Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

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einstein1969
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Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by einstein1969 »

I have backups of my laptop with windows 10 home. I wanted to know if it is possible to restore them to a virtual machine. The backups I made with the software included in windows 10.
scottgus1
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Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by scottgus1 »

Should be possible. It will be a hardware change, which may or may not require a repair of the OS, or a reactivation.

The biggest trick is to get the backup media into the VM environment.

The restore boot media used by your backup software may have drivers for a typical Windows 10 VM's network card or USB controller.

Option A:
If network is available, then you can access a shared folder on the host OS inside the restore boot environment in the VM over a Bridged or Host-Only network. Put the backup media on the host's shared folder, access it through the network, just as if you were restoring on a real PC and the backup media was on a server on your network.

Option B:
If USB drivers are available, use a USB filter to pass a USB drive containing the backup media into the VM. See USB basics and troubleshooting

Both of these above ideas require that your restore boot media carry drivers for the Virtualbox hardware.

Option C:
This following idea does not require drivers for Virtualbox hardware in the restore boot media. You can use the Windows host's capability to mount a VHD as a virtual drive to the host OS. Web-search how to do this. Make a VHD on the host OS, then fill it with the backup media. Then unmount the VHD from the host and attach it as a second drive to the VM. The restore boot media in the VM should see the VHD as a second drive containing the backup media and you restore the media to the primary drive.
mpack
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Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by mpack »

I don't remember people reporting much success trying to do this is the past, but perhaps the Windows Backup & Restore feature in Win10 has been improved.

I assume we're talking about a whole PC backup to VHDX.

In any case, if the backup image is already a VHDX then all that may be necessary is to convert that to VDI using VBoxManage or CloneVDI, build a VM around the VDI, and then perhaps boot with a repair DVD to repair the boot info (check first: I'm not sure if this will be necessary).
BillG
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Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by BillG »

What software which is included in Windows 10? Microsoft discontinued developing and maintaining backup software because they felt it was not worth maintaining their system when free ones available were satisfactory. Do you mean the old Windows 7 Backup and Restore?

If you have a recovery disk you could try it, but it was really designed for recovery on the PC which created it. I would expect quite a few problems on different "hardware".
Bill
mpack
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Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by mpack »

BillG wrote:What software which is included in Windows 10? Microsoft discontinued developing and maintaining backup software
It's a surprise to me too, but apparantly it was quietly reintroduced in Win10, after being deprecated in Win7 and removed in Win8. I only discovered this when I checked what the OP had said.

To find it, open settings and search for "Backup". At the bottom you'll see an link with "Go to backup and restore (Windows 7)". Clicking that takes you to a control panel app running the Win7 tool.

Not that it matters much: I'm not about to abandon the excellent and free Macrium tool for this very weak alternative.
Attachments
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einstein1969
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Joined: 9. Sep 2021, 15:06

Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by einstein1969 »

Yesterday he didn't let me post links. Today I'll try again:

This is the software I used , look at 1) and 2) in this Image

I have backups on local partitions so they are easily accessible and I have a USB stick with the recovery software that I created from windows 10.

I am reading your advice, I will surely have some questions on how to proceed.

In the past (10 years ago) I had tried to boot a real xp partition from ubuntu, but then I dropped everything and hardly remember anything.

Out of curiosity I give you the link. https://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/Einstein1969/Prove2

Einstein1969
Last edited by einstein1969 on 11. Sep 2021, 18:35, edited 1 time in total.
mpack
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Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by mpack »

You didn't need links. Images can be posted directly on the forum, and most of us will not click on offsite links if you post them elsewhere.

As Scott said above: get the backup into onto a volume that's available to the Windows RE boot disk, and you should be in a good position to restore from the backup into the VM. No promises because I've never used Windows Backup ever.

You would have to convert the Windows Recovery disk into a CD (ISO) because VirtualBox VMs can't boot from USB.
einstein1969
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Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by einstein1969 »

Sorry in the preview i don't see the image , I will change.
einstein1969
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Joined: 9. Sep 2021, 15:06

Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by einstein1969 »

mpack wrote:You didn't need links. Images can be posted directly on the forum, and most of us will not click on offsite links if you post them elsewhere.
I can't put the picture, can you help me?

I have used the tag [Img] but don't work.
scottgus1
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Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by scottgus1 »

No need for the picture. I took a chance and looked. You're using Windows 7's built-in backup software. The method proposed above to get the backup media into the VM still holds. You need to boot the from Windows 7's restore media ISO or CD and restore the backup media stored on the VM's secondary disk to the primary disk.

FWIW, Images should be cropped and resized to get under the forum's 128kB size limit yet remain readable, then posted using the forum's Upload Attachment tab. This is possible from first day first post.
einstein1969
Posts: 16
Joined: 9. Sep 2021, 15:06

Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by einstein1969 »

ok, thank i will try

the image , I have uploaded
backup methods
backup methods
Immagine 2021-08-26 032744.png (119.43 KiB) Viewed 16975 times
Einstein1969
einstein1969
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Joined: 9. Sep 2021, 15:06

Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by einstein1969 »

scottgus1 wrote:Should be possible. It will be a hardware change, which may or may not require a repair of the OS, or a reactivation.

The biggest trick is to get the backup media into the VM environment.

The restore boot media used by your backup software may have drivers for a typical Windows 10 VM's network card or USB controller.

If network is available, then you can access a shared folder on the host OS inside the restore boot environment in the VM over a Bridged or Host-Only network. Put the backup media on the host's shared folder, access it through the network, just as if you were restoring on a real PC and the backup media was on a server on your network.

If USB drivers are available, use a USB filter to pass a USB drive containing the backup media into the VM. See USB basics and troubleshooting

Both of these above ideas require that your restore boot media carry drivers for the Virtualbox hardware.

This following idea does not require drivers for Virtualbox hardware in the restore boot media. You can use the Windows host's capability to mount a VHD as a virtual drive to the host OS. Web-search how to do this. Make a VHD on the host OS, then fill it with the backup media. Then unmount the VHD from the host and attach it as a second drive to the VM. The restore boot media in the VM should see the VHD as a second drive containing the backup media and you restore the media to the primary drive.
nice undertaking, I try but I foresee questions for the single steps. In the meantime, I download the virtual box and install it.
scottgus1
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Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by scottgus1 »

No problem, please feel free to ask. Keep in mind that there are three options there:
  1. If your Windows 7 restore CD or ISO has drivers to use the Virtualbox network adapter card, try the shared folder option.
  2. If your Windows 7 restore CD or ISO has drivers to use the Virtualbox USB device, try the USB option.
  3. If neither of the above work, try the VHD mount option.
I edited the post to show the options better.
einstein1969
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Joined: 9. Sep 2021, 15:06

Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by einstein1969 »

i installed virtualbox and created a machine. Now the problem is that the recovery drive is a usb stick. how should i continue?
BillG
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Re: Is it possible to restore a windows 10 home backup inside a virtual machine?

Post by BillG »

@mpack

That's right. They have not removed the backup and restore from Windows 10, but it is called Backup and Restore (Windows 7) to make it clear it is ancient software.

I remember trying to use it back in the Windows 7 era. I also remember helping a friend recover some files he had backed up that way. It was slow and cumbersome even then.
Bill
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