Windows 10: Restore a windows 10 disk image

Hello,
I made a windows 10 disk image with the built in tool as i had to send my surface pro back to CS.
Now that it it bask I want to restore it.
The problem is when I want to do recover it it finds correclty my backup on my external hard drive but after selecting it it says the system disc image can be restored only booting from a repair disc.
Hence I made and USB repair disc and booted from it but it still says the same.
exact details:
I boot on the usb key as requested...Then I select languages settings.Then on the bluescreen I use Troubleshoot menu.Then I select "system image recover"Then "windows 10".It scan for and image disk and find the right one on my external hard drive.
Then it says to "create a repair dic" by using DVD/CD...

I m not sure it s solvable I have tried a lot of things.
I thought maybe acronis ou mecrium could restore a W10 backup but from what I have tried they both cant. Acronis ask for a vhd file but i dont have such file in my W10 backup image folder onmy external hard drive.
Thanks!

:)

 

how to I restore laptop from external hard drive

If you made a disk image backup of Windows 10, simply restore the image to your hard drive.

If you did not make a disk image backup, you cannot restore Windows 10 to the way it used to be.

 

Query about backup and restore of files on Windows 10 computer

Old title: backup program files

I'm trying to back up a windows 10 laptop with a flakey disk so that I can replace the disk and restore its contents on the new disk.

When I run the windows 10 backup utility with the old disk, it saves my files, but not my programs. For example, files in C:\ProgramFiles on the old disk do not get restored to the new disk. I assume they just weren't backed up in the first place.

(BTW I also created a system restore on a usb stick to load windows 10 onto the new disk. That worked just fine.)

I have done two backups of the old disk using the windows 10 backup utility. The first was a default full backup. I did the backup, swapped in the new disk, and restored the backup to the new disk. No programs got restored. Then I swapped in the old
disk, and did an system image backup of it. I have read on this forum that a system image backs up everything on the disk. I swapped in the new disk and restored from the system image, but again, no programs got restored. My current C:\ProgramFiles.

Any suggestions on how to restore everything from the old disk to the new disk?

 

Welcome to TenForums @zizou100

The built-in system imaging creates a .vhdx file for each of the partitions required to restore a working system (the C: partition, System partition, etc.).

They are in the WindowsImageBackup\<your PC's name>\Backup yyyy-mm-dd hhmmss folder.

The built in System Image Backup is temperamental at the best of times, in fact it is now a deprecated feature.

Features removed or Deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

Please quote the full text of the error message(s) you see when trying to restore the image, or take a photo of the screen(s) and post it here. There may be a workaround.

How to Upload and Post Screenshots and Files at Ten Forums

 

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.
The procedure i do is:
- from w10, select recovery
- from the blue screen, select troubleshoot > advanced options > system recovery image
- it reboots and goes back to the blue screen titled "System Image Recovery", where I select my Windows account/password
- it scans for existing image backups and finds the one from my external HDD and automatically set the fields for Location/Date and time/Computer and tick "use the latest available system image" in the grey dialog window.
- I click "next" and get to a new grey dialog window called "re image your computer", "choose additional restore options"
- it says: "To restore this computer, Windows needs to format the drive that the Windows Recovery Environment is currently running on. To Continue with the restore, shut down this computer and boot it from a Windows isntallation disc or a system repair disc and then try the restore again. if you dont have a system repair disc, you can create one now";
- the "create disc" button is available but it s impossible to create one as it only accept for a cd/dvd drive and i dont have one.
- "next" button is disabled I can only click "back" or "cancel".

I have tried to go back to W10 and create a USB repair disk and then to launch it on boot and from there to do the same procedure again by selecting "troubleshoot"...until it finds my system image again and again it asks me for the same thing and i can't click next...

 

You should be able to boot from a usb Recovery Drive to perform the restore, it is functionally identical to a cd/dvd recovery disk.

Create Recovery Drive in Windows 10

You should also be able to restore an image from Advanced Startup, that's in Settings > Backup & Restore > Recovery. Option One in this tutorial.

Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10

 

I have done it but exactly same problem...
"I have tried to go back to W10 and create a USB repair disk and then to launch it on boot and from there to do the same procedure again by selecting "troubleshoot"...until it finds my system image again and again it asks me for the same thing
"To restore this computer, Windows needs to format the drive that the Windows Recovery Environment is currently running on. To Continue with the restore, shut down this computer and boot it from a Windows isntallation disc or a system repair disc and then try the restore again. if you dont have a system repair disc, you can create one now";
and i can't click next...

 

Ah wiat I have done it again with your exact procedures and it worked!
Thanks a lot !!!

 

*Thumbs
From now on I recommend you make system images with something more reliable than the built-in offering - Macrium Reflect, for example.

Remember, 'deprecated' means it may be removed completely in the future - maybe as soon as the next version of Windows (or the one after that).

 

I guess this begs the question. Will a system image or recovery disk made under FCU function correctly if the SCU upgrade goes badly? I'm going to have to rethink (and re-implement) my backup strategy before April's Patch Tuesday. How long is the Macrium Free trial period?

 

It should do, providing the SCU's Advanced Start-up tools still include the 'Restore system image' functions. If the SCU removes the 'create system image' function it may still retain the ability to restore one.

If not, then booting from a usb Recovery Drive or a Rescue Disk CD made by the FCU would be able to restore a system image. Make sure it's the same bits (32/64) as the image to be restored.

At worst, you may need to delete the C: partition on the target drive before it allows you to restore the old image. You can use Diskpart in a command prompt from Advanced Start-up to do that. I've had to do that in the past when the restore objected to restoring a 32-bit image onto an HDD containing a 64-bit system.

 

...How long is the Macrium Free trial period?" Macrium Reflect can forever remain free version after the pro version's trial period ends, which I think is 30 days.