Need instructions on how to make restore tool support usb 3 on startup

[egozi44]

So I made system image (was suspiciously short for 700 gb from 3 Sata II drives to one usb 3 external drive..)

and figure I won't be able to use it next time as win7 don't have native support for usb 3, I know there are few ways to make the os or the tool which you burn on the disk support it but don't sure how.

I know it relate to let the os detect your usb3 driver but I don't sure where are the files, plus I prefer to do it on the disk as it won't make me to install the entire os before I can load it's backup.

can someone tell me step by step how I can make the disk recovery tool to detect USB3 drive?

if it impossible then tell me step by step how to do it in the os (though at this point I could just install the usb3 driver... so it kinda poinless)



Thank in advance

 

[Ranger4]

What back up program did you use to create the system image.

 

[egozi44]

windows 7's

 

[egozi44]

Any ideas?

 

[MeOnMine]

Hello,
My first piece of advice to you is don't use Windows 7 backup features.
It is notorious for not being reliable.
Here on Seven Forums you will be advised to use Macrium Reflect Free.
You can install on your operating system and from the install you can create a boot-able rescue disk.
Here is a tutorial on how to use it.

 

[mjf]

I'd agree something like Macrium Reflect is the way to go. The USB 3 restore capability is straightforward.

To answer your specific question. For USB 3 support to Windows inbuilt system imaging you need to either:
1) load the usb3 drivers manually
eg
Problem recoverying from backup via USB 3.0 external drive

2) Insert the usb3 drivers into the Windows system repair boot.wim using the DISM command. There are a number of guides/videos on doing this for usb3 windows installation. These give the DISM recipe.

The usb3 drivers should be on your motherboard installation DVD and the latest downloadable from the manufacturer. If I'm using Windows inbuilt system imaging I just use option 1).

 

[egozi44]

My issue with 3d party apps is that you usually need to install the OS and then reinstall them before you can use them, when I load the backup I want it to be on clean hdd.

I saw the other link you sent before I open this thread, my issue with it was that it didn't gave accurate info for noobs as to what part of the driver they should add to the disk, I assume I can just use the mobo's drivers disk and choose the drivers from there, but if they rared or come only with installer I will have issue and will need to take them from my pc before formating it, the other issue was that the guide which tell you how to add drivers to the system image loader seems like it tell you how to do it when you already have the OS installed (it show in the images you can choose your media disk from "my computer" while using Explorer, thing that should be possible if you have them installed afaik).

Can you tell me what part of the driver I need to add to disk and where it usually should be locate?

 

[mjf]

My issue with 3d party apps is that you usually need to install the OS and then reinstall them before you can use them, when I load the backup I want it to be on clean hdd.

I'm not sure what you mean here.

In the case of Windows inbuilt imaging to locate and restore an image you boot from the system repair DVD or USB. This is a mini OS environment in its own right and doesn't boot Windows. I use a USB flash drive plugged into a usb 2 port. I put the drivers in a folder (inf,sys, cat files). When you select the load driver option you are given a mini explorer capability so you can locate your driver folder. You need the hub and host controller files (6 files in my case). You use the load driver option twice and point to the 2 *.inf files. After you load the 2nd you should see activity on your external usb 3 connected drive and you should be able to select your [WindowsImageBackup] folder and perform a system image restore.

In the case of Macrium Reflect (free) after you install the application the first thing you do is to create a rescue DVD or USB flash drive. When you select the pe 5 rescue option the usb 3 drivers are built in so you don't have to manually load them. The Macrium rescue environment is also a mini OS of sorts and doesn't require booting Windows. Overall most people here would agree that Macrium is the better system imaging option for a number of reasons.

The USB 3 drivers should be on your motherboard installation disk and also on the manufacturers website. They are also located in
C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository
This contains a lot of folders so you need to look for a couple folders "....usb3....".

 

[egozi44]

I see, thanks.

Is it possible to do yet another system image on the same drive with Macrium? I would prefer to have both backups in one hdd unless they will collide with each other.


also could you answer a few questions for me?

1. do you know if Macrium recovery disk support unicode and other languages? my os is not in English and have rather complicate language that goes from right to left; and I was wondering if it could effect anything?

2. can you tell me what so unreliable in win7's backup app and what Macrium does better?

3. also any idea why win7 backup app take small time to create system image? (I backup 3 drives of Sata 2 to one usb 3 hdd, all of their data take 700 gb)

aside from the fact that sata2 should be slower than usb3 drives, I also have many files that could take some time being backup, iirc the more complicated the file the more it may take copy paste it, unless it rared that it.

not to mention that the anti virus or other apps that run in the background could interfere or slow it down.
yet less than 3 hours was all the time it took to back it up...

 

[mjf]

You can make as many Macrium system images that will fit on your ext HDD.
1. I don't know.
2. Windows inbuilt has been reliable for me but this forum has many reporting problems. It requires a system restore to a drive at least as large as the source drive irrespective of how large the image is.
Macrium can restore to smaller drives and image any non OS partition. Macrium includes compression giving you smaller image files. Macrium also allows you to perform clone operations. The rescue/restore media is better. The rescue media also allows you to image partitions without booting the Windows OS - this can be useful in some situations. I may have left out some other benefits....
3. 2 hours to image 700GB may not be an unreasonable time. Making a 700GB image is unreasonable.
You should keep your OS partition small enough so that you can make regular system images in a reasonable time (~ 10min IMO). Put large data in separate partitions or drives.

Your image speeds will not be restricted by the sata 2, sata 3, usb 3 speeds but the write speed of your ext HDD.

 

[MeOnMine]

In answer to question 1. Macrium will record and compress into an Image that is Data.
Your OS is just Data and the language you use will not be affected.
I image my wife's computer all the time and she is Russian.

 

[mjf]

Re: Q1 - I don't know if Macrium supports other language interfaces but if you are ok with an English interface you're ok. Of course data is data as long as you understand the software language interface.

 

[RolandJS]

"...Is it possible to do yet another system image on the same drive with Macrium Reflect?"
If you're asking: can you use MR to make a full image of your OS partition, saving that full image onto another partition on the same internal hard-drive, if I understand correctly, yes you can. I advise against it because if the internal hard-drive goes bad, you have only one full image on an external hard-drive to use for an OS partition restore.

 

[egozi44]

Thanks for the help

I meant in 0 (cause it before ques no1) however if I can make Macrium system images on the same External HDD that Already have win7's system image that was made with Win'7 tool.

 

[mjf]

I meant in 0 (cause it before ques no1) however if I can make Macrium system images on the same External HDD that Already have win7's system image that was made with Win'7 tool.

Yes you can.

If you want more than one standalone Windows inbuilt image use the renaming trick (see the Brink tutorial).
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

 

[egozi44]

I see, many thanks