Windows cannot find a system image on this computer

cdipmr

New Member
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3
Hi, I bought a new laptop with a Windows 8 Pro x64 pre-installed on it.

Then I upgraded my OS to Windows 8.1 Pro from Windows Store.

After that I thought I'd create a backup of my system so I don't have to re-download the Windows 8.1 upgrade and at the same time having the option to reset my laptop to it's old operating system in case I want to, so that being said, I created a system image backup using Windows' Imaging Utility and pointed it my external drive. It took a couple of minutes and the image was successfully created.

I double checked the image file and I can see it on my external drive saved in a folder called 'WindowsImageBackup'. The backup files is approximately around 35 GB.

I also tried using the System Image Recovery option from BIOS to check whether the backup file I created really works, and it did because it was recognized by the system through the dialog box "Re-image your computer".

My mind was set that if anything bad happens to may laptop, whether if it got infected with a virus or the operating system crashed or even if the hard disk gets broken I could simply put it back to it's previous state using the backup image I created. So I played with the partitioning of my laptop, I even installed other operating systems for educational purposes, but when I finally wanted to bring my laptop to its previous state I failed...

The System Image Recovery from BIOS that once recognized my backup image throw an error at me saying the 'Windows cannot find a system image on this computer'. How can I fix this error? Is there still a way to recover my laptops previous installed OS or is it gone for good?...

Things that I have already tried to fix the problem:
1. Download bootable USB 3.0 drivers and tried to load the drivers on the during System Image Recovery. I think I got that tutorial here in this forum also but not sure, anyways it says that my external hard disk might not properly load because windows does not support usb 3.0.

2. I tried installing macrium free to re-image the vhd files from my backup image and tried to use the new image created by macrium to backup from. Re-imaging and backing up from the macrium image is successful but when I restart my laptop to check whether the backup works, I got an error saying 'Your PC needs to be repaired... Error code: 0x0000225'. I boot from my rescue disk and open up the command prompt to run a command like 'bootrec /scanos' but the result says detected windows installation is zero (0)...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony VAIO
    CPU
    Intel Core i7
    Memory
    4 GB DDR3L
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics / NVIDIA GeForce
So, you are booting to a Windows 8.1 recovery drive or the 8.1 install media in the UEFI configuration and going to the Advanced Options, and eventually recovery an image option.

When you start the utility it will check on all recognized drives and find any images suitable for use. If it doesn't, you can try searching yourself. The USB 3.0 drive should not be a problem for Windows 8, at least not usually. If it is unable to find a suitable image, the image may be corrupted, or something about the current install on the drive is preventing the process from being compatible with the image. I like to use a new drive to re-image when I have problems to check the image and make sure it is OK. The clean drive would eliminate any chance of something on the current drive causing a problem. Make sure and get the new drive at least as large as the old one.

If you have the WindowsImageBackup folder on the root directory of one of the external drives partitions, it should be seen unless some incompatibility is being picked up by the imaging utility.

Things to watch out for might be any changes you made to the Bios settings while you were experimenting with other OSes.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
Yes he has tried it.
2. I tried installing macrium free to re-image the vhd files from my backup image and tried to use the new image created by macrium to backup from. Re-imaging and backing up from the macrium image is successful but when I restart my laptop to check whether the backup works, I got an error saying 'Your PC needs to be repaired... Error code: 0x0000225'. I boot from my rescue disk and open up the command prompt to run a command like 'bootrec /scanos' but the result says detected windows installation is zero (0)...

The macrium restore did not work....
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Yes he has tried it.
2. I tried installing macrium free to re-image the vhd files from my backup image and tried to use the new image created by macrium to backup from. Re-imaging and backing up from the macrium image is successful but when I restart my laptop to check whether the backup works, I got an error saying 'Your PC needs to be repaired... Error code: 0x0000225'. I boot from my rescue disk and open up the command prompt to run a command like 'bootrec /scanos' but the result says detected windows installation is zero (0)...

The macrium restore did not work....

Sorry.
I didn't read it.

I wonder if he made the Macrium boot option ?

& if he formatted his usb as Fat 32 or NTFS.

screenshot_42.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
@SaltGrass: Regarding the WindowImageBackup folder, when I tried to use the command prompt utility in the 'Advanced Options' from the UEFI Configuration to browse the external hard disk, I can see the WindowsImageBackup folder there... Can I load it manually?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony VAIO
    CPU
    Intel Core i7
    Memory
    4 GB DDR3L
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics / NVIDIA GeForce
@David Bailey: Is the macrium boot option different from the macrium rescue disk? when you say usb, are you referring to my external hd? my external hd is already formatted as NTFS...should I format it to FAT32?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony VAIO
    CPU
    Intel Core i7
    Memory
    4 GB DDR3L
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics / NVIDIA GeForce
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