Can’t Backup To an Internal Drive

Topic

New Reply

So I went to try to backup my main C: drive to a second HDD (same size) and got the following indecipherable message:
“This drive contains the Windows Recovery Environment and cannot be used as a location for your backup.”

Can anyone tell me in plain English what this means please? (God how I love Windows messages!)

rstew

Reply | Quote

Replies

I assume that you are using the built in W7 backup utility. Can Windows see the second hard drive? It sounds as though its trying to back up your C drive to itself.

Reply | Quote

That message means that there is a Windows Recovery partition on the disk you are trying to backup to – presumably left over from the disk’s previous existence.

It would be best to delete all the partitions and then do a full format of the disk (you’ll lose all of the data on it) then you’ll be able to use it as you want.

Even better, use a 3rd party imaging tool to create an image backup – that process won’t bump into the sometimes unpredictable behaviour of Windows Backup. Macrium Reflect is my favourite free imaging tool, Acronis is my favourite paid-for tool.

PS now that you’ve experienced the frustration of making backups the way you are trying, imagine the hair-tearing frustration when you find other unpredictable circumstances which prevent you restoring from a backup !

You won’t get any such grief from either of the tools I have mentioned.

Reply | Quote

Thanks Martin and Calimanco.
Yes I thought I would run a Win 7 backup before upgrading Win7 HP x64 to Win Pro x64.
The drive is found as F: by Windows, and I have done a full clone to it previously using DriveClone. Maybe this is what Backup is seeing?
What I may do is run a full format then do a drive clone using the Seagate drive clone utility, which is a customized version of Acronis.
Then if my upgrade to Win 7 Pro goes sideways I can still boot from the backup F: drive.

Rod

Reply | Quote

Maybe this is what Backup is seeing?

Yes, that’s it.

What I may do is run a full format then do a drive clone using the Seagate drive clone utility, which is a customized version of Acronis.
Then if my upgrade to Win 7 Pro goes sideways I can still boot from the backup F: drive.

Right. Although I prefer making an image instead of a clone, your plan should work.

Image or Clone often! Backup, backup, backup, backup......
- - - - -
Home Built: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU, 16GB RAM, ASUSTeK M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3) motherboard, 512GB SanDisk SSD, 3 TB WD HDD, 1024MB ATI AMD RADEON HD 6450 video, ASUS VE278 (1920x1080) display, ATAPI iHAS224 Optical Drive, integrated Realtek HD Audio

Reply | Quote

What I did prior to upgrading an OEM Win 7 laptop to Win 10 with a Recovery partition was to create the OEM Recovery Disks so that I could factory reset if Win 10 went sideways.

I’d already created a System Repair disk and then I used Windows own Create a system image onto a spare external HDD.

I then booted up with a Win 7 install disk so as to do a clean install and when asked where I wanted to put it, I deleted the Recovery partition, clicked on it then selected Extend which then made it part of C: then cancelled the clean install.

That way, I still had all of my programs and personal stuff intact and ready for the Win 10 upgrade without the need to format.

I also have my laptop set to check the DVD and USB drives before the HDD so that I can boot up with a repair or install disk should whatnot hit the fan.

This method may be less time consuming to what you have planned prior to running the Pro upgrade.

Reply | Quote

That 2nd HD cannot be a clone of the 1st HD and be online and be a full images backup drive. I recommend as an earlier poster indicated – format that 2nd HD. Then, using Macrium Reflect or anything similar, make routine [weekly or bi-monthly at least] full image backups of your OS partition and your data partition which resides on your 1st, primary, internal HD.

I added some things to make a couple of things clearer.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

Reply | Quote

Now I understand.

DriveClone isn’t really meant for backups in the usual sense of the word. It is intended to make a copy of your HDD which could be physically substituted for your C: drive. Even if your normal PC functions aren’t confused by there being two such disks inside your PC, you are bound to run into obscure problems such as the one you started this thread with, sooner or later !

As I said, and RolandJS helpfully reinforced, what you need is an image backup – and Macrium Reflect is the tool to make that. The image it creates will not be confused in any way with your C: drive, but can still be used to recreate C: in its entirety if that’s what you need – or to recover individual files, or even to recover any or all of your data files to another machine.

I hope this makes sense – it is difficult to explain simply and clearly !

Reply | Quote

If you are trying to do HDD partition and drive letter issues before you change over I recomment getting MiniTools Partition Wizard. It is free and It will make your life easier when rearranging any and all HDD’s on your system.
It works without disturbing the disk data already there.

Reply | Quote

Backing up Phil’s great idea — consider naming all physical hard-drives and all partitions, regardless of where existing — unique names. That way, when external boots play “card shuffle” with drive letters, you know which partition or which HD you are setting up a source and which will be a target.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

Reply | Quote

Rock, Roland, Phil and Martin;
Thanks for all those suggestions.
I am going to go ahead with the format followed by Macrium reflect image. Then I’ll do the Win7 Pro upgrade and hope for the best!
Thanks all,
rstew

Reply | Quote

Let us know how you fare. Good luck.

Image or Clone often! Backup, backup, backup, backup......
- - - - -
Home Built: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU, 16GB RAM, ASUSTeK M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3) motherboard, 512GB SanDisk SSD, 3 TB WD HDD, 1024MB ATI AMD RADEON HD 6450 video, ASUS VE278 (1920x1080) display, ATAPI iHAS224 Optical Drive, integrated Realtek HD Audio

Reply | Quote

OK now we have another problem.
I did a quick format on the second drive F:
Now Macrium is finding C: as the source drive just fine, but is not finding F: drive as a viable destination.
F: drive still has a small 100MB system reserved partition, though I have deleted everything on it. Both it and the main partition show as completely empty, but no joy.
Do I have to delete the system partition, and if so, how?
rstew

Reply | Quote

Ok so I used EaseUS Partition to delete the system reserved partition on the backup drive.
then I went into disk management and once again re-formatted it and it is now a healthy primary single partition called drive D:
Back into Macrium and it still does not show D: as a viable destination for drive imaging! 😡
What am I missing here? Does the free version of Macrium not allow imaging to another HDD?
The only thing it is showing as a destination site is my DVD drive. Yippee.
Can anyone tell me what it going on here please, because I am not getting it??

rstew

Reply | Quote

Macrium free works to HDD.
Did you format the drive as NTFS?
Post a screenshot of the Disk Management view please.

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

I use my Macrium Reflect to backup my 1st HD’s partitions to my 2nd HD all the time; however, that 2nd HD cannot contain mirror copies of boot files nor a mirror copy of Windows OS. Because I’m not sure what presently is on your intended backup HD, I’ll have to listen in and let others lead the way to solutions.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

Reply | Quote

So as requested here is a snip from Disk Manager showing the two drives after merging the partitions and reformatting D: Looks pretty clean, right?
46196-Disk-Manager-Snip

And here is a snip from Macrium as I tried to set up an image backup to D:. D: drive only appears as a source drive; never as a destination option for some reason. And the reason it now shows as having data on it is that I finally got sick of messing with Macrium and used Seagate Disk Wizard to create an image, using its backup option. Way more user friendly. It also allows incremental backups daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Now, would it work if I needed it to restore from? Who knows? Hopefully.
46197-Macrium-Snip

Anybody got any idea what’s going on with Macrium? This is the latest update version by the way. Maybe they have removed the option to image to a HDD for the free version?

rstew

Reply | Quote

Anybody got any idea what’s going on with Macrium? This is the latest update version by the way. Maybe they have removed the option to image to a HDD for the free version?

The screen you are on is for creating an image file, not a disc to disc copy.

If you click on the 3 dots to the rhs of folder you can pick the location where it will store image file.

Reply | Quote

I reckon it’s because you made it active so Macrium thinks it’s a system disk.
Delete the partition and re-create it without making it active.

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

I reckon it’s because you made it active so Macrium thinks it’s a system disk.
Delete the partition and re-create it without making it active.

cheers, Paul

I wondered about that. So I deleted the partition, then reformatted it as a non active partition. It now shows as Healthy Partition. Guess what; still no joy with Macrium. it can’t find D: as a destination drive. I clicked on the 3 dots per Browni’s suggestion and that only shows folders on the C: drive as options. Yippee.
(It is an image I am trying to create; not a disk to disk copy.)

Then I uninstalled this new version of Macrium 5.3.7310 and installed the Jan 2015 version 5.3.7256 just in case. Still no joy; exactly the same as the newer version.
So I am done fiddling with Macrium. It just won’t play nicely no matter what.
I will stick with Seagate Disk Wizard which at least seems to do what I need.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.
Over and out.
rstew

Reply | Quote

Hmmm… Sorry you couldn’t get it to work. :confused:
Did you create the Macrium Reflect boot disc (or flash media)? If you did, it should allow you to image and restore (even if you’ve already uninstalled the application from your C: drive) so you might be able to continue attempts to use Macrium (if the mood strikes you again).

Image or Clone often! Backup, backup, backup, backup......
- - - - -
Home Built: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU, 16GB RAM, ASUSTeK M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3) motherboard, 512GB SanDisk SSD, 3 TB WD HDD, 1024MB ATI AMD RADEON HD 6450 video, ASUS VE278 (1920x1080) display, ATAPI iHAS224 Optical Drive, integrated Realtek HD Audio

Reply | Quote