Image backup

[lc1500]

Cant figgure it out. Using Windows 10 image backup, I can make one image backup to my USB  hard drive which I can see. It is about 45 GB and my C drive is about 114GB.

Now I make another image backup in a few days and check it out on the same USB hard drive and the date and time has changed but all the files are zeroed out. Only empty folders.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[mdklassen]

Is this a "file-permissions" issue, i.e., while the imaging-utility can access the folders, it does not have "elevated" permissions to access the files?

Did you "wipe" the USB memory-stick before making the second attempt, so that it starts with an "empty" target?

[lc1500]

Thanks for your reply. I think Ive figgured it out as it seems to be "permission" based. When you look at the folder in the back up by going to its properties, all folders indicate thier empty. But when you dig deeper into the individual files, (properties) you see the actual amount of data. I was trying to be certain that the image backup did indeed produce a full image and it became quite confusing. 

The more I dig into the bowles of win 10 the more I realize how buggey it is. Example: Windows 10 does not allow you to save / create a image or backup to any USB thumb drive of any size. You must use a USB hard drive or an internal drive. Go figgure!

Back to the digging...

[mdklassen]

> The more I dig into the bowels of win 10, the more I realize how buggy it is.

Is it a "bug" or a "design feature" ?

> Example: Windows 10 does not allow you to save / create a image or backup to any USB thumb drive of any size.

> You must use a USB hard drive or an internal drive. Go figure!

My guess is that the "image backup" copies each of the partitions on your disk-drive, creating partitions on the "target" disk-drive (internal or external).  Thus, because a USB memory-stick cannot be "partitioned", Windows deliberately does not allow it to be the "target".