Solved Restore Windows 7 System Image to another hard drive!!!

hassaanid2011 · Feb 4, 2011

Hello!!!

I have 640GB WD hard disk and i created system image of Drive C and system reserved drive. Backup successfully completed and afterward i disconnected my 640GB HDD and connect new one which is 320GB and now i want to restore my system image to 320GB WD HDD. I tried it but it gave me error saying "element not found". Please tell me how can i restore system image that was created from 640GB HDD to 320GB HDD?

Thanks!!!

DocBrown · Feb 4, 2011

What drive did you create the backup image on? Do you have the win7 install DVD ?

Brink · Feb 4, 2011

Hello Hassaanid,

Sorry, but you must use a HDD that is the same size or larger than the one the system image was created for. You will not be able to do a system image recovery to a smaller HDD.

hassaanid2011 · Feb 4, 2011

I created backup on external hard disk and i also have installation disc when i try to restore system image by using repair your computer option from installation disc then i click on restore system image then i select the latest system image that is stored on external media then format and repartition option is already checked and in grayed (unavailable) format then i click next then at the time when the time for starting restore process it says "element not found" PLZ tell me how can i do this without any errors?

hassaanid2011 · Feb 4, 2011

Yes i know but i created system image of only two drives System drive where my windows installed and other one is system reserved drive and the size of system image is only 22GB and i have three partitions on my 320GB HDD. Primary C size is 50GB, D size is 124GB and E size is 124GB. Why this error occurs? the size of the partition is more than the size of system image...

Brink · Feb 4, 2011

A system image is a clone of the selected HDD's backed up.

You got the error because you are trying to restore a image backup for a 640GB HDD on a 320GB HD. It doesn't matter how large the actual image file is, it's the total size of the selected HDD's that the image was created for that matters.

To restore the image, you must restore it to a HDD that is at least 640GB or larger.

hassaanid2011 · Feb 4, 2011

if i connect my 640gb hdd then can i be able to restore my image? Becoz the original hdd is connected. If it is not possible then tell me any other possible way to restore my system image. What does "element not found" error means in this case?

Brink · Feb 4, 2011

Hassaanid,

The "element not found" error means that Windows 7 could not find a connected HDD drive large enough for you to be able to select to restore the image to.

If you connect the 640GB HDD back, then you should be able to restore to it.

kado897 · Feb 4, 2011

Brink said:
Hassaanid,

The "element not found" error means that Windows 7 could not find a connected HDD drive large enough for you to be able to select to restore the image to.

If you connect the 640GB HDD back, then you should be able to restore to it.

Just a thought. If you could shrink your partitions to less than 320G on the 640G drive and imaged them would that work?

SIW2 · Feb 4, 2011

See

and

and also

hassaanid2011 · Feb 5, 2011

Hello guys!!!

Now i tell u in details what the matter is. Firstly both hdds are connected in my pc windows 7 is installed in 640gb hdd and i created the system image back in my external 250gb hdd i created the system image for c drive and system reserved drive back up successfully completed but then i turnoff my computer and disconnect my 640gb hdd then i insert windows 7 installation disk and also connect my external 250gb hdd where my system image is stored then i click on repair your computer option and select the latest system image and at the end it says "element not found". The size of c drive from 640gb hdd is 30gb and in my 320gb hdd the same drive is 50gb in size. Now tell me how can i fix this error and successfully restored my windows 7 system image to another hdd?

Brink · Feb 5, 2011

Hassaanid,

If you want to fix this, then please read and refer to the posts above. I know what you would like to do, but it's just not possible. See the links below if you want it fixed.

http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...tem-image-another-hard-drive.html#post1223740

and

http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...tem-image-another-hard-drive.html#post1223671

hassaanid2011 · Feb 5, 2011

my problem does not seems to be solved but one last question if i delete my primary c partition on 320gb then what will happen? Will it works for me?

Brink · Feb 5, 2011

Only if you connect your 640GB HDD, then restore the image to your 640GB HDD will you fix this.

hassaanid2011 · Feb 5, 2011

Any other way?
to restoration because its too important for me to restore?
because i have gta 4 and gta episodes from liberty city is installed on my machine
and if i install new windows on my 320gb instead of restoring it then i lose all of my game progress
and i don't know how to restore gta 4 and gta episodes from liberty city save files with game for windows?

Brink · Feb 5, 2011

Why do you not want to restore to your 640GB HDD?

If you do not want to restore to your 640GB HDD because of the game progress, then the only other way is to restore to another internal HDD that is at least 640GB or larger.

hassaanid2011 · Feb 5, 2011

I don't want to restore it to 640GB HDD because my brother is going to another city with his 640GB HDD that's why i created a system image of my windows 7 installation and want to restore it in my 320GB HDD but ?????

WindowsStar · Feb 5, 2011

@hassaanid2011

Super simple solution: Buy a new 1TB drive they are super cheap now-a-days. Install it and restore the image. Problem solved! -WS

hassaanid2011 · Feb 5, 2011

Hello Guys!!!

I installed new windows on my 320GB HDD and works fine for me. Thanks to all who tries to help me in this thread regarding restoring system image matter.

Thanks again to all!!!

gregrocker · Feb 5, 2011

Western Digital's excellent free Acronis cloning app works quite well to adjust partitioning size on both source and target HD's during cloning or when saving and restoring the image: WD Support

Solved Restore Windows 7 System Image to another hard drive!!!

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