System Image Restore Failed

[Dave-H]

I have a problem with my Windows 10 installation!
As can be seen from my signature, I have a triple boot machine.
Windows XP and Windows 98 are absolutely fine.

What happened was that I changed my motherboard as the original developed a fault.
The replacement is exactly the same board, same make and model.

All was working fine until suddenly, I couldn't boot into Windows 10, I just got an "Inaccessible Boot Drive" BSOD.
I tried everything I could think of to fix this, there seemed to be no physical problem, the Windows 10 drive could be accessed fine from XP and 98, and all the files seemed to be there. A chkdsk run on XP did find some problems, and apparently corrected them, but no difference in Windows 10.

Automatic repairs by Windows 10 did no good at all, and booting into a recovery environment and trying to rebuild the boot with fixboot etc. also made no difference.

Eventually, to cut a long story short, I gave up trying to repair whatever was wrong, and decided to restore a System Image I had made some days before. What I suspect had happened was that the boot files on the drive had got damaged somehow, and chkdsk and fixboot couldn't repair them.

The restore didn't work, it went through all the motions of copying to the C: drive, and then at the very end it said it had failed because "The Parameter is Incorrect".

That is one of the most annoying error messages in Windows, (second only to "Access is Denied"), as it never gives you any clue as to what the parameter is and what's wrong with it!

Anyway, I tried several times and it failed every time. I've no reason to think that there's anything wrong with the System Image.
Having done this, of course my original Windows 10 installation was completely trashed, leaving me with an apparently unformatted drive when looked at in XP.

I then did a clean installation of Windows 10, which worked fine.
However, trying the System Image restore again just produced the same result and trashed the installation again! 

Has anyone any idea what could be wrong here?

I did wonder if the System Restore is failing because the hardware has changed, even though the replacement motherboard is the same make and model, although I've done system restores before between computers with different hardware, and it's always worked.

Unfortunately I didn't do another System Image after I changed the motherboard, I wish I had now of course!

Is there any way to force the System Image onto the drive, perhaps with 3rd party software?
Some programs claim to be able to do what they call a 'Universal Restore' which will allow you to put a system image from one computer onto another one with different hardware. Unfortunately, most seem to only be able to do that with System Images they have generated, not ones generated with Microsoft Backup and Restore.

Any suggestions very gratefully received.
I just want my highly personalised version of Windows 10 back!
Thanks, Dave.

[Dixel]

Dave, sounds very much like the HDD going kaput, obviously it was stressed a bit while changing the mobo.

Windows 7 and 10 put a lot more stress on HDD comparing to Vista and XP. I had a case where Vista could boot off a dying HDD, while 7 couldn't.

What does the SMART tell you?

[Dixel]

5 hours ago, Dave-H said:

3rd party software

Probably WinToHDD would work.

[jaclaz]

Is it a system image (i.e. a .vhd or .vhdx file)?

If yes it can be normally mounted in the plain (10) OS, like any other vhd(x) disk image:

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-access-a-system-image-and-restore-individual-files-using-windows-10s-native-vhd-support/

jaclaz

[Dave-H]

Thanks guys, but panic (largely) over!

As a last clutching at straws attempt, I dug out my old backup HDD, which had a System Image on it from the 1st January.
To my amazement, it worked!

Obviously very pleased at that, but that does beg the question as to why the much more recent System Image wouldn't work!
It was made doing a routine System Image backup I do every week, and I had no reason to think that there was anything wrong with it.

If you remember on another thread, we were discussing accessing 3TB GPT disks on XP?
Well the image which has just worked was on the old 2TB MBR disk, the newer one on the new 3TB GPT disk.
Whether this is at all relevant I do not know.
I am now of course worried that System Images made to that disk might fail in the future.

I'm just glad i got my system back, although it now needs a bit more updating of course!
Cheers, Dave.

[jaclaz]

As said, if they are vhd(x) you can check them, I don't think it is the container (be it the 2 or 3 TB disk or the vhd), but rather the contents, but of course everything is possible.

Anyway, glad that you managed to mostly solve the problem .

jaclaz

[Dave-H]

Thanks @jaclaz!

They are vhdx files.

I will put the new disk back in, and see if I can mount them OK and read their contents.

Looking at the last successful restore, it restored the C: drive partition first, and then the System Reserved and Recovery partitions.
The failed restore only seemed to restore the C: drive partition, and then failed with the 'parameter incorrect' message.
So it looks as if it was trying to restore the System Reserved or Recovery partition which actually failed.

I had increased the size of the Recovery partition to allow the KB5034441 Windows Update to install, which had kept on failing.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-kb5034441-security-update-fails-with-0x80070643-errors/

I increased it from 524MB to 1024MB. The new restore has of course put it back to 524MB.
Whether this is relevant I don't know, as I'm sure that the failed restore was from an image made after the partition was resized.

 

[jaclaz]

Maybe one was a "complete" system image and the other was only the C:?

I am not at all familiar with what the (stupid) Windows 10 actually saves, but vhd and vhdx are normally a "whole disk" image, though it is entirely possible that there is a setting to only image the partition where the OS is, cannot say.

Anyway if you can mount/access it you should be able to see what is inside those images.

jaclaz

[D.Draker]

Dave, does the new mobo has the same BIOS?

[Dave-H]

@D.Draker

Yes, exactly the same BIOS version, in fact the replacement board has the BIOS chip from the previous board plugged into it!
As the three week older System Image worked, it does look as if the problem with the more recent image had nothing to do with the hardware change.

@jaclaz

I have mounted all three of the vhdx files of the recent backup.
They all mount fine, and I can see all the files in them.
Why they won't actually restore is a mystery.

As an aside, after running a Windows Update session, which has brought the system up to date again, KB5034441 is now trying (and failing) to install again.
I find it quite unbelievable that even Microsoft would roll out an update that needs the Recovery Partition extended on some (many? all?) systems for it to install.
How many Windows 10 users would have any idea how to do that?!

Anyway, I'm obstinately not going to manually extend the partition for them this time, and will wait and let it fail multiple times in the hope that it will be fixed on the next patch Tuesday!

Going back to the original problem, I know that the built-in legacy Windows 7 Backup and Restore system on Windows 10 (and surprisingly 11) is depreciated by Microsoft, and the wisdom is to not now use it and use 3rd party alternatives.

After this experience, I think this might be a good idea!
Any recommendations? There seem to be loads of alternatives.
Ideally I would like something that's free and will also work on Windows XP.
At the moment I do System Images of the Windows 10 disk every week, and just do a basic file copy backup of my Windows XP and 98 drives.
If I could find something that would also do an ISO backup of those drives that would be good.

Thanks again for the help as always.
Cheers, Dave.

[D.Draker]

Dave, I don't have experience with Windows 10, but in the past I successfully restored a damaged VHD for a friend with the help of Recuva.

Piriform Software Ltd is a British software company based in London

https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/42582-recover-vhd-files-from-quick-formatted-disk/

https://support.ccleaner.com/s/article/recovering-files-from-damaged-or-reformatted-disks-with-recuva?language=en_GB

[jaclaz]

Only for the record, Recuva is a software that essentially undeletes files, it won't fix anyhting if the issues are at filesystem or partitioning level, but here the vhd(x) files are seemingly just fine, and the files are as well all here where they should be, this kind of failure is much more likely connected with the restore process, that finds *something* it doesn't like and freaks out, possibly a teeny-tiny setting in the Registry, the BCD, even in the (same) BIOS or *whatever* (there are reports of similar issues that seemingly were due to some "pending update"  at the time of the creation of the image) that prevents from booting the restored system.

Dave-H report is typical for something that only sometimes fails (or only sometimes works, if you are a pessimist) the kind of errors that are very difficult to pinpoint and hopefully solve.

In typical MS approach, instead of looking for the issues, finding and fixing them, they decided to advise to not use the system backup and restore.

You go to your car dealer and tell them that your car hand brake doesn't brake properly, i.e. fails to keep the car blocked  when parked on a steep road and they tell you that you should buy a third party rope and anchor

jaclaz

 

[Dave-H]

LOL, yes, good analogy!

I was amazed to find that the 'Windows 7 Backup and Restore' system was still present in Windows 11, I would have thought they would have used that 'upgrade' as an opportunity to ditch it.
They no longer support it, and have actually advised people to find alternatives to it, so why it's still there on new systems is a bit of a mystery. Having left it in Windows 11, I suppose they can't really just remove it now, as people will have made backups with it which would then become useless.

Any recommendations for 3rd party system imaging programs?
Free would be ideal, but not essential, but I would like something which will work on XP with FAT32 drives.

[jaclaz]

I really don't know what is "hip" (or actually any good) these days, in the good ol'days I would have suggested ping:

https://ping.windowsdream.com/

but they want the user to register now, and I am not going to do that.

There is (free for non-commercial use) the Paragon software:

https://www.paragon-software.com/free/br-free/#

but it is windows 7 and up only and I don't seem to remember having ever had it working from a PE (which is how these backup/imaging system should run, offline).

Something that would be worth a try is redo rescue:

http://redorescue.com/

though I have no real experience with it, I have heard good things about it, though the sheer fact that it advices Balena Etcher[1] to make the USB version, it is NOT a good sign IMHO.

jaclaz

 

[1] Balena must be connected to the size of the stupid tool, more than 100 MB for what amounts to a fancy looking dd.

Edited January 30 by jaclaz

[Dixel]

On 1/29/2024 at 11:21 AM, Dave-H said:

Thanks again for the help as always.

"There are three available options, namely ‘Legacy’ (standard mode), ‘VHD’ or ‘VHDX’."

https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Boot-Manager-Disk/WinToHDD.shtml

Free version with limitations is also available, probably try it first.