Windows 10: Recover System Image

Hello,

I am having trouble recovering a system image. I created a system image on a USB flash drive following these steps that someone posted on these forums.

- create a directory on your USB drive
- right-click the directory and choose "Share with", "Specific people"
- choose yourself from the list of users and click Share and Done
- in the "Create System Image" menu choose "On a network location"
- now enter the URL for your share (\\your-computer\sharename)
- enter your username and password and click OK


I shipped my computer to dell. They wiped it and sent it back to me. I got it back, held down F12 at start up, and tried to reimage it. My computer couldn’t find the saved image with on my flash drive, nor the copy I added to my documents. It only lets you search over my network, so I typed in the path to my own computer and another on my network. My computer can’t find the image. Then I spent 4 hours on the phone with Microsoft. We tried booting from Windows 7 via a flash drive and recovering the reimage. Still can’t find the files. We tried moving the image file to a new disk and extracting the files via a 3rd party. Didn’t work.


The reimage is saved as a 85.5GB Hard Disk Image File. When I double click it, it says “The disk image isn’t initialized, contains partitions that aren’t recognizable, or contains volumes that haven’t been assigned to drive letters. Please use Disk management snap-in to make sure that the disk, partitions, and volumes are in a usable state.


I have now also tried to access the system image by attaching the virtual hard disk. The first time I did this nothing appeared to happen, but now it says that it has already been attached. Any help would be greatly appreciated; I have lost hundreds of hours of work and spent 12 hours trying to recover what seemed like a prudent backup.

:)

 

Recover System Image

Hello,

I am having trouble recovering a system image. I created a system image on a USB flash drive following these steps that someone posted on these forums.

- create a directory on your USB drive
- right-click the directory and choose "Share with", "Specific people"
- choose yourself from the list of users and click Share and Done
- in the "Create System Image" menu choose "On a network location"
- now enter the URL for your share (\\your-computer\sharename)
- enter your username and password and click OK

I shipped my computer to dell. They wiped it and sent it back to me. I got it back, held down F12 at start up, and tried to reimage it. My computer couldn’t find the saved image with on my flash drive, nor the copy I added to my documents. It only lets you
search over my network, so I typed in the path to my own computer and another on my network. My computer can’t find the image. Then I spent 4 hours on the phone with Microsoft. We tried booting from Windows 7 via a flash drive and recovering the reimage. Still
can’t find the files. We tried moving the image file to a new disk and extracting the files via a 3rd party. Didn’t work.

The reimage is saved as a 85.5GB Hard Disk Image File. When I double click it, it says “The disk image isn’t initialized, contains partitions that aren’t recognizable, or contains volumes that haven’t been assigned to drive letters. Please use Disk management
snap-in to make sure that the disk, partitions, and volumes are in a usable state.

I have now also tried to access the system image by attaching the virtual hard disk. The first time I did this nothing appeared to happen, but now it says that it has already been attached. Any help would be greatly appreciated; I have lost hundreds of hours
of work and spent 12 hours trying to recover what seemed like a prudent backup.

 

System Image Problem


I'm getting a head start in case you get on early.

Can you post camera pics to your thread from your phone?

There will be steps later that require attention to detail and I'd feel better if I could see what's on your screen. I had to try the steps more than once when I tested the process and I'd like to avoid that on your machine.

Here's what I'd like to do for the Macrium Rescue steps later on in the process
I'll post the the step, you'll post an picture of the Macrium screen,
I'll echo same screen back if I see something that needs changing or I'll just say Go Ahead

When I confirm that the Macrium screen, you'll make any changes I've highlighted and THEN execute the step

Here's where you begin today's session, we'll get as far as we get and then pick up when you get back home.

Step 1: Safeguard the System Image by moving it to a new folder

1. Connect the Seagate exp drive
   
   
2. File Explorer: Navigate to the Seagate drive
   
   
3. Create a new Folder named 1_sysImage
   
   
4. Move WindowsImageBackup to 1_sysImage

Step 2: List the VHDs in the System Image

1. File Explorer: Navigate to 1_sysImage\WindowsImageBackup\machineName\Backup date-time
   
   
2. Press the Type column to sort by Type
   
   
3. Post a screen shot

 

System Image Problem


[table][tr][td]Version[/td] [td]Date[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]5.05[/td] [td]8/03/2009[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]5.08[/td] [td]7/21/2009[/td] [/tr] [/table]
Which one is newer?
Only 5.05 was offered on HP for the machine I linked.
The description danced around some of the anomalies we're seen with drives.

Since only 5.05 was offered, I questioned 5.08
Guess we know the answer now - 5.05 failed to flash.
We could spend time trying to figure that out, but IMO it's better on the back burner for now

I think the next step is to try the Macrium sleight of hand to get the System Image restored.
I'd like to get the System Image up and running to do the follwoing

• Copy Nick's data to a folder off of the restored System Image C: drive
  
  
• run a Belarc Advisor audit to collect license keys for Nick's software
  
  
• there might be other data collection that Nick can do in preparation for the final step

The final step is a clean install, install up-to-date MS and 3rd party software, and restore the copied personal data.

Nick was having difficulty locating the outlook files in the System Image - so getting it back running live is the best I can think of.

Thoughts, suggestions, and objections are always welcome and considered