SUMMARY Windows 8 home edition. Can one create a "System Image" backup to a USB flash drive?
STEPS TO REPRODUCE Control Panel. Search for "recovery". Click "Windows 7 File Recovery". In the resulting Control Panel page, at upper left, click "Create a system image". In the resulting "Where do you want to save the backup?" window, in the "On a hard disk" drop down list, my flash drive appears, and I can select it. But once selected, under the drop down list, a tiny yellow-bang icon appears, with the message "The drive is not a valid backup location.". The "Next" button is grayed out and I cannot continue. Also tried (from an elevated command prompt) "WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:K: -include:C:", and got the error message "The specified backup location could not be found or is not a supported backup storage location." INVESTIGATION Nothing in Event Viewer -> Administrative Events, nor the Windows Backup Operational log. I am using a Lexar 128 GB USB 3.0 flash drive, formatted with NTFS, on the laptop. I've tried a DISKPART CLEAN to reinitialize the drive; no help. Tried zeroing the drive on a Linux system and reinit on Windows; no help. Tried with both MBR and GPT partition tables. I've also tried a 32 GB flash drive, and the message changes to "There might not be enough free space on this drive to save a backup. Delete unnecessary files or select another drive." So it appears the software is seeing the USB flash drives generally, and can tell how much space is available. If I create a VHD on the flash drive, mount the VHD, partition it, format the partition as NTFS, mount that with a drive letter -- *that* will accept the system image backup from the GUI. So it doesn't appear to be a hardware problem. RESEARCH The following page states that one can store a system image on a USB flash drive. However, the article is tagged as "Windows 7". However, so are Windows 8's backup features. Seriously -- the names still say "Windows 7" in the UI. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/back-up-programs-system-settings-files The following page states that System Image Backup *should* still be available, in Windows 8, and should work like it did before. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/what-happened-to-backup-restore I find lots of people on the web yammering about this problem, but not a lot of clear solutions. I found a suggestion to share the USB flash drive, and then point WBAdmin at the network share. Tried that -- it came back with something like "This edition of Windows will not backup to a network location." I found suggestions of third-party products. Yah, OK, duh, but for some home users, I'd prefer to use what's built-in, if that's an option. ENVIRONMENT Windows 8 home/consumer/standard/whatever. Not Pro nor Enterprise. 64-bit. Not Windows 8.1 (yet -- one reason I want to make a system image is to have a way back in case the Win 8.1 upgrade process goes bad.) Toshiba Satellite C855-S5350 laptop. -- Ben
