How do I restore a WD Image Backup

[newbie111]

Hi, I was unable to back up to my WD My Book Essentian 2.0 TB external hard drive. Dell told me that my Dell 8300 xps hard drive needed to be replaced due to hard drive errors. So I took it to Staples and they placed a WindowsImageBackup on my WD My Book Essential. Dell replaced the hard drive (under warranty). Now I need to restore the backup and I don't know what to do. I run Windows 7 64 bit.

 

[Hawkeye22]

You should be able to use the windows backup program to restore a previous image. I don't use winows backup so I can't give you the details. Since it is a boot disk that you are trying to restore, the windows backup software may require you to make a rescue cd to boot from and restore the image.

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hawkeye is correct, you will need either a Win-7 DVD installation disk, or a Recovery CD made before or during the Image backup process, to restore the Image over to your new HDD. I am not certain, but probably you could use any Win-7 DVD installation disk to boot into the Win-RE (recovery environment). When you reach the Windows Install Screen put in Date/Time, Language, Keyboard, and on the next screen, choose Repair Your Computer, then System Recovery Options. Then choose System Image Recovery. With your removable WD HDD connected, it will search for your Image BackUp and should find it, or point to it. You will need to choose to restore the image to a different drive (your new HDD), which is different from the original HDD. Hopefully that will restore all partitions from the Image file back on your new HDD and get you going again. There shouldn't be a problem from the licensing standpoint, since your restored Image will be on the original computer and motherboard that it was licensed to by Dell.

 

[newbie111]

Hi the problem has been solved. Thanks everyone for your help.
newbie111

 

[voltaire07]

Hi the problem has been solved. Thanks everyone for your help.
newbie111

Hi newbie111,
How did you do it?
I've backed up an image of my Windows 7 into WD My Passport (1Tb)
but I have no idea how to restore the image back into my now reformatted comp.
I have saved all my data on the WD My Passport but I want the image restored complete with all the programs I had b4.
Pls help.
Thank U!!

 

[Hawkeye22]

Hawkeye is correct, you will need either a Win-7 DVD installation disk, or a Recovery CD made before or during the Image backup process, to restore the Image over to your new HDD. I am not certain, but probably you could use any Win-7 DVD installation disk to boot into the Win-RE (recovery environment). When you reach the Windows Install Screen put in Date/Time, Language, Keyboard, and on the next screen, choose Repair Your Computer, then System Recovery Options. Then choose System Image Recovery. With your removable WD HDD connected, it will search for your Image BackUp and should find it, or point to it. You will need to choose to restore the image to a different drive (your new HDD), which is different from the original HDD. Hopefully that will restore all partitions from the Image file back on your new HDD and get you going again. There shouldn't be a problem from the licensing standpoint, since your restored Image will be on the original computer and motherboard that it was licensed to by Dell.

Hi the problem has been solved. Thanks everyone for your help.
newbie111

Hi newbie111,
How did you do it?
I've backed up an image of my Windows 7 into WD My Passport (1Tb)
but I have no idea how to restore the image back into my now reformatted comp.
I have saved all my data on the WD My Passport but I want the image restored complete with all the programs I had b4.
Pls help.
Thank U!!

I think John_VanKirk gave a pretty good description of how to restore the image.