Windows 10: Restore disk image to a fresh Windows 10 installation

What I'd like to do is:-

• Make a system image backup to an external HDD.
• Re-format drive C
• Re-install Windows 10 from scratch
• Restore all my apps and files (not many files as I keep almost all data on a separate partition.

Am I expecting the impossible and would the restore try to put the O/S exactly where it was before? The previous installation seems to reside in an unusual partition which I discovered when I tried to rescue windows 10 installation without loosing data and apps. This is the installation screen where I wanted to choose:-




As one can see, it tells me the current version of Windows is in an unsupported directory - not of my choosing when installed!
This is my disk partition table for C:-




I'd be extremely grateful for advice on this please?

:)

 

How to restore a system image backup to a hardware encrypting SSD (eDrive)

Many thanks for these info.

I sucessfully teste a backup/restore from and EVO 850 to an EVO 840 while keeping hardware encryption

I used Acronis Backup bootable media

They key is to:

- disable Bitlocker before backup partition image

- enable encryption on the target disk

- install a fresh windows 10 on the target disk (untested but should work: if it has an install using hardware encryption to keep it)

- restore only the Data partition while keeping the MSR and recovery partitions of the new disk

Best regards

 

Windows 10 1709 64bit, windows image restore to a new drive fails, error 0x80042302

The original partitions were created by windows 10 1709 install disk on a new drive, so if those are in the wrong order Microsoft should correct that. If they work fine on the fresh install, the restore program should just create the same partitions as the
original disk. Why should I need to do anything else on a new empty drive ?

The restore works fine on the original drive and there is nothing corrupted on the system.

Anyway I will have to get another drive to do more experiments because I used the last one I had to install on another machine.

The bottom line is that windows 1709 fresh install created the original drive, then the system image was saved and the restore should format the new drive the same way as the original one.

 

When installing Windows it's very important you disconnected all other drives so it doesn't put files in the wrong place. A new version you can restore data files but you can't restore programs as registered entries will be missing along with DLLs so you will have to reinstall all software which gives you a trouble free installation

 

I don't really see this installation of Windows 10 as unusual. The system looks pretty much the same as most of the Windows 10 installations do:

• System reserve (a.k.a "boot" partition)
• System (C)
• Recovery Partition (Windows pre-installation environment, or WinPE)

Once you select the drive to install Windows, it'll set up the same partitions, except if you (or someone else) customized it.

And that's what Windows complains about, the ~500GBs drive had been split in to two. One half of the drive is for Windows, while other half is for data. Reinstalling Windows deals with the Windows partitions only and cannot guarantee that the data drive will stay intact.

If you reinstall Windows and just select the drive where to install it, it may format the 500GBs drive as listed above, effectively removing your data partition.

You could just delete the Windows partitions and install Windows to the empty space, that would keep the data partition intact.

But I agree with Samuria, you cannot restore the applications from backup to the new Windows installation. It may work in some cases, but most of them will fail.

On the other hand, if you want to restore Windows from backup, Macrium Reflect and others, the backup program will restore the system exactly as it is now, without touching the data drive.

 

Slight misunderstanding I think. There is no data on C drive; all apps have been set up to store data on the physically separate HDD so I'm not worried about data recovery. All I want to do is avoid having to re-install all apps. A full image backup should do that but I want to have the Recovery Partition at the end of the disk, not in the middle where it is now. If I re-format C and re-install Windows then recover everything from the image backup will it recreate the Recovery Partition to where it is now? That's what I'm trying to avoid.

I suppose the simple thing to do is just create another drive in the unallocated partition.

 

I don't see any need for a Windows reinstall, oldcelt. You can do an image restore within Macrium (using rescue environment) and, as part of setting up the restore, just drag and drop the partitions into the destination disk diagram in the order you want. It MAY break your Windows link to the WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment) in that 450 MB recovery partition but that can easily be corrected from a command prompt.

 

Now that sounds like the solution I'm looking for. Many thanks - downloading Macrium as I type.*Smile

PS: By the way, what is the command to tell windows where the Recovery partition is please?

 

From disk management, it shows that you upgraded Windows 10 from Windows 7.
On a fresh install of Windows using MBR, the disk layout is:
550MB System Reserved and C drive. You don't even have the Recovery partition, The Recovery environment will be combined in System Reserved partition.
The Recovery partition was created when you did the upgrade because there's not enough room to store in a 100MB Reserved partition.

Bottom line is if you want to re-install Windows. Delete the first 3 partitions (100MB, C partition, 450MB Recovery partition), leaving F: drive untouched.

The final result will be:
550MB System Reserved partition, C drive, F Drive.

 

Perfectly correct. So, what would happen if I did a fresh install of Windows 10; would I then be able to recover all my apps from the disk image into the new partition arrangement or would it, in the recovery process, re-partition the disk to where it was?

 

I edited my previous post above that if you want to re-install Windows. However, to restore the apps from the backup might/might not run.

If your current Windows is running fine and you just want to re-arrange the disk layout then use:
Free download Magic Partition Manager Software

• Delete the 450MB Recovery partition.
• Move Bred_C next to F: partition
• Then resize the System Reserved partition to 550MB

The Recovery environment will be broken but it is very easy to fix.

 

Usually it's just a matter of opening an elevated (admin) command prompt and executing "reagentc /enable" and it will find the partition and re-establish the link. It may or may not require a reboot to take effect, not sure, been too long for me and I think I've seen it go both ways.

 

Many thanks. It's now 22:00 hrs local and I'm about to turn in. Will try suggestions tomorrow.

Thanks everybody!

 

I'm not a hardware person and maybe my ideas won't make sense, but in case they might this is what I'm thinking.

On the issue of "current version of Windows is in an unsupported directory", what is your current version?

Even though your data is on an external HDD, create another set of your data on a USB flash drive in case it becomes necessary to repeat the method to store your data on the physically separate HDD.

Disconnect all external drives as mentioned. With everything out of the way, try the "Keep personal files and apps" procedure you tried before. The intent here is to determine if your apps will be saved so you will not have to re-install them.

If that works and you end up with an unallocated partition you can consider merging it with your OS partition. I did that once for a friend using mini-tool partition wizard free Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free if I remember correctly.
--- And if it does work, create a system image back up before moving on.

If those ideas don't work, you will have to re-install your apps.

 

OK everybody - masses of valuable expert advice and information. Having considered all the options I've decided to leave everything where it is. If I started storing data on F: then, if I have to reinstall Windows, I risk losing any data in that partition. I'll just use it for temporary storage of anything that is relatively unimportant.

Many, many thanks for all the help.

Ken