Restore wiped hard disk

cereberus · Sep 9, 2025

This was a tale of woe.

I decided to run 25h2 enablement package on 24h2 release version but decided to revert to 24h2 for time being.

Fortunately, I had made a Macrium Reflect Backup just before I ran the enablement package.

I went to restore the backup from Windows 25h2 but it started doimg weird stuff and pc crashed.

I rebooted and to my horror, my nvme drive had lost its partitions including D data partition with the latest MR backup.

I had an older backup on an external drive, and so rebooted into MR usb drive and recovered old windows.
Unfortunately, that older version did not have Easeus Partition Manager (Paid version) but I had also made a more recent image backup on Onedrive.

For some reason onedrive would not download the backup, so I went online and manually downloaded it and restored the more recent image.

I was then able to use Easeus Partition Manager and restore the D (data) partition sucessfully.

I was then able to restore the latest MR backup (this morning) and pc was back to this mnorninmgs state.

I had one problem left as my Hyper-VMs were in saved-critical status and I found I could not restore the vms with ID which meant I would lose all my VM activations.

So eventually, I created a new VM intending to use activation troubleshooter to reactivate them and to my surprise it had automatically activated. I tried this on some of the other vms as well and they also activated!

Anyway - moral of story and note to myself - backup to external drive more frequently including all partitions LOL!

spapakons · Sep 9, 2025

Today's lesson: NEVER try anything new on the host computer. Try it first on a virtual machine to see if there are any issues and how to solve them. Only after you know how to deal with these issues, backup your system and try the new stuff on the host computer. If you don't want to use a virtual machine and want to try new stuff on the host, at least use a spare disk and dual boot. Keep your old system handy for a few days. I take it that lesson learned.

Lesson 2: NEVER take a backup of a disk on a partition on the same disk. Always use a separate disk.

KYHI · Sep 9, 2025

Oh - I thought you actually needed some help or advise... But then was left wonder why "You" would be needing advise and asking...
Only to read and find out that you were offering "Advise" with an Issue you had....
Good Day My Friend !!

RD Mercer · Sep 9, 2025

What you went through is what caused me to buy stand alone duplicators/cloners. I used to use Acronis, and it worked 99% of the time, but a few times I was unable to restore from a backup tib. Of course I don’t have case doors on any of my pc’s, and I have my m.2 drives on PCIe cards, so it’s easier for me to use the cloners. I understand for anyone that has their m.2 onboard this is a task, taking it in and out. I have never had any issues at all, with the cloners. I try and back up every week, though it’s really not that critical, because I keep anything important like documents, etc on a couple separate drives. At least you did have a backup drive, that was great.

spapakons · Sep 9, 2025

Sometime when we do something wrong, it is a good idea to post about it so others won't do the same mistake. Also when we find the solution to an issue, it is a good idea to share it. Well done!

nkptext · Sep 9, 2025

i think you updated 25h2
when you reverted to 24h2 along with update KB5063878
and your SSD will unknown state

Scannerman · Sep 9, 2025

spapakons said:
Today's lesson: NEVER try anything new on the host computer. Try it first on a virtual machine to see if there are any issues and how to solve them. Only after you know how to deal with these issues, backup your system and try the new stuff on the host computer. If you don't want to use a virtual machine and want to try new stuff on the host, at least use a spare disk and dual boot. Keep your old system handy for a few days. I take it that lesson learned.

Lesson 2: NEVER take a backup of a disk on a partition on the same disk. Always use a separate disk.

And people wonder why I like clones.

Scannerman · Sep 9, 2025

RD Mercer said:
What you went through is what caused me to buy stand alone duplicators/cloners. I used to use Acronis, and it worked 99% of the time, but a few times I was unable to restore from a backup tib. Of course I don’t have case doors on any of my pc’s, and I have my m.2 drives on PCIe cards, so it’s easier for me to use the cloners. I understand for anyone that has their m.2 onboard this is a task, taking it in and out. I have never had any issues at all, with the cloners. I try and back up every week, though it’s really not that critical, because I keep anything important like documents, etc on a couple separate drives. At least you did have a backup drive, that was great.

Ha! Just saw this after I posted. (Not quite awake yet. First coffee of the day.)

KevTech · Sep 9, 2025

I still use HDD for imaging.

cereberus · Sep 9, 2025

spapakons said:
Today's lesson: NEVER try anything new on the host computer. Try it first on a virtual machine to see if there are any issues and how to solve them. Only after you know how to deal with these issues, backup your system and try the new stuff on the host computer. If you don't want to use a virtual machine and want to try new stuff on the host, at least use a spare disk and dual boot. Keep your old system handy for a few days. I take it that lesson learned.

Lesson 2: NEVER take a backup of a disk on a partition on the same disk. Always use a separate disk.

Re. Lesson 1 - a vm would not have helped me as I was updating host to 25H2.

Re. Lesson 2 - it was just laziness LOL - I do copy the backup to onedrive occassionally so my C drive backup is not that out of date.
I agree re. second drive except my laptop only has one nvme slot and no other hdd/ssd slots.

In the end (also attn. @KYHI), intent of my post was more to VISIBLY tell myself off IN PUBLIC for not listening to my own advice I give to others. Nobody is perfect :ROFLMAO:

.

I hope others sit up and think "yeah I have been a bit lazy"

.

One thing, I do do diligently though is make sure critical data is always backed up to onedrive. I was just getting lazy about image backups to external drives/onedrive, as in the end, it is not a disaster having to clean install - just a pain in wasted time.

Scannerman · Sep 9, 2025

cereberus said:
I hope others sit up and think "yeah I have been a bit lazy" .

who, me? Never!

Hazel123 · Sep 9, 2025

Was it anything to do with that windows update that apparently does something to some drives? (Even though it's supposed to be rare). KB5063878

gunrunnerjohn · Sep 9, 2025

And people think I'm paranoid with all the levels of backup I have.

cereberus · Sep 9, 2025

Hazel123 said:
Was it anything to do with that windows update that apparently does something to some drives? (Even though it's supposed to be rare). KB5063878

No idea.

As an aside, I paid for Easeus Partition Manager Pro when it was on offer cheap a couple of years back (<£20 iirc). Today that investment saved me a lot of grief (along with Macrium Reflect VX - sure there are others (free) but MR has never let me down). In the end, it is worth paying for some tools.

Scannerman · Sep 9, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
And people think I'm paranoid with all the levels of backup I have.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean nobody is out to get you.

BrianInEngland · Sep 9, 2025

My advice - don't keep system image backups on the same physical drive as the OS itself
Either use another internal disk or an external drive

cereberus · Sep 9, 2025

BrianInEngland said:
My advice - don't keep system image backups on the same physical drive as the OS itself
Either use another internal disk or an external drive

As I explained, I only have 1 internal drive so I use a partition on internal drive for temporary storage. I just got lazy copying it to external drive LOL.

My laziness bit me up my posterior :ROFLMAO:

.

Worse, as I am more or less retired, I have bags of time to copy the backups!

gunrunnerjohn · Sep 9, 2025

cereberus said:
As I explained, I only have 1 internal drive so I use a partition on internal drive for temporary storage. I just got lazy copying it to external drive LOL.

My laziness bit me up my posterior .

Worse, as I am more or less retired, I have bags of time to copy the backups!

That's why my main and backup system have three physical drives. Only one 2TB drive is my actual "operating" drive, the other two are backup drives with automated backups that happen without any intervention. My critical data is backed up daily, and it's also being automatically backed up in the cloud on the fly. Finally, I have a weekly backup of all my working drives to the NAS.

RD Mercer · Sep 9, 2025

I guess getting old and being retired has its perks. At 74 I probably haven’t acquired, anything that might be a life or death matter in a few years. Now I can save all my pictures from my phone camera to the cloud, and what little docs I “might” need I save to my yahoo email folder. I can remember the days when I was running a business, wow! I saved everything, but now my old age has set me free.

pseymour · Sep 9, 2025

cereberus said:
Nobody is perfect

I hear that. I remember that one time I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken.

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