Maintenance :: Cannot Restore Windows 8.1 System Image
Mar 28, 2014
I made a system image from Windows 8.1 using Windows' own system image feature. I seem to be unable to restore it. I booted with the Windows 8 disc, and told it to restore from a system image. It found the image, ran a few minutes, then failed because of version mismatch (?). Not before hosing the entire system, by the way. Luckily, I was well backed up.
I booted with the Windows 7 disc, and it didn't even see the system image (on my external HD). It saw my Windows 7 system image and restored it just fine, and here I am.
Anyway, is there some trick to restoring a Windows 8.1 system image? I am not running Windows 8.1, so I can't generate a repair disk that way. Is there one available online somewhere for download?
My windows 8 pro install messed up n i have almost 2.8tb of stuff on my drive on a 3tb hd. I have an identical hd as a backup which i have (an apparently successful) a backup of my system from a couple of weeks ago on. I had set the system to do scheduled backups of the system (set to backup a system image of efi partition and c. There were a few times where i was trying to get other things done and the systemwas running slow so i cancelled the backups when i noticed them running. The software stopped the backups (seemingly successfully).
As i say my system messed up - i came home to find out it was no longer downloading (as i had left it doing when i went to work) but was on a blue screen (bsod?) saying the system needs to be restarted. Since then it didnt work well at all and after dskchk reported that several sectors were damaged so it was moving data to spare sectors (or whatever it generally reports when this happens) there were a lot of files messed up or reported as deleted when doing a file recovery scan with recuvva.
So i decided to restore the backed up system image from the other hd. Incidentally i tried mounting the vhdx backup image from that hd via windows explorer which then reported "the disk needs formatting" and didnt get any success mounting via disk management either (it mounted in the app but didnt show up on windows explorer and if i tried to access info on it via disk management it reported the same"disk needs formatting prompt".
So when i booted my win 8 dvd it didnt work cos the dvd wasnt an efi booting version so i had to boot from a usb version with the efi bit included.
I formatted the system drive and chose to do an image restore. It started doing the restore (apparently) but every time i came back to it later i had the follwing error:
"Re-image your computer
The system image restore failed.
Error details: The requested system device cannot be identified due to multiple indistinguishable devices potentially matching the identification criteria Ox80073B92"
It took me so long to set up my system n i have a lot of my own data on there too. The system drive I formatted was created in diskpart and then re formatted with "format" command (as it created the disk in raw mode) so now it is ntfs mode (uncompressed).
I have a Lenovo G585 laptop that I installed with Linux (tried dual boot) and accidentally wiped out the Windows 8.1 restore partition. Now I want to restore it to Windows. I also have a Dell desktop Windows 8.1 that I can use to to create a USB restore image, can I use a restore image from a desktop to fix a laptop?
I've been dual-booting Windows 8 Pro and Windows 7 Ultimate, but a while back my Windows 8 kind of went "South" and wouldn't boot at all (I got an error message that a device was "not attached"). I have a recent system image on an external USB hard drive, but when I boot to "system recovery" using my repair disk it can't seem to find my USB drive at all.
The tutorials here mention installing a SATA driver to access disks that are not recognized, but this doesn't seem to be the case.
I have 2 hard drives in my computer, my main Windows 8 C:, and a win7/game/data drive, the second of which is failing. reports show it is failing a smart short test, and although it has been running fine for months, i figured i would replace it with my tax return.
My question: If i create a system image of C: and D:, would it be possible to just restore the D: portion of the image, or do I have to restore both, then delete the second C: on the new drive? i do not have the resources or courage to test this on my system now because I am not sure what this reformat, and with my luck, the drive would die during the restore.
I have two hard disks, and I have a system image that I made of the OS, it is stored on the second disk, the one without the OS. Both disks have sharing turned off.
What happens if I can't boot into Windows, and I want to use EaseUS backup to restore my system? Will I be able to access the system image, if I boot from the EaseUS live CD? Or will I be denied access, because it is not a shared disk?
And generally speaking, is it advisable to have sharing turned off, or on? I am not on a network, but I have several user accounts on the same OS. What security settings are good for my situation.
Okay, experience is the best tutor. I booted from the CD to see what would happen, and yes, it can read the system image file off of the hard disk. But I would still like to know what are the security settings for sharing etc.
I am trying to create a system image backup and I keep getting this error message
[COLOR=#FF0000]'Threre is not enough disk space to create the volum shadow copy on storage location. Make sure that for all volume to be backup up, the minimum disk space required for shadow copy creation is available. this applies to both the backup storage destination and volume included in the backup. Minimum requirement for Volumes less than 500 megabytes, the minimum is 50 megabyte of free space. for voulimes more than 500 megabytes, the minimum is 320 megabytes of free space. Recommended at least 1 gigabytes free of disk space on each volumes if volumes size is more than 1 gigabytes (0x80780119)"
I am backing it up to a external HDD with over a tb of free space but I understand its not letting me perform the backup because the hidden 100mb hidden system partition is full...if i create a larger partition how can I copy that system partition to it? if that is possible....
I have created two disk images. I deleted the first one but in the restore point pop up the title is still here (but is empty!!! The red one.) How can delete it????
Its my first time to create my first system image in my windows 8. Can I exclude a certain file if not how many blank cd's do I need I got 146GB used currently in my C drive and while creating a system image could it take the process an hour or more?
I'm attempting to follow the instructions here, to do a system image of my Dell Windows 8 machine:
Using Windows 8′s “hidden” backup to clone and recover your whole PC | Ars Technica
As I go through the wizard, I arrive at this screen:
I don't have the option to deselect any of these "drives". I proceed with the backup - it chugs along, and then consistently fails here:
"One of the critical volumes is not having enough free space." It doesn't tell me which - but, it's certainly not the OS drive, this is a virgin system.
To ask what is probably well known amongst IT pro's; does a system image backup solution (and consequently a restore from that image if needs be) work on OEM PC's, like a desktop from Acer, actually work without problems, and would I get a proper bootable and working machine after restoration.
Brief scenario - I have used Acronis TI 2014 (Or even the Windows 8.1 system image utility) to create an image of my C: Drive/EFI Partition/Recovery Partition - and backed it up to an external USB HDD.
My OS crashes for whatever reason and I can't boot.
I then either use my Acronis bootable media CD (which I've tested and boots despite all the secure boot/UEFI/GPT mania going about users like myself) to reinstall the Acronis disk image.
OR I use a Widnows 8.1 bootable disk with the ISO (which I've tested to boot) to reinstall the Windows created system image. (I could also use the recovery drive I created in Win 8.1, which just to add, however irrelvanat it might be, includes my OEM factory default partition which was copied as part of the recovery flash drive creation)
Would either of those restore solutions give me a reasonably likely working PC again - taking into account all the stuff I don't understand like the Windows 8.1 OEM key being on the motherboard (which I would understand in terms of Windows activation and authentication could have a negative impact on restoring images over an OEM installed OS and it's partitions)....
I have read a lot about windows 8 (and 8.1) and how to make a system image for it.
Well the most people used the 7 file recovery tool in windows 8 to make full system images. But in windows 8.1 it's gone.
Like in this thread: System Image - Create in Windows 8
Now I hear and see everyone making system images with a powershell command.. How to Create and Restore System Image Backups on Windows 8.1
But why doesn't anybody just use the windows 8 (and 8.1) backup function wich also includes a feature called:
include a system image of drives:
It seems to me that if you do this at an clean install it's a lot easier then powershell? (and maybe you can uncheck the backup of files and only include a sytem image?)
I know that at this moment I can still make a 7 file recovery tool image and restore it with windows 8(.1) repair/recovery disc.
But I wan't to know this for the future when I have a system with 8.1 from factory.. (some manufacturers like asus don't provide repair/system restore discs or utils anymore....)
I have been trying to a system image (Windows 8) and keeps telling me to insert a blank disk and mark it, Computer Name, Date and Disk #. It keeps telling me to install one and mark it #1 every time the current disk (DVD) is full, also the status bar does not show any advancement in the process. The other 2 machines I have and did a system image on asks you to insert a disk with the numbers going in sequence, 1, 2, 3 etc.
I need creating a recovery image of my system. I would like to create an image recovery drive with just the barebones needed for Windows 8 to run. I all ready have a recovery partition created. I just don't know how to create a recovery image for usage whenever something happens to the system.
I have spent most of the past 12 hours trying to restore my win8pro system from a system image. the image was saved to a usb hard drive. win8pro system image recovery won't see the usb hard drive. I tried copying the backup to a drive on my network, but recovery won't see that either, even when entering the exact path to the backup using the network option. I then tried to copy the backup to a second hard drive, installing that hard drive directly into the machine. no go, wouldn't even recognize the drive.
I'm having a problem with Windows System Image Backup just when I try to do a image backup it will say that it has failed and suggest to do a disk check. I've searched and some users say to use third party backup programs should I run the disk check first or just go with a different backup tool.
I bought a new laptop with a Windows 8 Pro x64 pre-installed on it.
Then I upgraded my OS to Windows 8.1 Pro from Windows Store.
After that I thought I'd create a backup of my system so I don't have to re-download the Windows 8.1 upgrade and at the same time having the option to reset my laptop to it's old operating system in case I want to, so that being said, I created a system image backup using Windows' Imaging Utility and pointed it my external drive. It took a couple of minutes and the image was successfully created.
I double checked the image file and I can see it on my external drive saved in a folder called 'WindowsImageBackup'. The backup files is approximately around 35 GB.
I also tried using the System Image Recovery option from BIOS to check whether the backup file I created really works, and it did because it was recognized by the system through the dialog box "Re-image your computer".
My mind was set that if anything bad happens to may laptop, whether if it got infected with a virus or the operating system crashed or even if the hard disk gets broken I could simply put it back to it's previous state using the backup image I created. So I played with the partitioning of my laptop, I even installed other operating systems for educational purposes, but when I finally wanted to bring my laptop to its previous state I failed...
The System Image Recovery from BIOS that once recognized my backup image throw an error at me saying the 'Windows cannot find a system image on this computer'. How can I fix this error? Is there still a way to recover my laptops previous installed OS or is it gone for good?...
1. Download bootable USB 3.0 drivers and tried to load the drivers on the during System Image Recovery. I think I got that tutorial here in this forum also but not sure, anyways it says that my external hard disk might not properly load because windows does not support usb 3.0.
2. I tried installing macrium free to re-image the vhd files from my backup image and tried to use the new image created by macrium to backup from. Re-imaging and backing up from the macrium image is successful but when I restart my laptop to check whether the backup works, I got an error saying 'Your PC needs to be repaired... Error code: 0x0000225'. I boot from my rescue disk and open up the command prompt to run a command like 'bootrec /scanos' but the result says detected windows installation is zero (0)...
After upgrading to the Win 8.1 upgrade I can no longer find the full backup selection and clicking on the change backup settings only shows a little clock. Has the backup function been removed from win 8.1?
I thought 8.1 was supposed to make things easier? Not so for creating a System Image. Now, you have to use the Windows PowerShell (Admin) to get the job done. The image below will show the command string to use (boxed in red) and my target drive is/was Z:
Attachment 23893
Zoom image to enlarge.
You can use your installation media to access the Repair function and restore your System Image from there.
My system is dell xps 8300. I have upgraded from windows 7 ultimate(64bit) to windows 8 pro 64 bit. My system has
1) dell oem partition (no drive ketter 39MB), 2) recovery partition (ntfs no drive letter) 13.25 GB free 2.94 Gb, 3) C drive windows system partition 100Gb free 31,24 GB rest of the two partitions are 175 Gb each (logical drives).
Total my hard disk capacity is 500GB.
What is the difference of taking backup and which is better for recovering the system to original state just before the backup.
1) System image backup(recovery partition & windows system partition) using windows 8 system backup..ie using windows 7 file recovery menu under control panel. 2) Creating custom recovery image for refresh.(command: recimage -CreateImage)
I have done both and my backup location is external hard drive of 2TB capacity. I made system recovery disk(dvd) from the windows 7 file recovery menu.
The custom recovery image wim file is of size 22.GB
The recovery partition backup(vhdx) is of 9GB and the windows system partition backup is of 43GB.
I have also used macurium reflect pro to take backup of my recovery and windows partition using macurium rescue cd.
I have a laptop that runs Windows 8 (64 bit), and the hard drive is apparently a dynamic (as opposed to basic) disk. My problem comes when I try to make a backup image of my active drive. I know a lot of backup software has troubles making an image of a dynamic disk. Now after researching, I know that Windows 8 comes with its own imaging tool, "Windows 7 File Recovery". I tried to create a basic partition, and used the file recovery tool to create an image file, but the file would not be saved, maybe because the partition itself is on the same dynamic hard-drive (the error said something about the partition not being large enough etc... even though I made it 40GB).
My question is, is the native system imaging tool of Windows 8 unable to copy a dynamic drive, or is it because I need to save the image file to some place other than the hard drive (maybe a whole bunch of DVDs, since it is an option). The last computer that I own is as old as a dinosaur, so I really did not keep up with all these advancement- I just feel that dynamic format is a beast to work with.
We're unable to restore/recover a system image we created recently using Windows 8.1.
System details:
Windows 7 w/SP1 installed on a 240GB SSD. All available Critical/Important updates also installed.
Windows 8 installed on 80GB SSD. Updated to 8.1 successfully.
In Windows 8.1, changed default OS to Windows 7 w/SP1.
Dual-boot works OK. Win 7 boots after 5 second delay unless Win 8.1 is selected manually.
PC also has 3 other internal HDDs used for various data storage.
Used Windows 8.1 to create System Image backup. Secondary internal 2TB HDD chosen as backup location.
System Image backup dialog box had checkmarks in both Win 7 and Win 8.1 checkboxes. In other words, it insisted on creating a System Image backup that included both OS's.
System Image backup was created successfully on chosen backup location.
Today i inserted the original Windows 8 install disc and selected Advanced Tools, then opted to recover a system image.
Recovery located the system image on the secondary HDD and began recovery process.
A few minutes later an eror message appeared saying System Image recovery failed, and he reason was (i think) that the recovery disc was different than the recovery System Image.
I'm guessing it meant it couldn't recover a Windows 8.1 System Image when using a Windows 8 install disc? Or did it mean it couldn't recover Windows 7 using a Windows 8 disc?
Re-booted in BIOS and changed the "1st hard disc" from the Win 7 SSD to the Win 8.1 SSD and tried the Recover System Image process again. This time it said it couldn't find a System Image to recover and when i tried to browse to the system image another error meassage said that the drive is "locked", and to unlock the drive before trying again.
Finally, tried to re-boot back into Windows but error message says "No operating system found".
I started to use the "Create System Image" of the "Windows 7 File Recovery" on my Windows 8 laptop. But after the screen which flashes the total size that would be required, when I ask it to start the process expecting it to prompt me for the 1st DVD, it flashes the message, - "The back-up failed. The system is not ready. (0x80070015) " . I am trying this on an out-of-the-box laptop with pre-installed Windows 8. Also tried it by disabling the anti-virus, but to no avail.
Then I tried to start the process with a 4.7 GB blank DVD already in place. Then it flashed the message "Insert a blank media bigger than 1 GB". Since I expected it take anywhere between 3-8 DVDs, I kept about 9 DVDs ready. I also inserted a USB pen-drive of 16 GB and tried to create the system image. Again it flashed the same message of insert a blank media greater than 1 GB in F: (same drive as USB) -??????? I mean the USB is already in place and has been assigned the drive letter as F:. How can I insert a blank media there ??
I am using Windows 8 Single Language. I was able create a repair disc without issues, though.
I can't get windows 8.1 system image to burn to my backup drive it says access denied for some reason or another, and i can't get it to burn to dvd-r ether. I want to do a image of my drive.
I wonder whether one or more of 13 recent Windows Updates has caused an issue. I can use System Restore to take my PC back to September 7th, three days before the Windows Updates were installed (there is just a Java update that has taken place since that I would have to carry out again). Alternatively, I can uninstall the Windows Updates one at a time or all together to see whether that rectifies the situation. Is there a preference? Should I uninstall from the highest KB number downwards if I uninstall the Updates one at a time?
