Backup and restore from an external hard disk

I found these directions on another thread and they worked for me.  I've never been able to get the restore to work through the normal interface.  It took me a while to figure out the exact syntax but the directions below are very close.  Hope this helps:

"I had the same problem. Never could get the recovery to work from the GUI. I did find a fix on my own however. Google mostly failed me on this one, so hopefully this solves the problem for some other people dealing with this issue.

1. Used diskpart to setup my partitions correctly. The volume you're recovering TO MUST be the same size or larger than the volume that was backed up FROM. In my case, the USB backup drive was mounted by the restore disk as C: and the new raid volume was unformatted and no partition created. So I reassigned the usb drive to z:, create partition, create volume, format volume, assigned volume C: Exit out of diskpart when you have it all the way you want it. I'll use my case as an example (off the top of my head so excuse syntax errors):
2. From the command line: DISKPART
3. list disk
4. list volume
5. select volume=1 (this was my USB volume)
6. remove letter=C
7. asssign letter=Z
8. select disk=1 (this was my raid disk)
9. create partition primary
10. create volume simple
11. assign letter=C
12. format fs=ntfs label="Main" quick
13. list volume (verify the volume is created and formatted)
14. Exit
15. wbadmin is the command line utility you will use to recover your system image.http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754015(WS.10).aspx

I did the following steps to get all I needed to successfully recover onto my new raid volume using wbadmin:

1. From the command line: wbadmin get versions -backupTarget:z: -machine:rhess-PC
2. Copy (left click highlight, right click highlighted text) text under "Version Identifier" from results given by previous command
3. Next command: wbadmin get items -backupTarget:z: -machine:rhess-PC -version:<right click to paste copied text>
4. These results will confirm that you have a volume image to restore from in this backup set. Note the name of the volume in this backup set. Once confirmed, move to step 5.
5. Recovery command: wbadmin start recovery -backupTarget:z: -recoveryTarget:c: -itemtype:Volume -item:c: -version:<version from above>

As long as your recovery target is the same size or larger than the size stored with your backup set, the restore should be fine. For future backups, it's best practice to shrink the system volume, then backup. This way you can restore to a disk smaller than your current volume, providing more flexibility on future restores.

When the recovery is complete, exit the command prompt (type "exit") then click the link for "repair startup issues". This will make the newly recovered/created partition bootable. After the dialog, reboot and all should work. I've done this twice now where the wizard would just give me the "No disk that can be used for recovering the system can be found." error and this method was successful.

Hope this helps someone.

• Edited byRyunMonday, September 20, 2010 10:16 PMsyntax correction
• Proposed As Answer byRyunMonday, September 20, 2010 10:09 PM"

a. Nope I didn't modify or rename or even touched the backup file at all.

b. Same as above, did not change it. Just took a look at it.

c. I assume it is a file backup, because I did not click the option called "Create a system image".

There is also only 1 user/account on this computer, which is me.

To create the backup, I went to Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore. Under the Backup section, I see my

I have used a backup and restore program called Reflect for Win 7 & 10, now on win 10 Creator edition. With an external hard drive from Seagate ($59 for 1TB or $79 for 2TB) I believe this is the way to go. I have a 1TB with Reflect to automatically backup an image of System and Drive C: every night at 2:00 AM with a maximum of 7 backup copies (my image is about 84MB) because Reflect only backs up the sectors which have data. I normally run CC cleaner at least once a week to eliminate temporary files and cached files.

Reflect will automatically delete the oldest file, then write a new file. This way I have the last 7 days on my machine. Reflect is also displayed on the boot up screen with an option for recovery.

Joseph Roberts

Same problem here, nobody has a solution it seems. I've been using windows backup and restore to make disc images since vista, and for the first year with a windows 7 installation I had no problems restoring images and updating them.

As soon as I make an image file the backup and restore utility can't find the image its just made on my second internal hard disc drive? Its definitely there as I can browse it in windows explorer.

When you try and locate the image files backup folder on windows behalf it allows you to point it towards networked locations only.

I've tried everything to resolve this issue. Seems I wasted more money buying this version of win7 for the sole purpose its included backup extras. Something is broken and after 2 years of using windows 7 there's been no update or fix. Restoring from disk doesn't work either, windows still can't find the image it made on my secondary internal hard drive?

No modifications have been made to the image file its right where windows put the backup untouched. Its crazy that it fails to see an image file it literally just wrote to my hard disc drive when I haven't even exited the backup and restore utility. As soon as its finished backing up the drive its lost the location of the image.

If I go to manage windows backup disc space>change settings windows has clearly logged my last backup and even gives me the option to delete the file.

The only solution is to use another program as a solution because I haven't found a single post on these forums or anywhere else yet with a solution to this problem.

Hello spellotape,

a.      Did you modify the backup file name or type after backing up successfully?

b.       Did you change the extension of the backup files after backing up successfully?

c.        What was the backup type that you created? Was it a file backup or System image backup?

Regarding the error message “There are no backups saved on the current backup location. You can restore files from another location”, this issue may be caused by the below three aspects:

·         The backup files’ name was changed

·         The computer name was changed

·         The current log on user is not the original user. But the backup files were created by the original user.

Please give check if these changes were made with the backup and how did you create the backup to answer your question better.

Thanks,

Irfan H, Microsoft Answers Support Engineer.