Windows 10: Windows won't restore my system image?

Problem:

I created windows 10 system image of my laptop on an external hard drive and no matter what method I use to try to restore it I get stopped at the

"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 from a Windows installation disk or a system repair disk and then try the restore again."

screen. At this point the process prompts you to create a recovery disk but I do not have an optical drive on the laptop.


Things I've tried:

1. Windows installation media on an external hard drive.

I have the Windows installation media on one USB attached hard drive and the system image on another. I boot from the installation media choose the repair option and select recover system image. After I select the system image I get the "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 from a Windows installation disk or a system repair disk and then try the restore again." screen.


2. Windows recovery drive.

I go through the same steps with the two external hard drives again but instead of using the Installation Media. I create a recovery tool on the external hard drive. Once I select the image I want to restore (still stored on the external HDD) I get the "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 from a Windows installation disk or a system repair disk and then try the restore again." screen.


3. Putting the system image on separate partition of the main drive I intend to install too.

Fresh install of Windows is on the C: partition and I put a copy of the System Image on the D: partition I go into the boot options by pressing F8, holding shift during the restart, or using installation/recovery media from an external hard drive (I've gone though all of the above) but the end message is always "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 from a Windows installation disk or a system repair disk and then try the restore again."

Question about this process:

Why am I never promoted to select the drive I am recovering the image to? Does Windows assume I am trying to recover to the drive that i'm booting from (be it the Installation media or recovery drive) or does it think that it's trying to restore to external hard drive that contains the system image. In that case I could see why there is a problem but want to install the image to the laptop's one and only internal SSD.


Things I haven't tried yet:

1. Format the laptops internal SSD I intend to install to.

Maybe if there wasn't already a clean install of Windows on the drive that I intend to write my recovery over I wouldn't run into issues.


2. Update the clean install of windows intend to write over

If update windows will it fix it's recovery option so it actually works? I doubt this since I've already used the "Create a recovery Drive" option on and updated PC and booting from the recovery drive still didn't allow me to restore the image.


3. Use a recovery disk instead or recovery drive.

As I said the laptop has no optical drive so I can't really try this and what is the difference anyway? One is and ISO and one isn't? Is there more a difference or should this matter? I was under the opinion the Installation media repair option or using a recovery drive should also work and neither of them did.


Concision:

Am I just screwed because I created a system image with Windows instead of using a third party piece of software for backups? Can any third party software restore of an image created by Windows 10's "create a system image" option? Can all of this recovery stuff be done directly through some kind of terminal (shell, command prompt, or whatever a Windows equivalent would be) instead of using the normal windows recovery tool?

If anyone knows any tricks to actually restore this system image please let me know. I think the main moral of the story probably is "Don't use Windows built in tools for creating a system image."

:)

 

Restoring Windows 10 Image using Macrium Reflect


In addition to the above. Here's my suggestion in step by step.
I assume you have Macrium Installed in your current HD and already made a backup copy.

1. Connect your new HD via USB port and boot up.
2. Run Macrium, click on Restore tab then select the Backup Image that you made to restore
3. click on "select a different target disk" then select your new HD as destination
   
   
   
4. Proceed to restore then Shutdown and disconnect the old HD and replace with the new HD
5. Boot up with your new HD.

 

System Image Problem


Bill,

Could you elaborate on the Nick's Data? I've already done a Sys Img to G: drive.
What is a Belarc Advisor audit?


Rebooting now to see if drives stay the same.


--
Nick

 

Windows 10 system image restore points unable to delete

Have deleted system image backups using the windows 10 suggested method. But 2 system image rstore points are still listed under other backups. Have tried all the suggested methods on the net and from the microsoft community, but the system image restore
points remain. Even after deleting all but the last normal restore points. I guess I can just ignore them. Would appreciate any advice as nothing seems to remove them.