Please help as i'm about to cry. Windows backup related.

A

Andrew_e1

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 17, 2006
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Ok i'm gonna keep this short.

I built a custom computer for my aunt who is a graphics designer, I copied all her personal files and stuff to her new computer.

I'ts got a 1TB hard drive, and I got her another 1TB JUST for backup. I decided to keep things simple and just let windows back up the entire primary drive to the secondary drive with daily backups.

Today she calls me, system crashed...she interrupted a windows update accidentally and I after a few failed system restore attempts I decided to format since I figured everything is in the back up drive.

Well, I'm looking at the back up drive and theres only 250GB free out of 931 which makes me thing there's a lot of stuff there.

However when I open the back up file, I click restore files and I get 4 back up periods to restore from. The problem is that all of them have VERY few folders and files in them, the "my documents" folder which is where she kept all her personal stuff has very few folders. The pictures folder also has very few of them.

The hard drive has only 3 files:

Aunt-PC
WindowsImageBackup Folder
MediaID.bin

Where the hell is all the info?!?!?! its using almost 700GB of space?!?!

I looked into the windows backup in my computer and its different, its just like accessing the folders on my main drive and everything is consolidated...

Please help :(


Also, there's a 400GB VHD file inside the imagebackup folder... I'm guessing everything is there but when I go to back up and restore center and try to restore from an image, it tells me that windows cannot find any images to restore from.
 
You can try mounting the vhd using Disk Management (Start->run 'diskmgmt.msc', then in Actions, 'Attach VHD) and see what's in there. You can also look at hidden files (in Explorer options, turn off hide hidden files).

I'm sure there's a fix to make Windows Backup restore the right image, but at least this'll let you see the data. And its also a valuable lesson, data must be backed up individually and preferably to multiple locations.
 
MrCrispy said:
You can try mounting the vhd using Disk Management (Start->run 'diskmgmt.msc', then in Actions, 'Attach VHD) and see what's in there. You can also look at hidden files (in Explorer options, turn off hide hidden files).

I'm sure there's a fix to make Windows Backup restore the right image, but at least this'll let you see the data. And its also a valuable lesson, data must be backed up individually and preferably to multiple locations.
Click to expand...

I just did that and it showed up in the explorer window but it wont open, it says the file system is RAW and asked me to format it...................obviously I didn't.

Any advice?

thanks
 
i never used windows backup. But i'll say a prayer for you. hopefully everything can b e restored!
 
Alright, I use this image utility regularly and I haven't seen this particular issue.

The VHD, as stated here, is the image of the C Partition. Your inability to mount that may mean it is corrupt.

There is another way to mount using Diskpart... go to command prompt, type diskpart, type sel vdisk file="D:\PATH TO VHD\FILE.VHD" and then type attach vdisk.

If that doesn't work get yourself recovermyfiles and that will recover the data from the C Partition.
 
I don't know how/why you can't see it. I've restored to a backup simply by using the windows disk, and choosing the drive/backup (can't remember exactly how it was). Regardless, when I look at my backup disk, it's just

DriveLetter:\WindowsImageBackup

Inside is a folder with my computer name
Computername\

And inside it are 3 folders
Computername\Backup DATE random#\
Computername\Catalog\
Computername\SPPMetaDataCache\

From the recovery disk you're probably not going to see all the files, but I think you should be able to choose the disk which contains the image and go from there.

For reference, my backup is 13 GB (light windows / office installation).

I'd venture a guess that the backup is not being duplicated every time. If the files are stored once, the next backup may contain only the changes.

I'm guessing everything is there but when I go to back up and restore center and try to restore from an image, it tells me that windows cannot find any images to restore from.
Click to expand...

Are you using the windows dvd, or the disk which you can burn specifically to restore backups? I don't know if any other image program etc. will work. Also if you are trying to see if you can restore it from your own computer it may not work as it will likely look for the Computername\ folder.
 
Andrew_e1 said:
Also, there's a 400GB VHD file inside the imagebackup folder... I'm guessing everything is there but when I go to back up and restore center and try to restore from an image, it tells me that windows cannot find any images to restore from.
Click to expand...

Thats cause there's no drivers loaded for your particular chipset. Check your BIOS on the machine, if you have a compatibility mode for your SATA, turn it on and try again.
 
Best of luck. I'm watching this thread as Windows backup sometimes likes to pull the "cannot find images to restore from" bullshit on me even when we're dealing with NTFS formatted USB drives as sources. Makes no sense, clearly they need to fix it.
 
This is why I am willing to pay for acronis.

Edit: Which will mount/convert windows backup images btw...
 
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