Thinkpads Forum

Just to tell...

wanted to restore my system to base backup which I made when set up the computer. The only softwares there were at the time were Microsoft's updates for Windows and MS Office with all updates. So, as I wanted to restore my system I chose the option to save some files from my computer for further use. In step 4 or 5 (don't know any more) when restoring I chose the files which I wanted to save. Mostly there were my docs from My Documents folder. As far as I understand the proccess the computer saves the files which I chose onto the hidden partition (IBM one) and then apply them back to the restored system. However, among the files I wante to save were some 6GB of pictures. I found it strange the program showed my the option to save such amount of files onto the hidden partition, but when I saw the option I chose it believing that kind of proccess is possible. The restoration than began and...

Guess what?

Everything got messed! I mean really messed. The pictures I wanted to save weren't there anymore (although the properties of pics folder they used to be in showed that it's 6GB in size) (just like the pictures were still there but I could't see them). And other programs didn't get to the state when computer was backed.

So I choose another restore and this time I restored it without saving any files. It ran smoothly and everything seems to work fine.

But I lost my pics and want to warn you who have some more valuable files on your machine to not make my mistake.

By any chance, did you see the message: "Access Denied" when you tried exploring or opening your Pics folder?

No, I would actually understand that something went wrong if I saw the error message. But the way this happened... well... I was quite confused firstly, then was trying to find them for about an hour, unfortanely with no luck. It was just like they were there (they actually had size written in the properties tab) but couldn't be seen.

Maybe they folder was too large to copy it to HPA and then to restore it to C: again. But in that case the R&R could have warned the used that such action will not work.

Though full restore without saving any files worked perfectly I don't understand the point of saving the files when user can't be sure if will get his data back. Burning the data on a disc and performing full restore still seems more safe way... But the fact isn't really in favour of R&R.

Sure sounds like a strange problem alright. What version of R & R are you using?

I haven't tried to do any backups or restores with R & R yet. I have been using Stomp: 'Backup MyPC' for my backup work. I have been using that program for almost 3 years now.

My R&R version is v2.02.0178. As I said, there is no problem with restore IF you don't want to save any files. But IF you want to rescue files take caution.

What I don't understand is; one pays a lot of money for IBM computer and its services, that includes software (among many good programs etc. Access Connections, Presentation manager is R&R which obviously don't work like it should). If software doesn't work there is just no point in paying all that money.

I am not saying that IBM is no good (I still prefer the brand) just they should strive harder for perfection. I simply thought that for that money I will get funtional and especially running software.

You see, why should one have to buy software from other manufacturers if IBM is providing it?

EDIT: I just found out that newer version of R&R (v3.0) is available. Shame that restore performance can't be tested every day...

I upgraded to RnR 3.0, and now can't rescue ANY files, from current or older backups. I was able to recover some files from the base backup by booting to the 2.0 rescue CD, but the 3.0 (either running from within Windows or on its own) can't read either the old backups or the ones it made. I currently have an issue in with IBM support, but I suspect I'll have to redo all the backups from scratch, and lose some files I wanted to rescue.

It's always a good idea to test your backups when you don't need them!

krma-thkpds wrote:As far as I understand the proccess the computer saves the files which I chose onto the hidden partition (IBM one) and then apply them back to the restored system.

Sorry, but this is not the way it works. If R&R offers you the option to save some files before you restore your backup, you need either network access (wired) or an USB harddrive or an 2nd Harddisk adapter instead of your DVD drive. No files are ever written to the "hidden partition".

Not even temporarily?

Look... I don't know the details of this but sure the program should prompt me to insert CD, DVD name the USB drive or network computer. There are all those options, but among them there is one where you don't have to save the files to another media, they are stored somewhere on the local computer. Check it yourself. Run R&R and follow the instructions to restore the system with saving some of the files. You don't need to complete the restore, just check the steps from the first one to one before the last one and then click cancel.