Windows 10: Create a system image not working for USB drive

I recently installed W10 on a new HDD, and also got a new USB flash drive for back up purposes. Both drives are 128GB in size, and the HDD has 37GB of its space used up for the W10 OS, and a few other bits and pieces. The USB drive is empty, and has been formatted for NTFS.

If I go to W10's create a system image section, it tells me that my USB drive is - "The drive is not a valid backup location". Unfortunately, it doesn't say anything more than that, so I don't understand why it doesn't like it.

Any help on this issue would be gratefully received - thanks a lot.

:)

 

Create system image to a network usb drive requests username and password

To find out exactly how this works I connected a NAS device to my network and launched an image backup. As you reported, it prompted me for the following details:

- Name of share

- Account name

- Password

The share looks like so on the NAS management console:



When Windows prompted me for the account details I gave it the name & password I use when opening the NAS managment console. When you log on to your NAS management console then you must supply an account & password too. Use it when Windows asks for it while
creating the backup image.

 

Create system image to a network usb drive requests username and password

I am running Windows 10 (upgraded from Win 7). I am attempting to create a system image on my network drive which is attached to my router via a USB connection. This network drive works well otherwise: I can read and write to it. However, when I use
File History to commence the Create a System Image process, I get asked for a username and a password for this drive. Not sure what this is. I tried using the username and password for my wifi signal. I tried using the username and password for my router.
Both allow the System Image creation to begin, but ends in an error: 0x807800C5 and 0x800703E3.



I am not sure if these errors have to do with the username/password issue, or if it is something different.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

thx,

 

I posted the same question a while ago.
I was told that the system is looking for "hard drive" to do the backup.
Flash drive is not hard drive, I gather.
If I can find my thread, I'll return with it.

 

Thanks, I see. That's really unfortunate, because I told by other people (not on this forum) that it was possible to create a system image on a USB drive, and also to be able to boot from it. (That's why I bought the new flash drive.)

Do you know if this is a limitation of the tools inside W10, or a limitation of W10 itself? If it's a limitation of W10's tools, then I wonder if I have to buy a 3rd party piece of software to allow me to do this? Thanks.

 

I'm pretty sure the W10 "Backup/Restore" feature came from W7 and that product did not support USB Flash drives. The "Backup/Restore" feature in W8 did support USB Flash drives.

 

Here is the thread I posted.
I'd like a clear understanding why.................

 

Why not just invest on an external hard drive ?
A 1TB ext hdd can be had for less than $100.
I use that for over 2 years now. Never have any issues.

 

Thanks for all help - much appreciated!
Looking at that thread link you posted, I guess it's time to download "Macrium", and see how things go with that...
I've got the USB drive now, and I'd quite like to use it and it's *really* tiny which means I can take it with me.
Thanks.

 

Hi W10User123,

You might also want to look at Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk. It's a very useful bootbale recovery option. In essence, it's like a live Linux distro (Operating System) bundled with a host of recovery tools, which includes both Macrium, as well as AOMEI.

AOMEI Backupper Standard

 

You can create a Macrium Rescue usb flash drive and an image backup to same drive assuming it has capacity. Only minor issue is you need to format drive as fat32 to make it bootable in a modern UEFI drive, so you will need to use a special formatting tool to use all 128GB (Windows will only format 32GB).

Better to use a second small fat32 flash drive to boot from (1GB is enough), then you can leave flash drive with image as NTFS.

 

This works for me.
Create a folder on the flash drive. (I named mine Backup)
Right click on the folder and select 'share with specific people' and select user. (I used my own account)


When performingthe backup select network nework location and select the share name like \\Account\Backup.

It will say its not secure but worked for me.......Good Luck!