System Image Recovery fails with error 0x80070002

jiipeepee · 15 Aug 2016

Hi everyone,

I've got a Surface Pro 3 and a system image backup from an exactly similar device on an external hard drive. When I boot to installed Windows 10 (same occurred with 8.1) and try to recover the backup, the system finds the backup file but I get notified "You need to boot from USB to be able to recover" (I'm running Finnish version, so the translations are my own).

Ok, I created a bootable Win10 installation USB disk and try again: I'm able to boot from USB and get all the way to Recover Image, but then I get this error:
Internal error. Specified file can't be found. (0x80070002)

So the backup and external HDD seem to be fine as they're recognized from installed Windows, but when booting from USB it seems that the device can't read the backup files. I also tried running command prompt in "boot from USB" state and managed to navigate to external HDD, so it's not a hardware issue.

I found some slightly similar topics which mentioned issues with permissions, but I don't know exactly what should I try doing with them.

Any ideas or suggestions?

vonnu · 06 Mar 2019

I have the exact same problem, Is there any new information?

galileo · 06 Mar 2019

First step is to verify that after booting from the USB that you can actually see/access the external HDD. After booting from the USB, select Troubleshoot and then open a Command Prompt. The command prompt window will open to drive "x:". Try navigating through drive letters and checking the folders ("dir" command) starting with "c:", then "d:", and so on until you find your external HDD.

If you cannot find your HDD then your system is not recognizing the external HDD...and that would explain the error message that you are seeing. If this is the case, you may need to make a BIOS adjustment so that the system can recognize the HDD. Or, worst case, you have a system that cannot recognize an external HDD from a recovery boot environment.

...none of this may help you...but, you need to validate that the external HDD is or is not being recognized before you can go any further.

Edit: oops, I just re-read your post and see that you have validated access to the external HDD. Well, that does make this a tougher problem. Are there any encryption or file permission changes involved?

galileo