windows don't see my disc image

yes, i am still using windows built in backup and restore. i know its depreciated.

when my image is on my NVME, windows detects it, but it wont let me load it because the image is on the drive that needs to be formatted. so i put the image on my external SSD. windows doesn't see it. i put the image on my USB flash drive. windows still doesn't see it. can't figure out why. any ideas?

use Rufus?

How on earth can you get an image on a drive that is not formatted?

That is the problem with Windows Backup and Imaging it has not worked properly since somewhen during the life of Windows 10.
I spent hours with MS on this demonstrating it not working with my NAS box. Waste of time. Even MS now recommend the use of 3rd party Applications.
You even make it worse by trying to shift the image to a different drive, even less chance of seeing the image.

Chance of a solution is zero, to be honest.

Your efforts would be better used to try out some third party Imaging Apps.

smoothnobody said:

yes, i am still using windows built in backup and restore. i know its depreciated....

Click to expand...

Next time, use something else then.....

smoothnobody said:

when my image is on my NVME, windows detects it, but it wont let me load it because the image is on the drive that needs to be formatted. so i put the image on my external SSD. windows doesn't see it. i put the image on my USB flash drive. windows still doesn't see it. can't figure out why. any ideas?

Click to expand...

That was one of Backup & Restore's weakest points, it's very temperamental about finding images. I used to use it a lot, and have lost images that way.

Some of the tips I've picked up over the years:

Do not, under any circumstances, try to rename any of the folders it creates for the image. The image is saved to a top level folder named WindowsImageBackup, inside is a folder with the name of the PC. These names are essential, and you must keep them exactly the same in any copy. The WindowsImageBackup folder must be at the root of the drive it's on.

Make sure you are copying everything, the image and all its associated files, folders and metadata. By default you do not have access to any of these folders. Inside the 'PC-named' folder there are more folders, Backup***, Catalog, and SPMetadataCache. You don't have access to these either. Before copying you need to open every one of the folders in File Explorer and click OK when asked if you want permanent access. Only then will you be able to copy everything.

The drive holding the image must be NTFS formatted.

I'm not sure on this last one, but I seem to recall that it didn't let you use USB flash drives, however formatted.

cereberus said:

How on earth can you get an image on a drive that is not formatted?

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my NVME is partitioned. one half for windows, other half for storage. the image is on the storage. i can't load the image because windows is telling me the drive needs to be formatted, and it can't do that if the image is on the drive.

Helmut said:

Your efforts would be better used to try out some third party Imaging Apps.

Click to expand...

can another program load an image that was made by windows?

well, i tried again, this time windows saw my image. i successfully loaded it. but now i have a much bigger problem. windows not only formatted my storage partition, it also formatted my external drive, which was my backup. everything is gone. is it possible to recover?

i tried windows file recovery from drive D and dumping to drive C with the following command, nothing.
winfr D: C: /extensive

tried disk drill and any recover, nothing.

called a data recovery shop. was told because the drive is NVME when windows formatted the drive TRIM zeroed everything out and there is nothing that can be done. so unless somebody here knows something, guess that's game over.

smoothnobody said:

called a data recovery shop. was told because the drive is NVME when windows formatted the drive TRIM zeroed everything out and there is nothing that can be done. so unless somebody here knows something, guess that's game over.

Click to expand...

smoothnobody said:

my NVME is partitioned. one half for windows, other half for storage. the image is on the storage. i can't load the image because windows is telling me the drive needs to be formatted, and it can't do that if the image is on the drive.

Click to expand...

My opinion. You are in this mess because your backup plan is extremely flawed.

1. which you are aware of: Backup and Restore is deprecated. MS has pointed its users to use a 3rd party app for years. Yes, MS should have removed that feature from Windows a long time ago. I'll never undertand their reasoning for leaving it available.

2. Second mistake and it's a biggie. NEVER keep images on the same drive as your system partition. Use an external hard drive or external nvme for your images. (the external drive can be used to store images of more than one system as well as be partitioned to use one partition for other file storage if you want.
I have one large nvme where I store images for 3 systems. For better use of availabe storage space I use folders rather than different partitions to keep these images separated.

3. NEVER attempt to move or rename an image (for any imaging app). I use Macrium and learned this the hard way when I moved one once and that image would not restore. I image regularly and keep multiple images so that is what saved me.

I so think your backup data is permanently gone. IF you were using a MS account and using onedrive to backup personal folders, those files should return after a clean install.

glasskuter said:

1. which you are aware of: Backup and Restore is deprecated. MS has pointed its users to use a 3rd party app for years. Yes, MS should have removed that feature from Windows a long time ago. I'll never undertand their reasoning for leaving it available.

Click to expand...

It's available in Windows so you can restore from a previous image. Since it's legacy code, they didn't cripple the ability to make new backups.

@garlin Are you saying you think the Windows Backup and Restore feature is as dependable as a third party imaging app for making new images..
If so, I don't think I have ever disagreed with you before so this is a first.

You asked, "MS should have removed that feature from Windows a long time ago. I'll never understand their reasoning for leaving it available."

MS provides the app so users can recover data from old backups (if they're migrating from a pre-W10 or 11 system). Because it's the original program, they didn't update it to put up a giant disclaimer that it's deprecated and everyone should avoid it if possible.

On one hand, everyone likes to complain if Windows isn't backward compatible with something from 20 years ago...

Windows Backup & Restore was always a terrible and finicky program, but if you didn't provide it today, someone would have to revive a W7 or 8 PC just to restore a backup they have sitting around.