View Full Version : Did something really stupid!
I use backup4all as a backup and do a complete backup every night. My computer was starting slow so I saw that Win 8 had a feature called reset which supposedly would fix this. Like an idiot I ran it without any research. It uninstalled most of my programs including my backup program. I have 3 days of backups on a external drive but they are in the backup4all format and now I cannot restore them. I tried to reinstall the program but it still will not recognize the backups. Is there any way to re-install one of these? They are in a zip format.
EDIT: Idea. Will it work? All files are in 7zip format. If I unzip the files (7c,7d,7e which are the c,d, and e drives) one at a time to an extra HD, then clone that new HD to my current HD using Acronis, would that work. I would be bringing all the old files back in to the place they were before.
Fire$torm
03-23-13, 06:41 PM
You could do it that way but it sounds very tedious. I am downloading Backup4all and will give it a test run. Maybe I can figure out how to get it working for you again.
Could you not just install that backup program now, and then restore from your backups that are saved in that format? Surprised if that wouldn't work, because the idea is generally if your computer goes down and you get a new one, you can then install your backup software on the new one and just click restore. . . That's the goal, although it rarely goes that smooth! ;)
I just finished a 5 hour backup. I deleted the files and am now am copying the old backup to the latest backup file. I will then rename them to the new backups and try that. Otherwise I am probably just goin to blow away the HDs and start over. That's what I get for thinking I know what I'm doing.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
No because when you do a refresh from win8 it installs a new copy of windows. I reinstalled the backup but it won't restore from the old backups. Bummed out right now, but holding on for awhile before I do a complete blow out. At least the format they use is 7zip so I can unzip and play with it. I'm retired so I have time.
Fire$torm
03-23-13, 07:33 PM
No because when you do a refresh from win8 it installs a new copy of windows. I reinstalled the backup but it won't restore from the old backups. Bummed out right now, but holding on for awhile before I do a complete blow out. At least the format they use is 7zip so I can unzip and play with it. I'm retired so I have time.
Assuming the following:
*The Win8 refresh destroyed everything on the HDD and cannot be retrieved.
*Your backups were FULL backups not Incremental.
*Your last backup contains all your important files
With the above all being true: I would suggest install Win8 from scratch. Then just use WinZip to open your backup and uncompress the files you want to the new Win8 install.
Duke of Buckingham
03-23-13, 08:46 PM
That seems very bad and painful. It seems also that you must have a lot of patience to fix the problem. I would say that is something the crazy Duke could do at any time between other very stupid things I can always do.
One thing I have painfully learned with time is: NEVER FIX IT, REINSTALLED IT FROM THE START.
That I would do as a kind of punishment. Fix things up always give later problems at least for me. Good luck on your search for a solution.
Computers have this wonderful thing we can not do with life. Restart and do it right this time. I would like we could do that with life. :o
zombie67
03-24-13, 01:56 AM
I know this is not helpful now, and nothing you want to hear. But it may be helpful for the future.
I use a backup program that creates a boot-able image on another HD. It could be internal, or connected via USB or network. It's not really for historical backup, but rather just in case I dork up my primary HD in any way. The point is that if the normal boot HD ever goes south for any reason, I just boot off the other image, then run the same backup program to copy image back to the original HD.
Edit: I am a Mac user, so the backup program I use is SuperDuper! (CCC (CarbonCopyCloner) works equally well). But I assume there are Windows versions of the same thing.
kmanley57
03-24-13, 07:35 AM
I reinstalled the backup but it won't restore from the old backups.
HMMM! Does not sound like it is quite what you want to use for a recovery program then. This programs sounds more like it is a data file recovery setup, You really need something that is not running the OS to replace the system files that are in use when you are running the system. I do not think you will have good results, but as you say you have plenty of time to fix it.
Assuming the following:
*The Win8 refresh destroyed everything on the HDD and cannot be retrieved.
*Your backups were FULL backups not Incremental.
*Your last backup contains all your important files
With the above all being true: I would suggest install Win8 from scratch. Then just use WinZip to open your backup and uncompress the files you want to the new Win8 install.
I think that this is going to be my best option. The only thing is that the hard drive info is not destroyed. Refresh simply installed a new copy of Windows but it did not install any other soft ware. It is all still on the drives.
I did a backup then went to the backup and copied an old backup. I replaced the current backup with the old and changed the names to reflect the new backup. It recognized the backup and it looks like it installed it. Now I have rebooted and the machine is doing something for the last hour. Hopefully it is replacing the files. We will see.
Fire$torm
03-24-13, 05:03 PM
Okay c303a, keeping my fingers & toes crossed for ya. Best of luck! :-bd
Slicker
03-25-13, 12:11 AM
From the thread title, I thought you were going to be an unexpected father or something! Good to hear it is only a backup issue. :rolleyes:
From the thread title, I thought you were going to be an unexpected father or something! Good to hear it is only a backup issue. :rolleyes:
:p:p:p No chance of that unless my wife turns out to be a 21 year old blonde with an awful load of coins.;););)
I have started the task of doing a recover from the buckup4all software. According to their tech support all I have to do is boot up and launch the software. I have had a load of trouble booting the computer so I put in a 250gb hard drive and reloaded windows and the Acronis and backup software. Currently I am cloning the HDD to my SSd and themn I will start the backup software. We'll see what happens.
Alright, man keep us posted. Holding out hope for you! :)
Backups every night ... lol ... My only Backup is my OS CD ... :p
OK! Up and running after a marathon. Could not get Win 8 to load on my SSD. Changed SSD. Still no load. Went to a HD. No load. Went round and round until I decided to change from ACHI mode to IDE mode. Worked. Got Win 8 loaded. Go to boot, and get through the POST and get the 4 blue squares from Win 8. Wait 2 minutes before boot continues. Do all the updates and reboot. Change back to the AHCI mode. Same thing on the boot. Exactly 2 minutes again. Run cpu test. No problem. Run memtest. No problem. Remove everything except boot drive and GPU. Same thing. Call Asus. If it goes past the POST it is a Windows problem or a drive problem. Call OCZ. Ran ATTO disk check. Both good and above expectations. Finally call M$ with no results.
To add insult to all this Is the fack that I could load my upgrade of Windows from the POST and didn't have to have an old copy installed. Wrong! Had to start over and load a old copy of XP and then load Win 8.
Had the same trouble with XP on the boot. Anyone have any ideas? Oh yea I changed backup to Nova Stor. They have a boot disk option which I have made use of.
kmanley57
03-28-13, 03:23 PM
OK! Up and running after a marathon. Could not get Win 8 to load on my SSD. Changed SSD. Still no load. Went to a HD. No load. Went round and round until I decided to change from ACHI mode to IDE mode. Worked. Got Win 8 loaded. Go to boot, and get through the POST and get the 4 blue squares from Win 8. Wait 2 minutes before boot continues. Do all the updates and reboot. Change back to the AHCI mode. Same thing on the boot. Exactly 2 minutes again. Run cpu test. No problem. Run memtest. No problem. Remove everything except boot drive and GPU. Same thing. Call Asus. If it goes past the POST it is a Windows problem or a drive problem. Call OCZ. Ran ATTO disk check. Both good and above expectations. Finally call M$ with no results.
To add insult to all this Is the fack that I could load my upgrade of Windows from the POST and didn't have to have an old copy installed. Wrong! Had to start over and load a old copy of XP and then load Win 8.
Had the same trouble with XP on the boot. Anyone have any ideas? Oh yea I changed backup to Nova Stor. They have a boot disk option which I have made use of.
I did a search on "AHCI" and it looks like you have to do some things to get windows 8 to work in that mode.
On Windows Vista and Windows 7, this can be fixed configuring the msahci device driver to start at boot time (rather than on-demand). Setting non-AHCI mode in the BIOS will allow the user to boot Windows, where the required registry change can be performed. The BIOS can then be changed to AHCI.[3]
On Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, the name of the controller has changed from msahci to storahci,[4] and the procedure to upgrade to the new controller to it is similar to that of Windows 7.[5] On Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, changing the SATA mode to AHCI without updating the registry will make the boot drive inaccessible.
So it looks like you need to make a registry change to use AHCI.
I let ACHI slip by!! But when I search on it I did not find much. :)
I did a search on "AHCI" and it looks like you have to do some things to get windows 8 to work in that mode.
On Windows Vista and Windows 7, this can be fixed configuring the msahci device driver to start at boot time (rather than on-demand). Setting non-AHCI mode in the BIOS will allow the user to boot Windows, where the required registry change can be performed. The BIOS can then be changed to AHCI.[3]
On Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, the name of the controller has changed from msahci to storahci,[4] and the procedure to upgrade to the new controller to it is similar to that of Windows 7.[5] On Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, changing the SATA mode to AHCI without updating the registry will make the boot drive inaccessible.
So it looks like you need to make a registry change to use AHCI.
I let ACHI slip by!! But when I search on it I did not find much. :)
I have registry entries for both msahci and storahci. I ran the boot trace log and I see nothing. Of course I know next to nothing about it. Frustrating. I think it i time to move on to another box and try again.
kmanley57
03-29-13, 05:58 PM
I have registry entries for both msahci and storahci. I ran the boot trace log and I see nothing. Of course I know next to nothing about it. Frustrating. I think it i time to move on to another box and try again.
I looked at my Registry and I have a 'device' msahci and a 'service' storahci that is not turned on (reg_dword=0)
The forum posting I think is telling you to turn on the service to use the device.
Here is a windows 7 guide:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html
Windows 8:
http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-8-after-installation/
Which I found here:
http://www.eightforums.com/drivers-hardware/14668-computer-wont-boot-ahci-mode.html
:o:o:o OK. An update. Got the stupid confuser working thanks to a poster from Microsoft's forum. Do the easy thing first. Unplug ALL items except mouse and keyboard. Plug in one item at a time and reboot. Can't tell which was the problem because as I did this the confuser booted normally as I added equipment. I should have gone the other way and unplugged one item at a time. Either way. I am a happy cruncher once again. Just when I had a almost perfect reason to build a new one. Foiled again! :D:D:D Why is it that the simple repairs take the most time and make you feel really stupid that you didn't think of it first. Lesson learned.
:o:o:o OK. An update...I am a happy cruncher once again. Just when I had a almost perfect reason to build a new one. Foiled again! :D....
So glad to hear you're back on board with us! I love it when it all just works like it should. Sometimes we're left scratching our head going hmmmmmm...though. ;) Glad it got sorted out.
Fire$torm
04-05-13, 01:38 PM
So glad to hear you're back on board with us! I love it when it all just works like it should. Sometimes we're left scratching our head going hmmmmmm...though. ;) Glad it got sorted out.
Ditto
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