Solved Cannot restore from WindowsImageBackup from anywhere

[TanyaC]

Hi,

I recently had a problem with the genuine-ness of my windows which was the licence database got corrupted. As I am using keys from my Technet subscription, and since Microsoft reduced the keys from 10 to 2, I wanted to create a new image of the PC in case the problem recurred.

So I ran the system image backup and saved it to my server. Then booting from windows DVD, and from my receovery disk, I could not get to the image, no matter what I tried. I tried IP address, paths etc.

I followed Shawn's excellent tutorial here ; http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html

But still no go. So I copied the image to my WD "My Passport" USB drive, but the Windows DVD and recovery disk could not see the drive. AFAIK there are no drivers for this device, just what windows supports natively.

So I then tried to create a system image to DVD (Dual layer), since the images was 31gb. (My OS and apps are on a SSD and I wanted to image everything). After 4 disks, all I had was four copies of disk 1. The backup was restarting with each new DVD.

So I tried Easeus; Not so easy. It has problems with network support, and many other shortcomings and I couldn't get that to work either. I considered Macrium, but there are not many favourable reviews of that product, so I didn't take chances with it.

I could create the backup to my spinner, but I don't want to leave the image on that drive in case it fails with the rest of the system; I'd much rather have the image on a remote [non-cloud] drive somewhere.

So if I create an image, I can't recover from it because no restore can access the image (such as codes 0x800704cf), and I can't seem to back up to DVD..

Can anyone please help

thanks
Tanya

 

[mjf]

I considered Macrium, but there are not many favourable reviews of that product, so I didn't take chances with it.

Hello TanyaC
I'd be interested in references to non favourable reviews of the Macrium product.
It is my view and many on this forum that it is a very solid and much used imaging product. For a free third party imaging product it would be my number one choice.

I have used it for a couple of years without any problem.

 

[TanyaC]

Ok, I trust your judgement, I'll download it and give it a try.

The other idea I came up was to purchase a 500gb spinner and put all the images from all of the PCs on there and leave it packaged away in my safe for that rainy day.

Question is; Can you move the image backups from their original locations and still expect to be able to restore from them. Like if they backup to a local drive, then I copy them up to the floating drive, and if (when) the day comes, simply restore from that floating drive?

Will get back to you on my experiences on Macrium.

Here is one review of a few imaging products. Macrium is about half way down.. Network support is the main feature I was looking for, hence why I say it was unfavourable. Best Free Drive Imaging Program

 

[mjf]

A 500GB portable drive is fine for storing multiple images. I have a few smaller portables and some higher capacity non portable WDs for images.

Macrium allows you to create an image in any folder you choose. I would not move images across partition boundaries since this involves a physical move of a large amount of data.

I have no direct experience with the pros and cons of imaging packages for use specifically in a networked environment. Others can comment on this. I believe the paid Macrium would be a product for this.
For a home / small office environment I would lean towards non networked backup to directly connected HDDs.

The review you refer to has a couple of errors re free Macrium. It has a native 64 bit capability ever since I used it. Also it is portable in that the pe Recovery disk (V5) allows you to do imaging as well as recovery.

 

[TanyaC]

I didn't actually mean a portable, as attempts at getting other such drives failed. I actually mean an internal spinner, which I would install and remove after each recovery.

However, I have managed to get Macrium working after a couple of days of playing around.

My experiences;

1. I installed it on my computer, and played around with it. When downloading the WAIK I aborted it after 6 hours, as it was only 26% complete. I have a 20mbps connection.
2. I tried creating the Linux version of the recue disk to avoid the need for the WAIK. However, neither version of the Linux disk wouild work, each freezing after a few seconds.
3. So I unstalled Macrium, which like most programs, does not uninstall properly, leaving pieces of itself on the C:\ drive, registry, start menu and so on. Cleaned up manually though without problems.
4. I installed it on a test system, downloaded the WAIK ISO file (in just a few minutes), directly from Micro$oft. and created a WinPE rescue disk.
5. Did a backup and restore no problems, though I did notice the restored image on my test system was 1.2GB smaller than the original size of the C:\ used. I couldn't see anything different, and everything appeared to be working fine.
6. Tried it on my computer, which has a 33.2GB C:\ drive.
7. However, when booting, the rescue did could not recognise my RTL8111 PCIe GBE ethernet controller or my etron USB 3 ports. I used my motherboard CD and loaded the drivers without problems.
8. The resulting Image was 19.7GB in size, and took 7:07 to create, around 20% of the time it took Windows 7 to create the image.
9. I noted that to connect to network drives the only account that I could get to work was the servers Administrators account, and I had to make sure I did not specify a share. No combination of share names would work. It would only work if I left the share name blank and let Macrium discover the shares itself.
10. It also found my WD My Passport drive without problems, and I was able to read the copy of the image I placed there.
11. Ran a restore from the USB drive and it took 21 minutes.

Next I'll try and integrate the missing drivers into the rescue disk per the knowledge base article on their site. If it doesn't work, it shouldn't be too much of a problem - I would hope that I don't have to do a receovery very often.

So, all appears to be well.

thanks for your help

Tanya

 

[mjf]

So are you saying you reinstalled Macrium and it's all working?
I use a download manager for big downloads in case the server at the other end is running slow.
This is another free imaging program you might want to try out
Easeus Todo Backup Free - Download.com
and / or
Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition - Overview

I stick with Windows inbuilt imaging and Macrium.

 

[TanyaC]

So are you saying you reinstalled Macrium and it's all working?
I use a download manager for big downloads in case the server at the other end is running slow.
This is another free imaging program you might want to try out
Easeus Todo Backup Free - Download.com
and / or
Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition - Overview

I stick with Windows inbuilt imaging and Macrium.

Yes . It works. It's portable (yay!). My faith in the world is retored. My kids said "Mum, why have you been smiling so much the last couple of days"... Swwethearts

I tried Easeus. Sorry, this one definately does not work for me. The network side of things just doesn't work, and there were a few other things that just frustrated the hell out of me. Paragon too, close.. but no sale.

Despite the fact that Macrium has received some bad reviews, and perhaps they are out of date and do not accurately reflect Macriums true abilities, I let those reviews pollute my selection of software.

Thank you for your suggestions.

I've even managed to integrate my drivers successfully, so it's working perfectly. Now I will go and image all of the machines. That will keep me busy for the next day or so

Tanya

 

[mjf]

If Mum's happy that's the main thing.
Michael.