I have a number of Windows 2012 R2 server domain controllers backing up to network shares at their locations.
In testing I have never been able to get the restore environment to see/recognize and work with any of my backups.
I get the error: Windows cannot find a system image on this computer with any attempt to restore when I try to use a copy from the network share back to a USB thumb drive or USB hard drive or locally connected hard disk.
I also have been unable to restore directly from the network share. \\servername\sharename
Where the original WindowsImageBackup folder resides.
Everything appears to work fine when backing up to the share no errors and get a success message. But I have been unable to use my backups they are not recognized in the restore environment after being copied to a hard drive from the network share or directly on the network.
All files on the copy appear to be fully intact not corrupt the correct size and in the correct expected place on the root of the drive I am copying to.
Also a further note is that it works fine if I backup to a locally connected drive (sata or usb)
The recovery environment does recognize this locally made backup.
However if I take the WORKING WindowsImageBackup hard drive and hook it to my laptop
And simply copy the WindowsImageBackup directory to a USB thumb drive (on my laptop)
the recovery environment does NOT recognize my backup on that thumb drive or on any other drive I copy it to even though the files were copied directly from the working drive (I bypassed the network and backup to share).
Recovery environment in all cases sees the drive itself and all my backup files as I can browse the drive just fine with command prompt or "browse for driver" function.
But it will not see/recognize my image backup once copied to another drive or if I backup to a network share and copy that to a drive.
Incredibly frustrating and confusing.
I am on day 4 trying to figure this out and have been all over Google have not found an answer.
I also have a lot of servers in the field backing up to NAS systems that may be completely useless for restore other than good VHDX files where I could mount them for files.
But I need to be able to restore these servers from my backups.
In testing I have never been able to get the restore environment to see/recognize and work with any of my backups.
I get the error: Windows cannot find a system image on this computer with any attempt to restore when I try to use a copy from the network share back to a USB thumb drive or USB hard drive or locally connected hard disk.
I also have been unable to restore directly from the network share. \\servername\sharename
Where the original WindowsImageBackup folder resides.
Everything appears to work fine when backing up to the share no errors and get a success message. But I have been unable to use my backups they are not recognized in the restore environment after being copied to a hard drive from the network share or directly on the network.
All files on the copy appear to be fully intact not corrupt the correct size and in the correct expected place on the root of the drive I am copying to.
Also a further note is that it works fine if I backup to a locally connected drive (sata or usb)
The recovery environment does recognize this locally made backup.
However if I take the WORKING WindowsImageBackup hard drive and hook it to my laptop
And simply copy the WindowsImageBackup directory to a USB thumb drive (on my laptop)
the recovery environment does NOT recognize my backup on that thumb drive or on any other drive I copy it to even though the files were copied directly from the working drive (I bypassed the network and backup to share).
Recovery environment in all cases sees the drive itself and all my backup files as I can browse the drive just fine with command prompt or "browse for driver" function.
But it will not see/recognize my image backup once copied to another drive or if I backup to a network share and copy that to a drive.
Incredibly frustrating and confusing.
I am on day 4 trying to figure this out and have been all over Google have not found an answer.
I also have a lot of servers in the field backing up to NAS systems that may be completely useless for restore other than good VHDX files where I could mount them for files.
But I need to be able to restore these servers from my backups.