Attempting to restore Windows 7 from image backup?

Mr Davo

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Feb 22, 2010
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Hi Everyone,

I have an image backup of my Windows 7 installation on a hard disk drive. I used the built-in Windows 7 functionality to make the backup: Start > Control Panel (Large Icons view) > Backup and Restore.

I am now attempting to restore the image after my Windows 7 installation became corrupt.

Here are the steps that I follow -

1). Boot from the 'System Repair Disk' (CD)
2). Select 'Windows Setup [EMS] Enabled' option

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After this I see the 'Microsoft Corporation' progress bar...

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This progress bar simply keeps going - before writing this post it was going for 3 hours, and I suspect that it would go on indefinitely - is this a sign that the image is corrupt? Is there anything I can do to get my image backup to work?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Davo
 
Solution
If you've replaced a RAID 0 drive then I believe that you have to re-initialise the drive from Disk Management or remove the restore the RAID settings within the BIOS.

A restore from a Windows system image doesn't perform a format; I guess the assumption is that you'll be restoring over the existing installation.

At any rate, glad to hear you got it sorted.
Hi bicycle_repair_man,

I was following the process that you describe; however the reason that my recovery was not working is that my new hard drive was not formatted.

I found it ironic that the Windows Recovery functionality would not work in my instance because the drive was not formatted, ironic because Windows 7 can install to an unformatted hard drive. Furthermore the video link from Microsoft (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/videos/restoring-your-pc-after-a-hard-drive-failure#tab=system) does not feature manually formatting / partitioning the hard drive first (in my case using an EASEUS Partition Master boot disk). Finally once the restoration process started I was actually warned that the formatting / partitioning of the hard drive would be erased!

I am using a RAID 0 configuration so perhaps this fact is affecting the way that Windows Recovery works, however I doubt this!

Kind Regards,

Davo
 
If you've replaced a RAID 0 drive then I believe that you have to re-initialise the drive from Disk Management or remove the restore the RAID settings within the BIOS.

A restore from a Windows system image doesn't perform a format; I guess the assumption is that you'll be restoring over the existing installation.

At any rate, glad to hear you got it sorted.
 
Solution