Windows 7 re-imaging issues.

APM · 2 Jan 2018 at 11:56

Hi,

I took a back up and a system image of a windows 7 installation using the onboard MS utility and saved it to an external HDD over a year ago and the drive has sat unused in a drawer since then.

Now I've had a failed main drive so I need to re-image however I am hitting some issues.

The external HDD is showing as fine when I plug it in on a running system,all the files are good,can navigate about,no issues at all.
When I start the re-image process and the pc re-starts it then fails to see any saved images or even the external drive at all.

It asks for drivers but when I try and use a driver from the windows 7 install I get a message saying I need an active windows install for that to work.

I am just wondering if anyone else has come across this or similar issues and could offer me any options as to finding a resolution please?

I was also wondering if clonezilla or Macrium Reflect would be able to access a MS windows made image?

Thanks and Happy new Year to one and all!

bledd · 2 Jan 2018 at 12:41

Try a USB2 port, not USB3.

It may be asking for USB3 drivers.

wakadoo · 2 Jan 2018 at 12:51

acronis true image used to be able to see windows images,

it also used to be able to convert a windows image to its own.

may be worth a try .

APM · 2 Jan 2018 at 14:18

bledd said:
Try a USB2 port, not USB3.

It may be asking for USB3 drivers.

Thanks,tried it for no result.

APM · 2 Jan 2018 at 14:20

wakadoo said:
acronis true image used to be able to see windows images,

it also used to be able to convert a windows image to its own.

may be worth a try .

Thanks for that,good to know.

If that is so then maybe the two I mentioned previously are worth a try first seeing as they are freeware.

jpaul · 2 Jan 2018 at 16:45

there is no ambiguity that the missing device hardware id corresponds to the hard drive ? per here etc

APM · 2 Jan 2018 at 18:36

jpaul said:
there is no ambiguity that the missing device hardware id corresponds to the hard drive ? per here etc

That's a good one,thanks.

The mediaID.bin file is in place on the external HDD,says it is a VLC file though.

APM · 7 Jan 2018 at 16:30

Used mountvol and can see the back up drive and the windows system image so it's not a driver issue.

Also ran a chkdsk/r on the back up drive which found and fixed errors.

Image still won't be seen by the recovery environment though.

APM · 19 Jan 2018 at 13:28

I attached the VHD file hoping to be able to use Macrium or another software to recover the image but the VHD mounted as a drive will not open and returns an error message that says,

I:\ is not accessible.

The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.

APM · 19 Jan 2018 at 13:29

Also chkdsk refuses to run or even see the attached drive/vhd file.

Sp00n · 19 Jan 2018 at 13:56

If you can't view the contents of the vhd image after you have attached it in disk management I would say you have a problem with the image itself.

APM · 19 Jan 2018 at 14:39

Sp00n said:
If you can't view the contents of the vhd image after you have attached it in disk management I would say you have a problem with the image itself.

Thanks for your reply,

I've spent a while googling how to recover/repair corrupted vhd files and it seems I need to be running Hyper-V or Windows server to be able to access the tools to do that,unless there could be other ways I've not stumbled upon yet?

APM · 21 Jan 2018 at 14:34

Just to wrap this up and for any help for those down the line who may experience similar issues.

I used a program called BitRecover and managed to recover the files and folders that I wanted from the vhd image although so far I have been unable to make a bootable image.

I am going to try TestDisk next though I expect the image has sustained too much damage to be able to recover a full ,bootable image.

TestDisk is open source but BitRecover costs $49.