Hello Forum,
I used Windows 10 Backup to backup my system with an image to an external drive. I then reset my system and started again with minimal setup.
I attempted to restore from the backup image, but Windows 10 wants a password to restore the image.
Of course I can't remember that particular password. I'm not even sure what password it wants.
What's the solution to restore from the Win 10 backup image?
Regards
If you boot from the InstallationUSB then it should not ask you for any password unless, of course, you were or are using Bitlocker.
At the the Install now screen, you click on Repair your computer instead to get into the menu system that includes system image restoration.
Denis
If you are trying to restore using the onboard facility rather than the USB, this is the procedure
1 Go to• Settings,2 This will take you into the onboard Windows recovery environment [WRE], a menu-driven
• Update & security,
• Recovery,
• Under the Advanced startup heading, click on the button for Restart now.
environment -• Troubleshoot,3 You will be rebooted into the System image recovery procedure -
• Advanced options,
• System image recover.• Log into an Admin account,
• Connect the drive containing the image,
• Accept the latest image identified by the system or Select a image,
• The rest is entirely menu driven.
• [Whilst there are some options that can be chosen, the defaults are normally off for all
these and should be accepted.]
I have never seen any explanation for if / how BitLocker affects this procedure.
Denis
MS told us all to start using third-party imaging utilities instead of the build-in utility [in the Release notes for Version 1803].
Macrium Reflect is often recommended in this forum for making system images. Other utilities are available but this one is so commonplace that you can get plenty of help for it.
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect - TenForumsTutorials
Macrium Software Macrium Reflect Free
Macrium USB - TenForums
Macrium Reflect KnowledgeBase - user guide [version-independent link]
It can also make bootable system images. This facility is called viBoot and it requires Win10 Pro.
Macrium viBoot - Macrium KB
Macrium viBoot - Create Virtual Machine using Macrium Image - TenForumsTutorials
You might also wish to consider Backup and Restore Device Drivers - TenForumsTutorials
Denis
Yes, I was using Bitlocker. I forgot to turn it off before I created the backup and image.
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Maybe that explains why Backup and Restore has "Windows 7" in parentheses in the Control Panel. I've downloaded Reflect, but I was just doing a trial run of restoring from an image in Win 10. One of the reasons why I hate learning a new OS is all the surprises.
- - - Updated - - -
The password prompt was a trick question. There was no password set up and hence there was no password required to load the image.
Yes, when you attempt to use System Image Recovery from the system's own Advanced Startup it first asks you to pick an administrator account from the installed system....
....and then asks you for its password - even if that is a blank password!
Seems pointless to verify who you are against the installed system when you are about to wipe it by restoring an image, but there you go....
As others have said, the way to get a recovery environment that doesn't ask for an account/password is to boot from the install media or a recovery drive usb.
One of the reasons why I hate learning a new OS is all the surprises.
Actually that was the case for Windows 7 too....
Last edited by Bree; 03 Nov 2020 at 17:54.
I had a chat with several Microsoft Support reps and they couldn't tell me what password the system was asking for. Being relatively new to Win 10, and knowing I had bitlocker I could only imagine which password the system wanted.
The Win 10 backup only took an image of the Windows partition. Does Reflect image the entire drive, or at least give the option to image all partitions on the disk?
It does.
The 'Backup and Restore (Windows 7)' system image will include all partitions required to restore a working Window system, so that will be C: plus a few others such as the EFI partition. You may optionally include other partitions such as one that is only used for data.
In Macrium if you click 'Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows' it will do the same. Again, you are free to add further partitions (and drives) to the image such as the Data partition in this example. Just tick its box.
Backup and Restore (Windows 7) should be killed with fire.
1. It uses the same folder WindowsImageBackup every time, so it will overwrite the previous disk image saved in that folder, making it impossible to keep multiple disk images...unless you rename the existing folder.
Example:
You would have to manually rename the folder WindowsImageBackup to something like WindowsImageBackup-TodaysDate BEFORE creating the new image.
So, say if you wanted to restore a disk image from a couple of weeks ago, you would need to rename the current folder to something other than WindowsImageBackup (like WindowsImageBackup-Ignore) and rename the folder WindowsImageBackup-TwoWeeksAgoDate to WindowsImageBackup.
WindowsImageBackup is the only folder name that is recognized.
It's a mess.
2. There is no "byte-for-byte" validation, so there is no way to verify that files on the disk image match those on the drive that was backed up.
3. There is no way to control how the disk image file is compressed on the backup drive. Larger backups mean fewer disk images can be stored.
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