Windows Restore to a Seagate 2TB BarraCuda HD not working

I have a Windows 10 system with 2 internal hard drives C: (250 GB) and E: (500 GB) that I use as my primary system. I also have a backup / mirror system in case I have an issue with the primary system, I use Windows Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore (Windows 7) to create a system image of my primary system, including both the C: and E: hard drives. I then restore this image including C: and E: to my mirror system and everything is ready in the event my primary system goes down.

Everything was working fine until I installed a new Seagate 2TB BarraCuda HD as the E: drive in my mirror system. Now when I restore the image to the mirror system Windows restore only restores the C: drive, It acts as if it can not see the second Seagate 2TB drive and doesn't give me the option to restore that part of the image (E: Drive). Any Ideas why? Could there be a problem with Windows restore recognizing a 2TB hard drive?

Probably not much help but anyway...... have a read here:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com...w7itprogeneral

I know what the following answers will be (lol) use Macrium or some other imaging program.

I've always championed Windows own utility but this is something I think you need to be sat in front of to suss out.

Is putting the old drive back and making a quick copy with another program an option ? Then restore that newly made image back.

Microsoft is depreciating the built in system image function and recommending that users move to third party programs for system image backups.

Now might be a good time to move to something like Macrium Reflect Free:
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

NavyLCDR said:

Microsoft is depreciating the built in system image function and recommending that users move to third party programs for system image backups.

Now might be a good time to move to something like Macrium Reflect Free:
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Hello NavyLCDR. Do you have any links that can give a definitive answer to any hint of when the built in system image function will no longer be a part of the OS?

I don't think anybody knows for sure. It was mentioned a while ago that Backup and Restore might not make it to the Creators Fall edition (and it did) and the same went for File History.

Because of the uncertainty I made the switch from the Windows utilities to AOMEI which has proved a sound move in practice.

doesn't give me the option to restore that part of the image (E: Drive)

You can use wbadmin command line to restore the image.

Hi Thanks for the Input. Considering the Comments my issues are really a result of using a non-supported Backup system (ie: Windows 7 Backup and Restore ) and it's interaction with newer larger hard drives. So it is time to change!

I just tried Macrium Reflect Free and it worked perfect for my purposes, so I ma going with that software --- Thanks again.

PhoenixRising said:

Hi Thanks for the Input. Considering the Comments my issues are really a result of using a non-supported Backup system (ie: Windows 7 Backup and Restore ) and it's interaction with newer larger hard drives. So it is time to change!

I just tried Macrium Reflect Free and it worked perfect for my purposes, so I ma going with that software --- Thanks again.

Hi there
Don't forget to test RESTORE as well if it's the first time you've used it.

Macrium is used by loads of people on this Forum so it should be OK but if you've never used it before you want to be sure restore is also 100% reliable --I've seen loads of cases where people get what seems a successful backup and then on restore there's Disk I/O or other error !!!! (fortunately not normally from Macrium).

So if you have a safe working OLD backup system restore your current system after imaging it with Macrium. If it fails restore from your legacy system.

Chances are Restore will probably be OK but I'd test it rather than find out something is wrong when I really need the restore.

Cheers
jimbo

It is not clear to me what MS means by this:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2510009/microsoft-support-policy-for-4k-sector-hard-drives-in-windows

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
Ability to install Windows to and boot from a 4K sector disk without emulation (4K Native Disk)

• 
  
  • New VHDx file format
  • Full Hyper-V support
  • Windows backup
  • Full support with the NT File System (NTFS)
  • Full support with the Resilient File System (ReFS)
  • Full support with Storage Spaces
  • Full support with Windows Defender
  • Inbox application support
  
  

Yet further down the page, it says:

If you are using a logical sector drive of a size other than 512 bytes, Windows system image backup and restore operations may fail..

If , as they appear to claim, windows Backup ( in win 8) works with native 4k. Presumably, windows backup ( in win 10 ) should also work with native 4k.