Guest General Mailbox Posted August 21, 2007 Posted August 21, 2007 Greetings. After losing over 500 images due to having a wildcard in my parameters during a delete, I've decided to go the extra step beyond system restore points and start using an automated system backup. My backups consisted of copy/pasting files to a 2nd internal drive, but it was affected during the deletion process. I now use an external USB HDD. Using WinXP built-in MS Backup, I've made the two methods of creating a backup. One such backup contains a C drive, another very small C drive, and system state selection. I chose all three boxes and it created a single file. I also did the other method of using the ASR (Automatic System Recovery), which required a floppy disk. My partition information is such: Partition Information for Disk 1: Volume PartType Status Size MB ============================================ :HP_PAVILION Hid.FAT32X Pri 68,460.8 C: NTFS Pri,Boot 17,046.9 (active) ExtendedX Pri 12,956.8 EPBR Log 12,956.8 D: NTFS Log 12,956.8 Hidden NTFS Pri 16,005.9 There are now 4 primary partitions, one being an extended to contain a logical drive. The 4th primary (16MB) was created to test the recovery method. Operating MS Backup in my normal boot drive, I restored the .bkf file to the 4th primary. Using a 3rd party boot configuration program, I selected the 4th primary to be the boot partition. Rebooting starts the splash? screen of Windows XP Pro, but before getting to the welcome screen, the blue screen that would normally show up when a chkdisk is performed read "autochk program not found - skipping autocheck" then the BSOD comes on for about 1/4 second then the system reboots repeating this event. It may quite be that I don't understand how the MS Backup is suppose to work. The instructions are vague with no differences beting mentioned about a C drive backup, a C drive & a mini C drive & a system state backup, and finally the ASR backup if you don't use the wizard. It also didn't mention about the full system backup would include the D drive (NTSF) but omit any hidden drives. When trying to use the ASR, I realized that I needed the installation CD and press F2 to get into the recovery mode. Doing it, it determined that it would need to wipe out the entire 114MB drive in order to restore it. I don't think so cause D drive was never backed up. I probably would've lost my hidden drives and the D drive if I continued. I wish to continue using XP along with the Vista Premium on another computer, and thought that the built-in backup programs would be sufficient. If someone can help me understand and correct this problem, I may be able to use it. Otherwise, I would appreciate some consumer advice on backup software. Many thanks! B.rgds to all! Kevin
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted August 21, 2007 Posted August 21, 2007 Re: Backup & recovery problem "General Mailbox" <nospampls@home.net> wrote in message news:mUvyi.49938$xx1.13655@newsfe09.phx... > Greetings. > After losing over 500 images due to having a wildcard in my parameters > during a delete, I've decided to go the extra step beyond system restore > points and start using an automated system backup. My backups consisted > of > copy/pasting files to a 2nd internal drive, but it was affected during the > deletion process. I now use an external USB HDD. Using WinXP built-in MS > Backup, I've made the two methods of creating a backup. One such backup > contains a > C drive, another very small C drive, and system state selection. I chose > all three boxes and it created a single file. I also did the other method > of using the ASR (Automatic System Recovery), which required a floppy > disk. > My partition information is such: > > Partition Information for Disk 1: > Volume PartType Status Size MB > ============================================ > :HP_PAVILION Hid.FAT32X Pri 68,460.8 > C: NTFS Pri,Boot 17,046.9 (active) > ExtendedX Pri 12,956.8 > EPBR Log 12,956.8 > D: NTFS Log 12,956.8 > Hidden NTFS Pri 16,005.9 > > There are now 4 primary partitions, one being an extended to contain a > logical drive. The 4th primary (16MB) was created to test the recovery > method. Operating MS Backup in my normal boot drive, I restored the .bkf > file to the 4th primary. Using a 3rd party boot configuration program, I > selected the 4th primary to be the boot partition. Rebooting starts the > splash? screen of Windows XP Pro, but before getting to the welcome > screen, > the blue screen that would normally show up when a chkdisk is performed > read > "autochk program not found - skipping autocheck" then the BSOD comes on > for > about 1/4 second then the system reboots repeating this event. > > It may quite be that I don't understand how the MS Backup is suppose to > work. The instructions are vague with no differences beting mentioned > about > a C drive backup, a C drive & a mini C drive & a system state backup, and > finally the ASR backup if you don't use the wizard. It also didn't > mention > about the full system backup would include the D drive (NTSF) but omit any > hidden drives. When trying to use the ASR, I realized that I needed the > installation CD and press F2 to get into the recovery mode. Doing it, it > determined that it would need to wipe out the entire 114MB drive in order > to > restore it. I don't think so cause D drive was never backed up. I > probably > would've lost my hidden drives and the D drive if I continued. I wish to > continue using XP along with the Vista Premium on another computer, and > thought that the built-in > backup programs would be sufficient. If someone can help me understand > and > correct this problem, I may be able to use it. Otherwise, I would > appreciate some consumer advice on backup software. Many thanks! > B.rgds to all! > Kevin I think some clarification may be required. - System Restore is meant to restore the operating system. You cannot use it to restore data. - ASR is equally useless for data recovery. - While you can use ntbackup.exe to back up your data files, there are far better ways to do this. If you don't want to spend any money, put some xcopy.exe commands into a batch file. If you're happy to buy a commercial product, use something like Acronis. Note also that your partition structure is not quite the way you see it. It is probably like this: Primary Partition HP_Pavillion Hidden FAT32 68,460 (GBytes?) Primary Partition C: (Active boot) Visible NTFS 17,046 GBytes Primary Partition Hidden 16,005 (GBytes?) Extended partition, containing EPBR Hidden? Visible? FAT32? NTFS? 12,956 (GBytes?) D: Visible NTFS 12,956 (GBytes) In other words, you probably have three primary partitions plus one extended partition. Inside the extended partition you have two logical drives (maybe . . .). It is not clear from your post if your system is currently bootable or if it suffers from a persistent BSOD.
Guest General Mailbox Posted August 21, 2007 Posted August 21, 2007 Re: Backup & recovery problem Hello, Pegasus. It's late, or early should I say, and hard to keep both eyes open *smiles* My partition information is correct to the best of my knowledge and reasoning. It's like this: Hidden drive C -- contains WinME OS on FAT32. It is primary with +64 thousand MB = 64GB Unhidden drive C -- contains WinXP on NTSF. Primary active boot (defaulted in boot config) = 17GB Hidden drive C -- contains restored WinXP on NTSF. Primary so it can be bootable. = 16GB Unhidden *Extended primary partition to contain possibly numerous logical partitions = 12GB Within this primary, there is a EPBR logical partition. I did not create this. I think it's like an envelope that surrounds the useable logical partition. Notice it's the same size as the primary. Also within this Extended primary is the logical drive I created which is formatted in NTSF. Being that it is also 12GB, there is no more room to place more logical drives in this Extended primary partition. This uses up all 4 primary allocations that the OS gives us. I know that a 1.44MB floppy diskette (the ASR) cannot hold all my data files. Thinking more about this, it appears to have taken a snapshot of the number of partitions and their sizes, so that information can be used to recreate the whole disk drive's partitioning information. Seems rather useless to me unless the hard disk has no room to spare in any partition and you need to be precise in partition sizes. I just figured to make sure that the partition I created was large enough to contain the backup file with at least 50MB free working space in the same partition. Thank you for the information on the executables, but unfortunately, I'm not familiar with writing batch files. MS Backup said it can do Full, Differential, and Incremental backups, so why buy 3rd party software? But with this problem and lack of instructions, they are pushing people like me to go and buy other software. On the last topic, thanks for asking. The system is bootable as the boot manager program I have selects any of the partitions I have it set for to boot from. I just switched back to my working OS partition. Maybe there's a limit on how many bootable OS's a person can have on a single HD? Just a thought as there are many excuses why things don't work. Goodnight! Kevin "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com> wrote in message news:umWneL84HHA.1204@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > > "General Mailbox" <nospampls@home.net> wrote in message > news:mUvyi.49938$xx1.13655@newsfe09.phx... >> Greetings. >> After losing over 500 images due to having a wildcard in my parameters >> during a delete, I've decided to go the extra step beyond system restore >> points and start using an automated system backup. My backups consisted >> of >> copy/pasting files to a 2nd internal drive, but it was affected during >> the >> deletion process. I now use an external USB HDD. Using WinXP built-in >> MS >> Backup, I've made the two methods of creating a backup. One such backup >> contains a >> C drive, another very small C drive, and system state selection. I chose >> all three boxes and it created a single file. I also did the other >> method >> of using the ASR (Automatic System Recovery), which required a floppy >> disk. >> My partition information is such: >> >> Partition Information for Disk 1: >> Volume PartType Status Size MB >> ============================================ >> :HP_PAVILION Hid.FAT32X Pri 68,460.8 >> C: NTFS Pri,Boot 17,046.9 (active) >> ExtendedX Pri 12,956.8 >> EPBR Log 12,956.8 >> D: NTFS Log 12,956.8 >> Hidden NTFS Pri 16,005.9 >> >> There are now 4 primary partitions, one being an extended to contain a >> logical drive. The 4th primary (16MB) was created to test the recovery >> method. Operating MS Backup in my normal boot drive, I restored the .bkf >> file to the 4th primary. Using a 3rd party boot configuration program, I >> selected the 4th primary to be the boot partition. Rebooting starts the >> splash? screen of Windows XP Pro, but before getting to the welcome >> screen, >> the blue screen that would normally show up when a chkdisk is performed >> read >> "autochk program not found - skipping autocheck" then the BSOD comes on >> for >> about 1/4 second then the system reboots repeating this event. >> >> It may quite be that I don't understand how the MS Backup is suppose to >> work. The instructions are vague with no differences beting mentioned >> about >> a C drive backup, a C drive & a mini C drive & a system state backup, and >> finally the ASR backup if you don't use the wizard. It also didn't >> mention >> about the full system backup would include the D drive (NTSF) but omit >> any >> hidden drives. When trying to use the ASR, I realized that I needed the >> installation CD and press F2 to get into the recovery mode. Doing it, it >> determined that it would need to wipe out the entire 114MB drive in order >> to >> restore it. I don't think so cause D drive was never backed up. I >> probably >> would've lost my hidden drives and the D drive if I continued. I wish to >> continue using XP along with the Vista Premium on another computer, and >> thought that the built-in >> backup programs would be sufficient. If someone can help me understand >> and >> correct this problem, I may be able to use it. Otherwise, I would >> appreciate some consumer advice on backup software. Many thanks! >> B.rgds to all! >> Kevin > > I think some clarification may be required. > - System Restore is meant to restore the operating system. > You cannot use it to restore data. > - ASR is equally useless for data recovery. > - While you can use ntbackup.exe to back up your data > files, there are far better ways to do this. If you don't want > to spend any money, put some xcopy.exe commands into > a batch file. If you're happy to buy a commercial product, > use something like Acronis. > > Note also that your partition structure is not quite the way > you see it. It is probably like this: > > Primary Partition HP_Pavillion Hidden FAT32 68,460 (GBytes?) > Primary Partition C: (Active boot) Visible NTFS 17,046 GBytes > Primary Partition Hidden 16,005 (GBytes?) > Extended partition, containing > EPBR Hidden? Visible? FAT32? NTFS? 12,956 (GBytes?) > D: Visible NTFS 12,956 (GBytes) > > In other words, you probably have three primary partitions plus > one extended partition. Inside the extended partition you have > two logical drives (maybe . . .). > > It is not clear from your post if your system is currently bootable > or if it suffers from a persistent BSOD. >
Guest Plato Posted August 22, 2007 Posted August 22, 2007 Re: Backup & recovery problem General Mailbox wrote: > > After losing over 500 images due to having a wildcard in my parameters > during a delete, I've decided to go the extra step beyond system restore In the future, make it a habit of backing up your most important data to CD-R on a regular basis. -- http://www.bootdisk.com/
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