System image issues

Hi, James from Tx. I'm new to the forum and need some help. I have Windows 10 Home 64 bit and a HP Pavilion laptop. I've received some error messages and it appears my hard drive is failing. I created a system image on my external drive because the USB drive said it was not a valid backup location. I was told to see if the external drive would show up in the boot order sequence or whatever, but the drive doesn't show up. How do I move the system image to my new SSD internal hard drive? Thanks

What backup software did you use to create the system image?

Does the hard drive have bad sectors if you have done an image and not taken the right steps the bad sectors will be written to the new hard drive dependant on software

Cjcgtr83 said:

I created a system image on my external drive because the USB drive said it was not a valid backup location. ... How do I move the system image to my new SSD internal hard drive?

Welcome to TenForums Cjcgtr83

Sounds like you used the built-in 'Create a system image' from 'Backup & Restore (Windows 7)'. That is the only system imaging I have used that says a USB is not a valid backup location.

If so, to restore the system image to a new drive you need to boot to Advanced Startup from a Windows 10 Recovery Drive usb and select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > System Image Recovery. If you do not have one, you can make a recovery drive on another machine. It is very important that you use a recovery drive of the same 'bits' (32 or 64) as the Windows that is in the system image that you want to restore. NB: you should untick 'include system files' as they are not needed for this, and including them takes a very long time.

Create Recovery Drive in Windows 10

If you have a Windows 10 install usb, you can also boot to Advanced Startup from that.


Whether you'll be able to restore the system image to the SSD is another matter. Microsoft's built-in system imaging can be 'temperamental' at the best of times. It's usually pretty good at restoring to the original drive that was imaged, or to a replacement drive of the same type. It may be able to cope with an SSD as the destination drive, but I cannot guarantee that. It's not for nothing that two years ago Microsoft deprecated it and recommended that you use something else.

Microsoft said:

System Image Backup (SIB) Solution
We recommend that users use full-disk backup solutions from other vendors.

Features removed or Deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

If you are successful, then you've been lucky. If not (and you can still read from the old HDD) then Macrium Reflect Free will be able to create an image from the old drive and restore it to the SSD. I successfully did just that for one of my machines with a failing HDD. Macrium also has an option to clone a drive, which would be another way to do it.

I just used the system image that was on my system, no 3rd party stuff. I checked and have no bad boot sectors.

Cjcgtr83 said:

I just used the system image that was on my system, no 3rd party stuff...

Then that confirms that you need to boot from a W10 recovery drive or W10 install usb in order to restore the image to the new drive.

I already did a system image because it backs up everything. Are you saying I need to do something different? I tried saving image to usb drive and it said USB drive was not a valid backup location.

Cjcgtr83 said:

I already did a system image because it backs up everything. Are you saying I need to do something different? I tried saving image to usb drive and it said USB drive was not a valid backup location.

You have made a system image, that's the first step.

Now you need to get that system image put onto your new SSD. For that you need to run the software that reads your system image and writes it to your hard drive.

That software is found by booting to Advanced Startup. You can do that by booting from a Recovery Drive usb or from a Windows 10 install usb. See Option Four and Option Five in this tutorial.

Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10

In Advaced Startup you then need to use Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > System Image Recovery.

2nd step, install internal SSD drive?

Yes, you need to install the SSD now.

• Install SSD in place of failing HDD
• boot from USB (recovery drive or install media) to Advanced Startup.
• attach the external HDD that has your system image
• select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > System Image Recovery