Backup system image to removeable 128Gb thumbdrive

[Art122438]

I am attepting to backup my system on a 128Gbyte thumbdrive. Using the Backup and Restore utility  I see that the thumbdive is present, and recognized (16MB unallocated, 119Mb Healthy}.  Attempting to start the backup results in the message, "Task image is corrupt and has been tampered with".

Is  the thumbdrive required to be formatted prior to this attempt to use it for backup?

What is the solution to my dilemna?

Looking for a solution to prevent me from writing 25 CDs and investing 6 hours in the backup process.

I sure hope you are able to provide me with the process to use the thumbdrive to perform this process.

[WAWood]

@Art122438

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

You didn't tell us which application you're attempting to use to do the system backup, but I hope it's not something provided by Microsoft -- as I have found those (all the way through Win10) to be unreliable.

I personally prefer to use third-party Recovery solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR)
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry. This allows you then to boot into WinRE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

Good Luck