as the backup is 214Gb in size. I have downloaded Virtual Box in case I need it. My main concern is to return the system to original configuration (sans the Raid array) without having to re-install all the programs and reconfigure all of the ones I would have to install.

So why should I want to restore versus re-install? I have 20,432 folders and 176,000 files that date back to 1985 and many programs that have been downloaded and modified on this system and just don't want to spend that kind of time. So saying, if you have the answer or can direct me to it (I did a search without success on this specific problem), I would very much appreciate it.

Don

 

[Brink]

Hello Don, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If you did a system image backup, then you should be able to do a system image recovery at boot to restore the image backup with the date you want.

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

 

[AriKona]

Thank you for the post Shawn, but that was the first thing I tried. The problem is that the restore part of backup-and-restore does not recognize VHD files and would not allow me to access the system image. There must be some way to access them through Virtual Hard Drive or Virtual Box in order to do an all-or-nothing system restore from image, but so far I am coming up empty handed on this one. Thanks for the reply. At least people are reading this request.

 

[Brink]

Don,

Is it still not in it's original WindowsImageBackup folder as in the NOTE box at the top of this tutorial?

 

[AriKona]

It is indeed. However, the system only recognizes another backup which was done after the new install following a complete re-formatting of the HDs and does not contain all the old files, folders and system files.

I am supposedly going to hear from a level 2 tech at Microsoft tomorrow. My guess is this another epic fail on the part of MS and I will have to reconstruct piece by piece (something I dread doing). Thanks for the input.

Don

 

[Brink]

Just to be thorough, in the STEP TWO section of the tutorial below at step 6, was the older system image backup not listed there as well?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html

 

[AriKona]

Yes, it is and when I attempt to restore from it I get to step seven and the top box is checked and grayed out. When I press next (because I have no idea what "drivers" they are talking about, I get the following error: "Error: The system cannot find the specified file 0x80070002." and it stops and allows me to restart.

I don't know what "file" it is looking for as I have combed the backup folders and can't find this file anywhere.

Any ideas?

Don

 

[Brink]

Don,

Check out Scenario 3 in each section of the MS KB article below to see if that may apply and work for you for this error.

Error code 0x8100002F and or error code 0x80070002 when you back up files in Windows 7


Scenario 3 resolution
For information about how to resolve this issue, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
976972 (You encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM ) You encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM

 

[AriKona]

I should also add that I have gone to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList) and there are only 4 fiels with no redundancy. My concern is that when the OS was re-installed, I was not there and I wonder if that might be a factor. I still show as Admin. Also, if the restore ever works, will it reformat and then attempt to restore the files in a Raid array or will it restore to a single drive?

Still waiting for MS to call. What a joke.

Don

Our messages crossed in the circuits. Yes, I have read the article. I have downloaded the file and attempted to install it. All I get is "This update does not apply to this computer."

I have tried to restore from a USB hard drive and have copied the files to the D: drive to restore to C:, all without success. I would like to resolve the 0x8007002 and I believe the rest will work.

Don

 

[Brink]

It depends on if they did something to the HDD that your image backup was saved to.

No, RAID or single partitions will not matter. It only matters what was included ( selected partition(s) and size of partition(s) ) when the image was created. It will restore it back exactly the same way (partition(s) and size) to the HDD.

 

[whs]

If you can attach (mount) the VHD, you can image the attached VHD with free Macrium and restore that.

Note: the partition to which you restore must be at least the siue of the original partition.

 

[Brink]

If what Wolfgang posted above doesn't work, then.....

I suppose that in a worse case scenario, and if the VHD file for the image backup isn't corrupted, you may be able to use the tutorial below to be able to boot from the VHD file like you would any other OS in a multi-boot setup.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/625-boot-vhd-using-windows-7-a.html

 

[AriKona]

Booting from a virtual hard drive will not help as I want the system returned to the original configuration and all files back in their original place. Did I mention that there are over 214 Gbs of data? MS VHD has a 172 GB ceiling.

This time during an attempt I received the message that it couldn't find a file to restore from. Due to a forced restart I could not screen capture the error message. It suggested that I may have excluded a drive from the restore (which I didn't) or several other potential problems (it was a rather long message). The error message comes when I have gone all the way through to it actually saying the next step will reformat the drives.

Question: If I am restoring from D: to C:, will it attempt to reformat BOTH drives? I copied the files to D: to speed up the process.

Don

 

[AriKona]

If you can attach (mount) the VHD, you can image the attached VHD with free Macrium and restore that.

Note: the partition to which you restore must be at least the siue of the original partition.

I currently have Virtual Box, which can attach a VHD and I can put the files on it. But, since the main problem is the restore program, will I be able to use the image to recreate an exact C: disc of what was originally a C/D: Raid 0 array? If it will
work, I am all for it.

Is there any advantage of using Macrium over Virtual Box?

Don

 

[whs]

If you can attach (mount) the VHD, you can image the attached VHD with free Macrium and restore that.

Note: the partition to which you restore must be at least the siue of the original partition.

I currently have Virtual Box, which can attach a VHD and I can put the files on it. But, since the main problem is the restore program, will I be able to use the image to recreate an exact C: disc of what was originally a C/D: Raid 0 array? If it will
work, I am all for it.

Is there any advantage of using Macrium over Virtual Box?

Don

In the past I have imaged attached VHDs with Macrium and was able to restore those as non-VHDs. You have to use the Macrium Linux restore CD for that (easy to make). You should try to mount the VHD in a running Win7 or Vista system though (via Disk Management) and image it from there.

I fail to see the advantage of vBox being in the middle. vBox is not an imaging program.

The only problem you might run into is that you may not have an operational 100MB active partition that contains the bootmgr. In that case you will have to fix the bootmgr in C:. That one you have to play by ear.

Here is a tutorial about Macrium in case you never used it: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

 

[AriKona]

O.K., I have mounted the VHD files.
(See attached screen caps.) VHD is a picture of the two VHDs.
Main is the files in the first VHD and is the contents of Drive K:.
The other one (Drive L says it has 100Mbytes of data, but when I open it, it says it is empty.
Drive 6 (which is a virtual hard drive on a 931 Gbyte drive and contains main backup file) is showing 1862.80Gbytes, which was the original configuration.
I don't know how it can have that size when it is on a 931 GByte drive.

How can I restore these to a single (C drive?

 

[AriKona]

Additional information: Drive K: has 193,771 files; 21,240 folders; 147,710,491,882 bytes of information. (However, when read as a single file it is 214GByte).
See why I want it back?

If it was safe to write over C: with the information contained in this directory (K and be assured that the files were there to recreate the former C: drive (and allow it to boot), I would. My problem is: Are ALL the files, including system, in that single directory (K? and would copying them to C: give me a bootable system back to the backup date?

 

[whs]

1. Drive 6 (K) is your image
2. Since it is so huge, shrink it as much as possible
3. Take an image of the shrunk K with Macrium
4. Restore the image to the biggest possible partition (Macrium has problems restoring to partition smaller than the original. But since this came from a Raid partition, I am not really sure of the implications).
5. If that does not work, we'll try Paragon. It can restore to smaller partitions.
6. Disregard the 100MB active partition for the time being. It may still be intact. Else we will have to deal with that too.

Note: If you restore K, it is NOT active and do not restore the MBR

 

[mjf]

Additional information: Drive K has 193,771 files; 21,240 folders; 147,710,491,882 bytes of information. (However, when read as a single file it is 214GByte).
See why I want it back?

If it was safe to write over C: with the information contained in this directory (K and be assured that the files were there to recreate the former C: drive (and allow it to boot), I would. My problem is: Are ALL the files, including system, in that single directory (K ? and would copying them to C: give me a bootable system back to the backup date?

Windows 7 imaging (which I use!) can be fussy. Corruption of the small mediaid file will cause auto image location to fail.

I have been able to do the following:
(1) Like whs suggests Mount the main vhd (your K) shrink, image with Macrium then reimage to an appropriate sized partition. This may require you to temporarily create another primary partition on C:. I did it as an exercise quite some time ago and worked for me.
OR
(2) Simply copy your folders out of the mounted image (K in your case).
It could be that there are some hidden and system files not shown in the mounted VHD accounting for the size difference.
I would prefer to use another partition or external HDD (slow) but see no problems in copying out to a separate root folder on C:.
You only want to copy out data not OS or installed programs.

 

[AriKona]

1. Drive 6 (K) is your image
2. Since it is so huge, shrink it as much as possible
3. Take an image of the shrunk K with Macrium
4. Restore the image to the biggest possible partition (Macrium has problems restoring to partition smaller than the original. But since this came from a Raid partition, I am not really sure of the implications).
5. If that does not work, we'll try Paragon. It can restore to smaller partitions.
6. Disregard the 100MB active partition for the time being. It may still be intact. Else we will have to deal with that too.

Note: If you restore K, it is NOT active and do not restore the MBR

So, let me get this straight:
1. K: is the "unbootable" image of what my C/D drives contained.
2. The image says it is 1,800+ GBytes, but is mounted in less than half the space of a 931 Gbyte drive. How do you shrink that? The files are only ~200 GByte in size.
3. I will when I know how to "shrink" it.
4. I assume you mean a partition created on a drive other than C: as it is already partitioned for maximum usage.
5. O.K.
6. Do I need the 100Mbyte (Sytem reserved) partition? It was set up when I first setup Windows 7 and I always wondered why it was there in the first place.

Is there not a way to make the contents of Drive K: bootable and simply copy everything on K: to C: and overwrite everything on C: or copy and then make it bootable?

The sad part of this whole debacle is that Windows 7 should have been able to backup and restore like it says it can. Just another reason not to believe the claims of MS.