Can no longer “Create a System image” via Backup and Restore (Windows 7)

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[Lee Silver]

Win11 21H2

Ever since Win 10 I use ‘create a System image’ monthly. This worked successfully in the beginning of January.

Yesterday I tried to do this again. When I clicked on ‘Create a System image’ the ‘Where do you want to save the Backup’ dialog appeared. Ordinarily ‘On a hard disk’ is checked and scan finds my external drive. Yesterday it didn’t and and it selected ‘On a network location’. I canceled that.

On the ‘Backup or Restore you files’ screen I clicked ‘Change settings’. On the ‘Set up backup Backup’ dialog my external disk is selected in the top panel but the bottom panel has the message ‘A system image cannot be saved on this location More Information.’ Clicking on ‘More Information’ I get the message “Scheduled backup of System Image is not allowed on removable devices. You can try to save a single system image on this device by clicking ‘Create a System image’ Windows 7 File Recovery Control Panel.”

It seems that removable disks can no longer be used – but that seems wrong.

The changes to my system since the last time I successfully created an image are 1) I updated all my Microsoft Store apps, and 2) I upgraded Microsoft Visual Studio. Neither of these should have modified the behavior of removable disks vis-a-vis creating a System Image.

Moderator Note: Caught in spam filter

• This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by Lee Silver.
• This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by Bob99.
• This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by Bob99.

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Lee,

Make sure the external drive is connected and try again.  Let us know the results.

Mark

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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I’ve reconnected the drive multiple times – no luck.

Also, I forgot to mention that the drive has over 800GB free – so it’s not because of not enough space.

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Or try a free 3rd party backup app to see if it works.
MiniTool ShadowMaker, Aomei Backupper, Paragon Backup etc.

cheers, Paul

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Thanks for the idea.

I’m trying to avoid adding additional software to fix something that was working and just suddenly stopped.

I would prefer to find the reason for the sudden stoppage and then correct it.

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hmmm, not sure why spam filter thought it’s spam.

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Lee Silver wrote:

hmmm, not sure why spam filter thought it’s spam.

One of the most frequent reasons for this is that someone is using a VPN, and that VPN gives them an IP address that a spammer has used (and abused in some cases) within a given amount of time and that IP address is listed in the spam databases because of that.

This most frequently happens to folks who use a VPN to connect here, but has also happened to folks who don’t use a VPN to connect here, just not as frequently.

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I don’t use and haven’t used a VPN on this machine – and I’m the only one who has access to it.

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Can Windows file explorer see the external drive and it’s contents?

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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Except for this problem Windows 11 treats the external drive normally – it’s the drive on which I have all my data and if there was a problem with it I would have known long ago.

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Lee Silver wrote:

When I clicked on ‘Create a System image’ the ‘Where do you want to save the Backup’ dialog appeared. Ordinarily ‘On a hard disk’ is checked and scan finds my external drive. Yesterday it didn’t and and it selected ‘On a network location’. I canceled that.

When this happens is an error code given?

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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Disable Windows Sandbox and/or Hyper-V?

FIX: Error 0x81000036 while performing Windows 11/10 Backup

EDIT: Oops, sorry. I didn’t realize to whom I was replying (i.e. whose error message)

1 user thanked author for this post.

mledman

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No error-code or any other pop-up explaining why – it just select using a network location.

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This may not apply, but I’ve handled such a problem with Windows 7 & 10 systems. Windows image backup of system files will not create the image on the drive that has system files (usually C:\). If a file or folder is added to the drive that Windows “sees” as a system file, then Windows will no longer consider that drive suitable for a backup image. Easy to prove. Connect another external drive and see if Windows will backup to it.
Like I said, it may not apply to your Windows 11, but it sounds like it is using the same backup function since Windows 7.

HTH, Dana:))

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All my system files are on the C: drive. My external drive (D:) has never had any system files on it.

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What happens when you select “on a hard disk”?

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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When I click “On a Hard Disk” no drives are displayed – that’s the problem.

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And after clicking “on a hard disk”, clicking <refresh> (in the box where your drive should appear) doesn’t find your drive and doesn’t show an error message?  Sorry about all the questions.  Just trying to understand the issue.

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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Your statement is correct – clicking ‘refresh’ neither finds the drive nor displays any message – it just re-select ‘on a network location’.

And definitely no need to apologize or explain the asking of questions.

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Some things to try:

See if another external hard drive, or even a thumb drive is found.  If another drive is listed then

Lee Silver wrote:

Ever since Win 10 I use ‘create a System image’ monthly.

Each month, when you create an image, the “WindowsImageBackup” folder gets a little bigger.  Windows has a maximum shadow copy storage space for each drive.  Maybe you’ve hit this limit?

If not found, run the SFC and DISM restorehealth commands.

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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mledman wrote:

Each month, when you create an image, the “WindowsImageBackup” folder gets a little bigger.

Unless you move the WindowsImageBackup folder, Windows will replace that image when it creates the next one.  Yes, the image will get bigger because the amount of data on the drive is increased.

mledman wrote:

Windows has a maximum shadow copy storage space for each drive.  Maybe you’ve hit this limit?

I think you are confusing Restore Points with Image Backup.  Image Backup is to a separate drive and the only limit on the image’s size is if it will fit on the destination drive.

HTH, Dana:))

1 user thanked author for this post.

mledman

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