Windows 10: System Image and Boot Manager

i understand what you are talking about. it's you that does not understand what i want. i don't want installed programs and the remnants of all the garbage that goes on and off of my computer backed up. i only want a fresh OS, programs i will always need, and my personal settings backed up. i want everything else to go away when i load an image. the way i use images is to purge my system of bloating viruses and system errors.

 

In a different time zone from you, I'm afraid *Smile


From @misterdean's description we can tell that the system image is held in a second partition on the same drive - effectively to be used as a personalized 'factory reset' image.

Correct.

System image backup is very temperamental and the slightest changes can break it, the most common failure being not able to recognise a restorable image. The image is saved to a sub-folder with the name of the PC which is in the WindowsImageBackup folder at the root of the drive. Moving or renaming either of these folders can break the restore's ability to find the image. Those (and the 'hidden' attribute) are changes that can easily be undone to make the image available again. It's probably the resizing of the drives that has broken the ability to find the image for restore. That may be difficult/impossible to put back exactly as it was before.

The system image itself isn't damaged, it's the information around it that no longer matches the system it's for. There are typically at least two and usually three partition images in the system image, one for each of the SYSTEM, Recovery and C: drive partitions (maybe another if there is a UEFI partition). These are .vhdx files in the 'Backup yyyy-mm-dd hhmmss' folder within the <computername> subfolder. These can be mounted as virtual drives to recover the files they contain. Note that they have to be mounted with read/write access (which in itself may well also 'break' the image for restore purposes). If you want to try this, make a copy of the .vhdx file(s) and only mount the copies.

The first thing I would do is get an external HDD and copy the WindowsImageBackup folder and all its contents to that before making any further changes, making sure you click 'yes' when you are told you need admin permission to move some of the files. Then I would make a second copy under a different name to use if you need to mount any images.

I would also make a Recovery Drive USB (no need to include system files) as this has all the image recovery tools. You can boot from this USB to restore a system image, if you're very lucky you may even be able to see the original image (or it's copy on the ext. HDD).

As I understand it, the system that's currently running is the same as the system image, but has been in use and more software has been installed. The more practical and less time consuming way to recreate a 'clean' system image may be to uninstall all unwanted software, thoroughly check for viruses, then clean up the settings to make it as close as possible to the original system image. Them make an image of that to an external drive.

Once a useable image is available, look into using something more reliable in future, such as Macrium.

 

bingo

i have to disagree here. even after you uninstall something there will almost always be traces of it in other hidden folders through the entire c drive. some viruses can not be sniffed out or multiple antivirus programs will be needed. some windows errors consume more time to correct than it would take to reload a fresh image. it takes 5 minutes to load a system image and i know for sure it's clean and without conflicts. trying to resolve problems is always more time consuming than hitting the reset button.

 

I was only suggesting this as a last resort, one to try after banging you head against a brick wall trying to get restore to 'see' the original image.

It may (just) be possible to manually recreate the original partitions by mounting the .vhdx files and extracting their contents. It may well also need bcdedit to make that a bootable drive. Theoretically it should be possible, but it's a major undertaking requiring in-depth knowledge. I wouldn't want to try, and certainly not on the original drive. I'd get a spare drive and try to do it on that.

 

i'm not gonna bang my head against the wall. i'm walking away from it. after topgun responded i immediately recognized trying to salvage the image would be more time consuming than reinstalling windows.

 

I agree. It's the path of least resistance, and you'll be certain the new image is a clean install. Do look at Macrium (or similar) for future images. The MS System Image Backup is a deprecated feature now, and may be removed in future versions.

Features removed or Deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

 

"...Remember, evaluation software put things in the registry that is impossible to remove..." Well, not impossible, however, quite geeky. I've removed all traces via Revo Uninstaller Pro and Resplendence's Registrar Registry Manager -- only after I made two full images of "C" and two full images of "D" onto external media.

 

i put the SSD i removed back in my computer but now i can't boot to it. i'm assuming this has something to do with removing it from the msconfig boot screen on my other SSD but i'm not sure how to make it boot to the secondary drive again.

 

When you disconnect a disk from the PC then later on re-connect it. The boot order & priority in the BIOS might get messed up. Double check this.
If it still does not boot then connect the disk to another PC running Windows. Take a screen shot then post it.

 

i did set it to be first boot order in the bios. i don't have another pc to connect it to.

 

Boot order is not enough. What about Boot priority ?
BTW, is your Windows installed with Legacy or GPT ?

 

boot priority is what i was referring too.

i'm not sure i know what you mean legacy or GPT. i installed windows normally and did not do anything out of the ordinary.

EDIT i looked in my bios and this is what i see.
launch cms enabled
boot device control uefi and legacy
boot from storage device legacy

not sure if it matters but the main drive in my pc is an m.2. one thing i noticed is there are 2 boot priorities listed for the m.2 which is something i've never seed before. one says microsoft boot manager and the other says samsung 960 pro. i've tried disabling all boot priority except the crucial as well as setting the windows boot manager before and after the crucial.

 

There's 2 modes that Windows can be installed: Legacy (MBR) and UEFI (GPT). If your Windows disk is initialized with MBR then your Windows is using the Legacy MBR disk layout. Try the boot priority to: Samsung 960 Pro.

BTW, do you have Macrium rescue disk on USB or DVD ?

 

is there a way i can check if i'm using legacy or UEFI?

boot priority samsung boots to my main os. i use to get the boot manager screen that asked me which windows i want to boot but after i removed the secondary os from the msconfig boot screen i no longer get asked what disk i want to boot.

i do not have a macrium disk.

 

Do you have the Windows installation disk ? if yes, boot it up. Press SHIFT + F10 then type:
diskpart
select disk 0
list partition
exit

Post the result.