Create System Image in Windows 10  

n00bhere said:

tried to restore windows from a back up image and got the following message.

windows cannot restore a system image to a computer that has different firmware. the system image was created on a computer using EFI and this computer is using BIOS.

How did you try to do the restore? Did you boot from a recovery drive or install usb to get to their Advanced Start up options? If so, Microsoft's own system restore function is very particular about the boot media you use.

Sounds like you have a UEFI system, have made a system image of it, but have booted from the recovery drive in legacy MBR mode. Try again, first making sure your bios is set to boot the usb in UEFI mode. Often there's a F2 or F12 menu at boot with a choice of boot device. If so, the recovery drive/install usb may well be listed twice, once as a UEFI device and again as a legacy boot device.

Macrium Reflect (free) is far less fussy, one of the reasons it's recommended so often.

Mooly said:

I've never had an issue with restores. ^ Lol, just seen Bree posting :) My experience has been similar in that it works reliably. Moving and renaming images, well I now know why that can cause problems because of the hidden and unseen 'restore points' that accompany the file...

Yes, I have long been using the MS System Imaging and learned to work within it's restrictions. It can be 100% reliable if you respect its limitations, but can be very temperamental if you stray too far outside its design capabilities.

Due to a bug in the x86 version of 1803 I've been forced to try Macrium

Far more flexible, with the MS offering you can only restore an image if you use exactly the right boot media. It has to be an exact match to the OS of the image being restored (x86/x64, Win10/Win7). Just the one 32-bit Macrium boot media can image and restore all of those, you don't even need it to be installed in the OS being imaged/restored - you can do it all by booting from a Macrium boot usb.

The ability to choose the high compression level is useful too, particularly for my System Two test machine below with so many different images it needs to keep. Another added bonus is that a Microsoft system image has no update history listed in the restored system. Macrium preserves the update history.

The MS System Imaging is a deprecated feature now. I'll continue to use it until the last possible moment, but if/when MS remove it completely I now have a Plan B to fall back on.

n00bhere said:

...when I go into the boot menu the usb is listed twice...

At that point it is essential to select the one that matches the type of the OS image to be restored.

You just have to remember which type the system was that you made an image of in the first place. Either that or try each boot option until you find the one that allows you to do the restore.

The key thing is how the windows you made an image of was installed in the first place. If it was a legacy MBR install, you need to boot in legacy mode to restore its image. If it was a UEFI system with a gpt partition layout, boot in uefi mode to restore it.

n00bhere said:

so one is efi and the other is bios?
if so how can someone know which is which?

Yes, exactly.

One option will say UEFI and one won`t.

Thank You Shawn

You can see here the diference between the UEFI Lexar usb stick and just the Lexar usb stick. It`s the same stick, but there are 2 choices.

I hope that clears it up for you.

I stopped using Windows backup and only use Macrium now, windows image backup would not let me reimage to a different drive, so I just stopped using it.

But, for re imaging to the same drive, it has always worked fine and as Bree stated, it has its limitations.