I’ve researched quite a bit, and while there is a lot of info about setting up and troubleshooting the WD MyCloud hardware and setting up the backup routine, there seems to be little information about how to restore from the backup when my computer goes south. Maybe I’ve missed something, and if so, I apologize in advance.
The boot hard disk on my computer has crashed. It’s a Dell desktop running Windows 7 Professional Ed. Everything is backed up on the MyCloud. I need to do a complete restore from the backup onto the new hard disk.
The hardware was purchased back in January, and the MyCloud software was up-to-date. Here are my questions:
Can it restore my system software from the backup? (Windows 7 pro. ed.) If so, how do I accomplish this? I assume I would have to boot from a CD or flash drive; but then what software would I need to perform the restore? Would that software need to be on the CD or flash drive?
If it won’t restore system from backup, I assume I’ll have to do a fresh install of Windows 7 on the new hard drive. Then what? What WD software do I need to restore the remaining files?
Will it restore applications, or will I have to reinstall all of them?
Is it okay if the new hard disk is larger than the old hard disk that was backed up? I mean, I don’t think we’re dealing with a disk image here, but I don’t know for sure.
How did you perform the backup? Which application did you use? If the backup was made using WD SmartWare then you will need to re-install your operating system and then WD SmartWare in order to have access to the retrieve tab. At the same time you are able to see and access your files over the network by navigating the WD SmartWare share within your WD My Cloud using Windows Explorer. This will allow you to manually copy or move the files to other computers.
I was hoping to boot from MyCloud, my laptop seems to be infected with ZeuS trojan. I installed Windows 10 and the trouble started. I’m using pc-matic anti-virus, GMAIL support is the one that said the ZeuS trojan was on my laptop.
I had backed up a system image but now I can’t figure out how to use the back up.
I could be wrong depending on you backup method but if you have a complete image of the disk then you could use gparted to reimage the new hard hisk. This would restore your partition stucture on the new HDD. Download gparted to a bootable USB stick once you have installed your new HDD. In gparted select your new HDD and click on the cogs and it should give you the option to restore from an image files. Select your image backup and it should restore your image to the new disk from the date the image was created. Once windows has started type partiotions into the start menu and resize the disk if it is bigger than your old one. One issue you might have is that you will need to reactivate windows becuase of the new hardware. The other big issue is if you have not created an image in the first place and your backup is just of you files and not the OS as a backup of every file on your computer does not mean it will boot though Im sure you could recreate the boot loader if you have created a rescue disk?
Im am not 100% sure though if anything I have said is actually correct but I know it is for linux systems if an image was created but it all depends on your type of backup and if it would be compatible with gparted I guess. You do use the word image so that is why I make this suggestion. I realise im not really answering all your questions but I think gparted is a great way to back up a HDD in terms of restoring an OS.
Good luck and if the worst comes to thw worst just reinstall windows and get as much of your data back as you can from your method of backup.
While watching my hard drive light stay on for extended periods, with no other indications that there was a problem with the hard drive, I ran disk check and it told me to repair it immediately, I did, all the problems went away, then I rebooted. the process stopped at the first screen presented after the reboot, the wireless mouse wouldn’t move or click. and how did that battery know when to DIE at just the wrong time. I programmed main frames for 40 years, none of the frustrted me as much as this Personal Computer.
I just found this thread, seems to be the only one pretty much on point with my problem, and seems to be still awaiting a solution. So…
I have a 2 TB WD My Cloud device. I backed up my Windows 7 Ultimate computer to it using Windows Backup and Restore (as explained in the WD knowledge base). What the KB does NOT explain, and I haven’t been able to find yet, is how to RESTORE from the My Cloud.
I tried using Windows Backup and Restore to restore the image file, as I had a catastrophic hard drive failure and had to install a new drive. But the Windows B&R won’t find my WD My Cloud device over the WiFi.
So…I connected the My Cloud directly to the computer via Ethernet cable, which was one suggestion I had seen. Still Windows B&R will not “see” the My Cloud. I tried using the “network drive” option, and entering the URL for the My Cloud drive, both by familiar name and by IP address. It asks for a user name and password, which I input my My Cloud admin user name and password. Get an error message that the program cannot connect.
At wits end. This is supposed to be a “best practice” method of backing up, short of using the SmartWare app. And I want to restore the image file I have, which is 500GB, so no way to put it on a DVD.
Thoughts, suggestions, solutions (and why WD puts instructions on how to set up the Backup using Windows B&R, but does not explain how to RESTORE, is beyond me) would be appreciated.
If you are trying to restore a Windows PC using the system restore boot disc one can create in Windows 7 the problem your experiencing may lay in the fact the system restore boot disc doesn’t load the proper drivers for either your wireless network adapter or your wired network adapter. There is somewhat similar talk on not being able to restore from an NAS drive at this link: http://superuser.com/questions/387766/system-restore-from-nas-drive-using-system-restore-disk
The solution was to load the Windows drivers from the computer’s motherboard manufacturer (or possibly from the network adapter manufacturer).
Thanks Bennor but that’s not my issue. I successfully reinstalled Win7 Ultimate along with all the requisite drivers for the OS. I even installed the WD My Cloud desktop software and can “see” my NAS drive and the image file that I’m looking to restore. It’s just that when I go to Windows B&R it doesn’t show the NAS or the image file.
So the issue is either there is a specific driver for the My Cloud device for use when booting in Restore mode, or something is missing in the process. Again WD provides no guidance on this, whereas their description of how to make a back up in the first place is pretty clear.
Do you have enough space to copy the backup file/folder from the My Cloud to your local hard drive? If so that would be another way around the problem.
It appears to be a Microsoft problem not necessarily a WD My Cloud problem. It could possibly be that during the boot into Restore mode Windows loads generic drivers rather than motherboard specific drivers which may be causing the problem. I’ve also seen people say that they had problems with the Restore function failing to find the backup file if the “WindowsImageBackup” folder wasn’t in the root directory of the NAS drive. Also make sure the Share containing the “WindowsImageBackup” is set to public or the root folder WindowsImageBackup is set to public. Some also report that they had to type in the specific path “\/” for the Restore program to find the backup file.
Thanks Bennor. I tried directing the restore dialogue to the specific location, typing the URL using both common name and IP address, without success. It was not at the root of the NAS though, so I’ll see if that makes a difference. It is in a public share folder though. Pesky permissions, maybe that’s the issue.
One thought though, I do have enough room on the HDD for the image, but if I put the image on the main HDD (forgive my ignorance on this one!) how can I rebuild the drive from the image? Won’t it overwrite the image when it reconstructs the drive from the image? Seems like a recursive loop, but maybe I’m showing my noobish side…this is the first time I’ve tried to restore from any sort of image.
