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How do I restore a system image (.vhdx)? The standard procedure is failing me

Anonymous
2014-02-21T20:16:02+00:00

A frustrating day.  Instead of getting work done, I've spent the past 6 hours trying to restore a system image.  BYOD failure.

Anyhow, I have a .vhdx system image that I made two weeks ago.  When my system started acting funny last night, I figured no problem, I'll reformat and restore.  The reformatting went fine, but restoring has been impossible.

My restore image is on a USB 3.0 external hard drive.

I've got a USB Windows 8.1 installer thumb drive.

I've reinstalled Windows 8.1 to the computer and have tried repeatedly to restore the image.

I boot to the USB installer, which then gets me into the Windows Repair Environment.  Once there, I select Troubleshoot, then Advanced, then System

Restore.  Windows Repair Environment scans my external hard drive, correctly identifies the system image, then promptly tells me it cannot use this image because the Windows Repair Environment is running on the hard drive it needs to reformat. 

What can I do to get past this?

I booted to USB.  Is it failing to recognize the SSD in my laptop?  Or did it somehow load the Windows Restore Environment to my SSD? 

I have reformatted the machine multiple times and I have reinstalled Windows 8.1 three times.  I have tried to restore to an empty partition and to one with a working install of Win 8.1. 

Please help!

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-03-14T15:59:17+00:00

    Hi,

    • You can only do a system image recovery to HDDs/SDDs that are the same size or larger than the one(s) included in the system image when it was created. You will not be able to do a system image recovery to a smaller HDD/SSD. If the HDDs/SDDs are larger, then you will have "unallocated" space afterwards that is left over from the difference that you can extend into.

    • When you restore your computer from a system image, it is a complete restoration. You can't choose individual items to restore, and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced with those on the system image.

    • If your system image is on an external or removable device (ex: USB drive), then make sure it is connected before starting. If it's a USB device, then make sure that you also have your BIOS settings (ex: Legacy USB) set to allow USB devices to be recognized at boot.

    Thanks.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-03-14T20:41:24+00:00

    • You can only do a system image recovery to HDDs/SDDs that are the same size or larger than the one(s) included in the system image when it was created.

    Not entirely correct.  The difference I see is you need to look at the actual partitioned space on the drive when it was imaged, not just the actual drive size.  This assumes there is no unallocated space between partitions.

    You can re-image to a smaller drive, if you plan ahead and reduce the partitioned space on the original install drive before you create the image.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-14T16:12:04+00:00

    Cincinnatux,

    See this Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2930294

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-02-21T20:41:45+00:00

    Thanks for taking the time to reply.  I agree with you that Windows Recovery Environment *should* recognize my SSD.  But it does not, even when I have a working copy of Win 8.1 confirmed on it. 

    I have followed the procedure outlined by Microsoft for conducting this restore.  It is also the only method I have seen illustrated or explained elsewhere.  But this method does not work in my case.  I need to know what else I can do to get it to work.  My imagination is not sufficient for this task, apparently.  I just can't think of any other variations to try.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-02-21T20:31:29+00:00

    If you made a Windows Backup Image, the normal procedure is to boot to recovery or install media and re-image from using the process you described.  If this is a UEFI system, make sure and boot the recovery media in the UEFI configuration.

    If you have gotten that far, and the SSD is your only drive, it should see and restore to it.  That will wipe the entire drive and replace only the partitions you created with the image.  You can restore an image to a clean drive so the SSD should not be causing problems unless you are booting to it for the recovery...just use the Boot Device menu to select the thumb drive.

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