can't create system image to second HD

[JClark]

Hello group,

I just put together a new win7/64 system. Runs fine. I made a system
repair disk on a CD, then I tried to create a system image to my
second hard drive (totally separate drive, not RAID). But,when I go
to the system image backup program through control panel, Windows
won't let me choose the "on a hard disk" selection, and keeps
switching back to the "on one or more DVDs" selection.

I tick the "on a hard disk" selection, then on the drop down menu, all
that shows is "refresh", which I hit. But then it again switches to
the DVD backup screen.

Windows apparently doesn't recognize my second hard drive ( at least
not for the create system image function), although the second drive
(E:\) shows up in Windows explorer and I am able to manually copy
files to it.

I'm new to Windows 7.

Any suggestions or links greatly appreciated. I haven't had any luck
with web searches for a solution.

Jack

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

Hello group,

I just put together a new win7/64 system. Runs fine. I made a system
repair disk on a CD, then I tried to create a system image to my
second hard drive (totally separate drive, not RAID). But,when I go
to the system image backup program through control panel, Windows
won't let me choose the "on a hard disk" selection, and keeps
switching back to the "on one or more DVDs" selection.

I tick the "on a hard disk" selection, then on the drop down menu,
all that shows is "refresh", which I hit. But then it again switches
to the DVD backup screen.

Windows apparently doesn't recognize my second hard drive ( at least
not for the create system image function), although the second drive
(E:\) shows up in Windows explorer and I am able to manually copy
files to it.

I'm new to Windows 7.

Any suggestions or links greatly appreciated. I haven't had any luck
with web searches for a solution.

How is your second HD connected? I am able to keep backup images on my
USB external hard drive, as well as secondary partitions on my primary
HD, USB flash drives and DVD disks.

 

[JClark]

How is your second HD connected?

It's a SATA connection, given drive letter E:\
When I go load compmgmt.msc\storage\disk management, the drive shows
up just fine as a "healthy" primary partition.
Apparently Windows 7 doesn't want me to create a system image on an
internal hard drive, only on a DVD or DVDs or to a network location.
In all the flavors of windows, I've never seen this before. Perhaps
I'll have to use a different program. Macrium works fine on my other
systems, but I thought the Win 7 would have that capability.
I appreciate your reply, Dave.

Jack

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

It's a SATA connection, given drive letter E:\ When I go load
compmgmt.msc\storage\disk management, the drive shows up just fine as
a "healthy" primary partition. Apparently Windows 7 doesn't want me
to create a system image on an internal hard drive, only on a DVD or
DVDs or to a network location. In all the flavors of windows, I've
never seen this before. Perhaps I'll have to use a different program.
Macrium works fine on my other systems, but I thought the Win 7
would have that capability. I appreciate your reply, Dave.

I only have one internal drive, also SATA. It has than one partition.
Windows 7 is installed in the active primary partition (c: drive), and I
can use the MS backup program to make a backup image
to any other partition (d: or e, if I so desire. I don't think your
problem has anything to do with the drive being SATA or internal.

The only thing I can think of is that there is not enough space on the
target drive. The MS backup will not work if the image takes more than a
small fraction of the disk space. I forget the exact numbers, but if the
available space is only slightly larger than the image size, it won't work.

 

[Jeff Layman]

I only have one internal drive, also SATA. It has than one partition.
Windows 7 is installed in the active primary partition (c: drive), and I
can use the MS backup program to make a backup image
to any other partition (d: or e, if I so desire. I don't think your
problem has anything to do with the drive being SATA or internal.

The only thing I can think of is that there is not enough space on the
target drive. The MS backup will not work if the image takes more than a
small fraction of the disk space. I forget the exact numbers, but if the
available space is only slightly larger than the image size, it won't work.

"By default, Windows automatically saves as many system images as it has
space for without taking up more than 30 percent of space on the backup
disk. Once the disk starts running out of room, Windows deletes older
system images. You can set Windows to retain as many system images as it
has space for on the backup disk or to only keep the most recent system
image."

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

"By default, Windows automatically saves as many system images as it
has space for without taking up more than 30 percent of space on the
backup disk. Once the disk starts running out of room, Windows
deletes older system images. You can set Windows to retain as many
system images as it has space for on the backup disk or to only keep
the most recent system image."

Thanks, Jeff. Where did you find that?

 

[Jeff Layman]

Thanks, Jeff. Where did you find that?

Hi Dave.

That was from "Windows Help and Support" on my HP laptop. A search on
"Backup" gets 30 hits. No. 6 is "What backup settings should I use to
maximize my disk space? The second bullet point in that is the info I
quoted.

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

Hi Dave.

That was from "Windows Help and Support" on my HP laptop. A search
on "Backup" gets 30 hits. No. 6 is "What backup settings should I
use to maximize my disk space? The second bullet point in that is
the info I quoted.

Help and Support?? REAL geeks don't use Help and Support!

Thanks. I should have looked myself, but I was too lazy. The Windows 7
Help and Support is more useful than past versions were.

 

[Jeff Layman]

On 29/11/2010 23:37, Dave "Crash" Dummy wrote:
(snip)

Help and Support?? REAL geeks don't use Help and Support!
LoL!!

Thanks. I should have looked myself, but I was too lazy. The Windows 7
Help and Support is more useful than past versions were.

I must say that I was surprised to find something useful there, too. And
that after a fair bit of Goggling. But it's only 5/10 for Microsoft, as
they should have put that disk size limitation up front in the Control
Panel Backup/Restore info.

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

On 29/11/2010 23:37, Dave "Crash" Dummy wrote: (snip)

I must say that I was surprised to find something useful there, too.
And that after a fair bit of Goggling. But it's only 5/10 for
Microsoft, as they should have put that disk size limitation up front
in the Control Panel Backup/Restore info.

Agreed. It's a dumb limitation, anyway. A lot of users (like me) are
going to have a drive or partition dedicated to backups. Being limited
to 30% of the space really discourages that.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Agreed. It's a dumb limitation, anyway. A lot of users (like me) are
going to have a drive or partition dedicated to backups. Being limited
to 30% of the space really discourages that.

Every time I read about Microsoft's backup tools, I am reinforced in my
decisions to use third party stuff.

I use Macrium for images and Casper for clones, in case anyone was going
to ask

 

[Char Jackson]

Every time I read about Microsoft's backup tools, I am reinforced in my
decisions to use third party stuff.

I feel exactly the same way.

I use Macrium for images and Casper for clones, in case anyone was going
to ask

Acronis here.

 

[Andy]

Norton Ghost Or Bounce Back works Grate for me

 

[Free Radical]

Hello group,

I just put together a new win7/64 system. Runs fine. I made a system
repair disk on a CD, then I tried to create a system image to my
second hard drive (totally separate drive, not RAID). But,when I go
to the system image backup program through control panel, Windows
won't let me choose the "on a hard disk" selection, and keeps
switching back to the "on one or more DVDs" selection.

I tick the "on a hard disk" selection, then on the drop down menu, all
that shows is "refresh", which I hit. But then it again switches to
the DVD backup screen.

Windows apparently doesn't recognize my second hard drive ( at least
not for the create system image function), although the second drive
(E:\) shows up in Windows explorer and I am able to manually copy
files to it.

I'm new to Windows 7.

Any suggestions or links greatly appreciated. I haven't had any luck
with web searches for a solution.

Jack

Hi Jack

I came across this thread cause I was having the exact same problem with my second hard drive. For me though it wasn't a capacity issue, my second HD has 400gb on it and my backup required 215gb. I had a previous backup already saved to drive once before but decided to streamline my set up. So, I delete the backup and wanted to start over with a clean drive. Unexpectedly I suddenly had the same problem that you mentioned above. I couldn't understand what was going on because I already had a backup saved to the drive once before but now I couldn't get drive E: to show up in my list of available backup locations. After several hours of investigation I discovered that in some way or another through my actions, my BIOS had been changed. My backup drive was now listed as the primary drive not the secondary like it should of been. Dont confuse this with priority boot list, I mean the list that contains your list of HD's, its a sub menu in the "boot" menu in BIOS. After I switched these 2 drives in that list, I restarted and my second HD became available in my list of possible backup locations. hope this helps.

 

[Rev]

You must FORMAT the second hard drive. To do this you must first check if your computer identifies your hard drive by RIGHT CLICKING on the Computer button and clicking on Manage (note: you must be the admin to do this). A window called Computer Management will pop up. Double click on Storage. Double click on Disk Management. You will see your hard drives. The drive in the first slot is called Disk 0, second one is Disk 1, etc.. You will see that one of your hard drives is Unallocated (provided that everything is hooked up and running). RIGHT CLICK on the Unallocated space and click on New [Simple] Volume. Hit Next, and you have your Partition options. Complete your Partition and the hard drive should break up. Repeat the process with the second Unallocated space left over from the partition.