RNR 3.1 nightmare... help.

[EatMorGlue]

I've installed RNR 3.1 and I desperately want to revert back to 3.01.0037. The problem with 3.1 is that it either won't recognize or has deleted (I hope not) my former backups from my local drive. I also had these backups on an USB external HDD, but it won't recognize them either.

I uninstalled 3.1 through windows add/remove, and tried to reinstall both 3.00.0027 and 3.01.0037 and whenever I tried I get this message:

error 25021 The current Rescue and Recovery environment is newer than this version of Rescue and Recovery. To install rescue and recovery, obtain the latest version from the web.

The pre-desktop RNR is 3.1 despite the 'uninstallation', so I can't access my previous backups there either.

Any ideas?

I do have recovery discs, but I'd really like that to be a last resort type of thing. (Although after pissing away hours on this problem, I'm sensing that I'm at that last resort moment anyhow.)

Also, why would they make previous backups incompatible with the new version?

[GomJabbar]

Also, why would they make previous backups incompatible with the new version?

This is not an uncommon occurance. I have seen this with other backup software.

Your problem begs the question. Why not just make a new backup with RNR 3.1?

To access your former backups, you will probably need to use your recovery discs. You could make a backup to external media using the backup program included in Windows (advanced mode). Then use your recovery discs. Then restore the RNR backup you want. And finally restore the data files you need from the Window backup (advanced mode) you made. At least I think this would work. I haven't used Windows backup in a long time. You will need to set aside a few hours to do all this.

[EatMorGlue]

Thanks for the response GomJabbar... honestly, it's way too complicated for me to explain why I wanted to go back to RNR 3.0, but I guess it's best summed up as the forbidden fruit attraction... once I found out I couldn't restore backups from 3.0 with 3.1, I became hellbent on figuring out how to restore from those backups. (This whole backup stuff is new to me, obviously.)

But now I have another question... if the previous backups are unavailable but still accessible (if only through some maneuvering), does that mean they are just taking up space on my hard drive? Is there a way to remove them once I make a new backup with 3.1?

[GomJabbar]

I am sure there is a way. I am not sure about the best way to go about it, but in Safe Mode you have more options for deleting files and folders.

[EatMorGlue]

thanks again, i'll give it a try

[GomJabbar]

Here is a short thread that has more details on deleting files and folders in Safe Mode. See my post there.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=13247