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      - Misc
        Performing a Recovery Using Complete PC Restore

Section(s): Misc
Published on Nov 25, 2008.
Last Modified on Aug 29, 2008.
Last Modified by Mitch Tulloch.
Rating: Not Rated

Here's a simple tip to make sure you are able to properly recover a Vista system from a backup you made using Complete PC Backup.

The other day I tried recovering a Vista computer from backup. I had previously used Complete PC Backup to back up my entire system drive to a removable USB hard drive. Then yesterday the hard drive on the Vista system failed, so I tried the following procedure to recovery my system from backup:

1. Replaced the failed hard drive with a new unpartitioned hard drive.

2. Plugged in the USB hard drive containing the backup.

3. Booted the system from a Vista DVD.

4. Selected the Repair Your Computer option.

5. Selected the Windows Complete PC Restore option from the System Recovery Options dialog.

Unfortunately I then got the following error message: Element Not Found (error code 0x80070490)

What went wrong? Here's what I should have done:

1. Replaced the failed hard drive with a new unpartitioned hard drive.

2. Booted the system from a Vista DVD.

3. Plugged in the USB hard drive containing the backup.

4. Selected the Repair Your Computer option.

5. Selected the Windows Complete PC Restore option from the System Recovery Options dialog.

At that point I was able to continue with the restore process and recovered the system.

Why did the first procedure fail? It has to do with the BIOS of the computer trying to boot up first from the USB drive, failing, booting from the DVD, and then never finding any system drives to restore to.

About Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch was lead author for the Windows Vista Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, which is the book for IT pros who want to deploy, maintain and support Windows Vista in mid- and large-sized network environments. Mitch was also the author of Introducing Windows Server 2008 and technical project lead for the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit, both books also from Microsoft Press. For more information on these and other books by Mitch, see www.mtit.com .