Solved Where Is My System Image?

[michael diemer]

I have another thread going on my restoring problem, but I need to get this sorted out first. Windows can't find my system image. Here is where it is, on my external Glyph drive:

G:\WindowsImageBackup. When I click on that, I get:
Michael-PC. When I click on that, I get:

catalog
SPPMetadatCache
MediaId. when I click on"catalog" I get:

Backup 2014-07-26 122
Bacup Global/Catalog
Global catalog. When I click on "Backup 201407 etc. I get:

XML Dcoument
XML Dcoument
XML Dcoument
XML Dcoument
VHD file.

the VHD file appears to be the image, as when I click on properties, it's location is:

G:\WindowsImageBackup\Michael-PC\catalog\backup. It is 49 GB.

So, is this why Windows can't find my image, because it is hiding?

Thanks, Michael

 

[matts6887]

That could very well be why windows cant find the image. But Can you access the backup image at all or does it give you a error?

 

[michael diemer]

It just tells me that Windows cannot find a system image on this computer. In fact, I have two: this one and a vista system image. both on the external drive.

 

[mjf]

Your Windows 7 system image should a folder called WindowsImageBackup (no other name) and be located in the root of a partition for system image restore to find it. I've never used Vista but thought it used the same convention??? You can rename any other image including other W7 images to have multiple images but only one WindowsImageBackup at a time.

 

[michael diemer]

It's location on the external drive is:

G:\WindowsImageBackup

Is this what is meant by the root?

as for the vista image, it is listed as: G:\VistaSystemImage.

I have successfully restored the windows backup image at least twice, so I can't figure out what is different this time. But I did not have the vista image on there then, so maybe that's it?

 

[whs]

If nothing helps, you can recover that image like that:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/210195-system-image-recover-broken-windows-7-system-image.html

 

[michael diemer]

Thanks to WHS, I tried the Macrium and was able to recover my "lost image." however, a strange thing happened: I now have a triple boot computer, and when I choose the drive that has the recovered image, I get a strange screen which tries to boot but fails. The other two drives boot up, one to a new W7 OS, the other to my Vista drive. Now, the Vista drive in turn gives me 6 boot options, 3 each for Vista and W7. One of the W7 choices will boot me to the new W7 drive. Another boots me to the newly restored W7 image, on the drive that won't boot if you choose it directly. I'll try to summarize this as it is indeed confusing: the only way to get the drive with newly restored W7 image, is to choose the vista drive, which then gives me 6 options, one of which boots up the other drive, the one with the image. I'm just glad I can boot that old drive, but is there any way to clean up the boot process, so it's easier to choose which drive to boot from?

 

[mjf]

Boot issue may need to be addressed.
http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/204100-recovery-smaller-hard-drive.html#post1712404
see step 6.
If you have multiple drives (especially active and bootable) then they should be temporarily disconnected. It would be useful to post a diskmanagement screenshot beforehand
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[whs]

I suggest you clean up the bootmgr. See steps 3 of this tutorial.

 

[michael diemer]

For now, I'm going to let things ride. The old drive works again, and I can let it rest now until needed. when I turn on the computer, it boots directly to the new W7 drive. If I want the Vista drive, I can get that with the boot menu. I'm just afraid to mess things up at this point. That's what happened with the old drive (that is, the original drive, 6 years old): it had a problem shutting down, and I tinkered with it to the point of wiping it out. This time I'm leaving well enough alone!