error: target disk drive is not found

in trying to restore a whole disk image to another disk of the same size i'm getting the error:

Target disk drive is not found. Attributes of the target hard disk does not correspond to that of the selected archive! Most likely your archive has been taken from some other hard disk.


the odd thing is that i'm never given the chance to choose a target disk. i'm using B&R 2011 advanced free V10.0.15.12802.

the 1TB disk has a couple FAT16 and FAT32 dell restore partitions, and 2 NTFS - one system and one data. i'm backing up the entire disk, but excluding the data partition so that i get just a small system backup. the result is a "complex archive", total size of partitions is about 52G with only 20G used.

i copied the archive image to a 400G disk, attached this disk and a new 1TB disk, and booted into the recovery CD. if i try: Hard Disk->Restore Hard Disk, and select the archive, it gives me an error:

This is the image of the complex archive. Please, use Restore Wizard to restore it.

so, using the restore wizard, i select the archive, advanced mode checked, and see the image properties (type "merged archive"). when i click next, it never gives me a chance to select any target drive, but gives the "target disk drive is not found" error.

there shouldn't be a size problem as the disk that was imaged is the same model and size of disk as the new one, and the image is actually very small. could the problem be that i unchecked one of the partitions when i did a backup? is it a problem that i copied the archive from the old 1G disk to the 400G disk before attempting to restore it to a new 1G disk (just wanted to remove my system disk so there was no chance it would be overwritten)?

 

Please try to use Restore wizard and select each partition one-by-one for restore instead of restoring full complex archive.

 

i was afraid of that. the point of backing up the whole disk was to make backup and restore of the whole windows system automatic. restoring partition by partition would make b&r much less useful, as i would have to re-recreate the structure of the bootable disk piece by piece.

is the one-by-one partition restore only necessary when one of the original disk's partitions is unselected when backing up?

 

I'm a new Paragon user but as a guess it might be a safety feature. I don't know how many Acronis users have done a whole disk restore from a disk image that had fewer partitions only to find out they ended up with only the partitions included in the archive on the target disk.

You might try deleting all the partitions on the target disk first before attempting the restore which means it would be restoring to unallocated space.

 

As your archive is "complex archive", it means that it contains of several objects (partitions or hard drives) and can't be restored at one step to original destination.
Maybe something was un-checked for backup and instead of full HDD image, complex backup was created.

 

yes, that is what happened - i did uncheck one of the partitions during the backup, which evidentally makes this a 'complex archive'. i did this because the option to exclude files&directories does not work for subdirectories, so i tried excluding my entire data partition instead. since neither works for a simple backup, it looks the options are:
- back up the whole disk with all the unnecessary data or
- back up partition by partition

neither is a great option for a simple system restore on a large disk with other data.

i tried restoring to an empty disk with one partition, an empty disk with the same number of partitions, and an unallocated disk...none worked. interestingly, paragon was willing to restore the image with the excluded partition back to the original disk, but not to a different disk of the same size and manufacturer/model...?

 

So did you try to restore each partition separately?

Run Restore Wizard, select your archive and at the next step select first partition from the list and click next to proceed. Select desired destination for restore.
Please note: you should adjust first partition size to leave free space for second partition.

Please find some screenshots for you :

1. Select First partition
(in my example Complex backup is created for Basic Hard Disk 2, including first two partitions + First Hard Disk Track)


2. Select empty drive as destination
(Basic Hard Disk 3 in my example)


3. Set desired partition size
(half of the drive in my example)


4. Click Next and preview results
(changes for Hard Drive 3 in my example)


5. Follow the wizard and Apply changes.

6. Once completed, repeat steps 1-5 for all partitions from the Complex Backup.

7. When all partitions are restored to new drive, run Restore wizard and select First Track for restore

Repeat steps 2,4 and 5 and Apply changes.

 

wow. looks like it could work, but that is a lot of hassle just to be able to exclude a partition from a backup/restore.

 

It probably isn't as bad to do as it appears written out with graphics.

Nice job, Mech_An!

 

well, i tried the restore process for the complex archive detailed here, using the standalone boot CD. i browsed to the complex archive, and by choosing each of the partition image files in turn, i was able to restore all the partitions separately. however, attempting to restore the 'first track' always gave the error

This image can't be restored on the current selection.

as a restore target, i tried selecting each parititon, the unallocated space, and the disk as a whole. i got the same error for each.

(it still strikes me that there should be a simpler way to backup and restore a whole disk, minus one data partition!)

 

You should select the whole target drive as destination for the First Disk track.

BTW - there is no actual need to restore the First Track. In most common cases restored Windows (and also Data partitions) is already ready for work after partition restore.
You need to make sure that restored Windows partition is Active and give it a try to boot up.