Windows 10 System Image

f14tomcat · 05 Feb 2017

reelme said:

Thank you VERY VERY much. Enjoy the rest of the slaughter, I mean game....

You, too! Cheers!!

f14tomcat · 06 Feb 2017

@reelme

When you're satisfied with your results in this thread, please marked it as Solved. You can find that button at the top or bottom of the page. You can still post to the thread after you have marked it, or mark it as UN-solved.

Thanks, TC......

Windows 10 System Image-2017-02-06_06h30_14.png

Skeeter Sanders · 31 Mar 2018

I have a problem with creating a system image of my laptop.

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Tablet laptop that runs on Windows 10 Pro (64-bit version). It does not have a CD drive. I have a 1 TB external hard drive that I want to save the system image to. Because the operating system was upgraded from its original Windows 7 to Windows 10, my laptop has Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Every time I try to create a system image using Backup and Restore (Windows 7) and select my 1 TB external drive to save it on, I keep getting a message that it’s not a valid drive — but it doesn’t say why. I cannot use a thumb drive, since thumb drives are formatted in FAT, rather than NTFS.

I seem to be stuck. How can I create a system image when I have no place to save it to?

Bree · 31 Mar 2018

Skeeter Sanders said:

I have a problem with creating a system image of my laptop... I have a 1 TB external hard drive that I want to save the system image to. I keep getting a message that it’s not a valid drive — but it doesn’t say why. I cannot use a thumb drive, since thumb drives are formatted in FAT, rather than NTFS.

Welcome to TenForums @Skeeter Sanders

Thumb drives can be reformatted as ntfs (or ExFAT) neither of which have the 4GB file size limit of Fat32 that prevents you using them for system images. However, an HDD would be preferable. Thumb drive are less reliable and can fail unexpectedly.

What are you using to try and make a system image? Windows own built-in imaging, or third-party software such as Macrium Reflect (free)? Most here recommend avoiding Windows own system imaging as it can be unreliable - plus the fact that Microsoft have now deprecated it and recommend you use something else. Many here recommend Macrium.

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