Windows vhdx image problem

bendipa · 28 Nov 2020

I made a vhdx image of Win10 (1909) from Backup and Restore in the Control Panel. Having successfully downloaded it to my external drive, when I boot to Win RE ->Troubleshoot->Advanced Options->System Image Recovery, in an attempt to restore it Win10 fails to locate my image. Furthermore, there's no means of browsing to point Windows to the appropriate folder on my external drive.

I then copied the image folder to my hard drive, but unfortunately with the same result. So how does one use this facility to restore an image if Win 10 can't ever find it. This was never an issue with Win 7.

AndreTen · 28 Nov 2020

This is why most of us here use Macrium reflect. Free version is enough for most tasks.

You can see how to extract files from VHDX image in this thread in MS forums - mount an image in Disk management

bendipa · 30 Nov 2020

I know Reflect is better, but unfortunately this doesn't address my question. Nor does it indicate, thanks to the general lack of response here (as usual), whether others have found this is a Win 10 issue or just a problem with the way I use Win 10 imaging. So I'm still totally in the dark over this.

I'm afraid I find this forum utterly useless, so I'm out of here and probably Win 10 as well, now that I've found Linux a much better alternative.

Try3 · 30 Nov 2020

bendipa said:

I made a vhdx image of Win10 (1909) from Backup and Restore in the Control Panel. Having successfully downloaded it to my external drive, when I boot to Win RE ->Troubleshoot->Advanced Options->System Image Recovery, in an attempt to restore it Win10 fails to locate my image. Furthermore, there's no means of browsing to point Windows to the appropriate folder on my external drive.

I then copied the image folder to my hard drive, but unfortunately with the same result. So how does one use this facility to restore an image if Win 10 can't ever find it. This was never an issue with Win 7.

Windows backup & restore was always a pig. MS told us to stop using it in Version 1709

Windows vhdx image problem-imaging-deprecated-ver-1709-tenforums.png

Your particular problem is one I recall being widely reported since early Windows 7 days.
- Even when it's working correctly, it can only see images in a folder <DriveLetter>:\WindowsImageBackup

Denis

Bree · 30 Nov 2020

bendipa said:

This was never an issue with Win 7.

This has been a constant problem since 'System Image Backup' was first introduced in Windows 7, as a Google search shows.

Google: "Windows cannot find a system image on this computer"

Here it is in W7: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...2-0bdc5cd49a4e

And again in W8: A Struggle With "Windows cannot find a system image" | AnandTech Forums: Technology, Hardware, Software, and Deals

bendipa · 30 Nov 2020

Bree said:

This has been a constant problem since 'with 'System Image Backup' was first introduced in Windows 7, as a Google search shows.

Well I never had a problem with 'System Image Backup' and Win7 as far as locating the image was concerned. However I made another image with Win10 and this time it 'found' it. Don't know why it failed to do so first time. But that turned out to be the least of my problems.

I then restored this image, and it looked like all was proceeding smoothly. And indeed I rebooted into Win10 without issue. So I was happy until I soon discovered that not only had SIB restored Win10, but in the process it had wiped out my data contained in a separate partition on the same disk - all 200GB of it. Fortunately I did have a backup, but not a very recent one. So I've managed to retrieve most of my data, at least all the important stuff.

I'm totally done with SIB though. It is really dangerous, as well as unreliable.

Try3 · 30 Nov 2020

bendipa said:

I'm totally done with SIB though

Very wise.

I think, from your other threads, that you are already familiar with Macrium Reflect so you don't want any suggestions about using it.

Denis

AndreTen · 30 Nov 2020

bendipa said:

Well I never had a problem with 'System Image Backup' and Win7 as far as locating the image was concerned. However I made another image with Win10 and this time it 'found' it. Don't know why it failed to do so first time. But that turned out to be the least of my problems.

I then restored this image, and it looked like all was proceeding smoothly. And indeed I rebooted into Win10 without issue. So I was happy until I soon discovered that not only had SIB restored Win10, but in the process it had wiped out my data contained in a separate partition on the same disk - all 200GB of it. Fortunately I did have a backup, but not a very recent one. So I've managed to retrieve most of my data, at least all the important stuff.

I'm totally done with SIB though. It is really dangerous, as well as unreliable.

You can mount your original Image, and hopefully there will be some data there. Link in my 1st post will explain it better.

Otherwise, you have plenty of other solutions, free too.

And sorry if you didn't like the "old news" about it

VictorXu1 · 28 Feb 2022

You are right, SIB is practically a trash. I had a very similar situation as yours in last month and I used a software which was also outdated and restored my vhdx successfully

NavyLCDR · 28 Feb 2022

VictorXu1 said:

You are right, SIB is practically a trash. I had a very similar situation as yours in last month and I used a software which was also outdated and restored my vhdx successfully

And only 1 year and 3 months later!