Cannot find usb external drive in list of backup devices when restoring data

tomhellmuth · Nov 9, 2015

I performed a full recovery to factory settings on my Windows 7 machine. Before doing this, I performed a backup onto my external 500 GB Seagate drive. After the recovery process, I am now trying to restore my data from the backup on the external drive. However, Windows does not give the external drive in the list of backup devices. If I click on "refresh," it doesn't find it. I do see the drive and its folders in Windows Explorer. Also, if I go to "Set up backup," Windows does list the Seagate drive as an option to use for backup.

drtweak · Nov 9, 2015

Try doing the second or third option in the list

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/restore-files-backup#1TC=windows-7

tomhellmuth · Nov 9, 2015

drtweak, Thanks so much for your input. I tried both of these to no avail. It will not find my external drive as a backup device.

drtweak · Nov 9, 2015

Hmmm now when you did a backup and used the backup feature in windows did it seem to all go ok? and you used the backup in the control panel correct?

tomhellmuth · Nov 10, 2015

Yeah. When I used the Windows backup feature, it all seemed to go well and I could see the files on the backup (external) drive after I did the backup. Now, if I look at the backup drive with explorer, it will show the folders, but when I click on a folder, it searches "forever" and then eventually returns an i/o error. I then did a scan of the drive and it shows as being bad and windows cannot repair it. Seems strange that the drive would go bad between the time I used it for backup and the time I am trying to restore from those files (a period of one day).

drtweak · Nov 10, 2015

Oh nooooo!

Download Crystal Disk info in my signature and plug in your USB drive and then run the program. See if any drives say caution or bad. if it does post back what it says. Hopefully the drive isn't bad.

tomhellmuth · Nov 10, 2015

Thanks. Crystal Disk doesn't even see the drive. (It is plugged in and windows explorer shows it.) I think I am going to pursue another route. It is a long story, but I have another drive with all my files. However, they were deleted on this drive, but not overwritten. I'm looking into recovering the deleted files, which looks like a relatively easy thing to do with free or low cost software. Thanks again for your help!

drtweak · Nov 11, 2015

welcome! and yea there are quite a few good free programs out there

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Cannot find usb external drive in list of backup devices when restoring data

tomhellmuth

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drtweak

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tomhellmuth

Reputable

drtweak

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tomhellmuth

Reputable

drtweak

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tomhellmuth

Reputable

drtweak

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