Windows 8.1 Image Backup doesn't recognize internal drive....worked before

[1LiquidPC]

Hello. I'm having some trouble here and hoping somebody can help. I'm trying to use the Windows 8.1 Image Backup software to create another total drive image of my Primary C: over to my D: Drive. I made an image just fine when I first got 8.1 up and running w/ drivers installed. It's been awhile now(2 months), and I've since installed software/updates and a few games. Now when I try to create an image, it doesn't show any drive installed when it says "looking for backup devices" to backup an image to, it's only showing network backup as the only option. When I click "refresh" on the HDD section, it just searches for a split-second and re-highlights Network Backup. The drive itself has been running fine, it has my games installed plus the original image is still there. Only other thing is this is my new system, and I've been trying to get OC settings tweaked in. At some point during OC trials/tests, I did get an error saying my Recycle Bin was corrupt on D:, and I've since fixed that, read about some method online to "reset" it. Other than that error, I haven't had any problems. I don't have an External HDD around at the moment to try. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[1LiquidPC]

I am highly doubtful it's a virus. I keep my antivirus/antimalware up to date, avoid "shady" sites, don't "pirate" any software, lock down router settings, ect.

 

[ackoman]

Did you ever get to the bottom of this? I'm experiencing the same thing.

 

[1LiquidPC]

Nope, still doesn't work. Also, ackoman, has this by chance happened just recently to you as well? I'm curious if it's due to a Windows update. On an even stranger side note(why I'm chalking it up ATM as a faulty Windows update)is my other PC is doing the exact same thing now in Windows 7. It's showing "removable disk" as the only option under the harddrive section in the system image software which is referring to the card reader hub built into my monitor. The last image for my Windows 7 PC was in June, so haven't made one in a while. Same story here, though. Other than a new mouse, 2-3 games, and Windows updates and standard AV updates, nothing else has changed. I have music/games installed on the secondary drive(same internal drive my last successful image is on)which run fine. Listening to some music on drive now as I'm typing this. My new PC parts that I've been testing are what I made this original post for, running Windows 8.1 on those. Again, with 2 different systems, both have backup system images that created fine, and now neither will create new images to secondary internal drives. Other than not being able to do this, they're both running fine. A few more things to point out is that there is plenty of space on the secondary drives to write images too, so that's not the problem. Also as some web searches suggest is to make sure the partitions aren't "active", which they aren't. Just single Primary partitions spanning the entire drives on both systems. Starting to wonder if more people are seeing this behavior too?

 

[1LiquidPC]

Figured it out! After some more web browsing I found the answer on a post right here on Tomshardware. Making an image on my Win 7 machine as I'm typing. It turned out to be Origin's fault. Which I have installed on both machines, but actually made the image on my Win 8.1 machine before installing Origin. The post I found had someone with a similar situation with games, click on post if you want to read http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1790553/windows-create-system-image-boot-hdd.html They had games installed as well on a secondary drive but the Image software wouldn't let them backup. Turns out its something to do with how certain Windows services can get installed with games, if the services themselves point to any other drive than C:, it can cause the problem as Windows will flag it as a system drive, hence not allowing secondary drive as backup. In my case I installed both Steam and Origin clients along with games themselves on my D Drive. When looking through the services, I seen that while Steam client service was on C:, Origin Client was pointing to D:. Both clients I installed to D in the first place, but it looks like Steam "knows how to integrate properly". With this knowledge, I looked up how to backup my games, copied the Game Folders to my desktop, uninstalled Origin. After uninstalling, I reinstalled Origin, this time putting it on C:, but pointed the game install directory back to D: where I wanted it. Next I just copied the game folder into the "new" Origin Games folder. Finally, fired up Origin again, and it did a file verification, then the game loaded back up fine. After all this, I loaded up the Backup & Restore software, clicked Create a System Image, and low and behold, my secondary drive loaded right up and I was able to create a new image. Hope this is helpful information to anyone else seeing this problem. Just to summarize, in my case it happened to be Origin itself, but it can be a single game, as mentioned in the post I linked to. Keep an eye on your running services and where they're pointing too. Learn something new every time on the forums here