File backup instead of image backup - Big Mess!

Hi all,

One of my drives in raid0 crashed and fortunately I had windows 7 x64 backup activated and running daily.

NOT!!!

After recreating the array with the remaining drives, I tried to restore from the external usb drive but it didn't work.

Apparently the problem is that I had been running "file backup" and not "image backup". Probably because when I configured backup for the first time, it asked to back up all my drives which was not possible and not needed so didn't check the image backup button.

Now the backup set is visible only from within windows (I set w7 again up) but NOT from the restore part of w7 setup / recovery disk.

Files inside the backup set are not .vhd but zipfiles.

All my c: drive files actually ARE inside the backup set, but running restore will restore all the crap folders (like c:\nvidia) EXCEPT from the system folders like c:\windows, c:\program files (and x86), c:\programdata etc

I know it is a FUS now.

Any way to restore these? I am thinking of the possibility of somehow restoring all the files and running windows repair on top of this to actually make c:\drive bootable again....

Oh, forgot to say that my users folder is not affected as I had moved it to d:\ but this presents the additional challange of being able to actually make the system see the users folder....

Sorry for the long post but you know how frustrating it is when you messed up your system...

I have never done file back up but only imaging. However I think it should be possible to restore the files in the environment in which they were backed up. And you should be able to choose which of the folders and files you want to restore. At least you can in Acronis TrueImage.

silkman said:

Now the backup set is visible only from within windows (I set w7 again up) but NOT from the restore part of w7 setup / recovery disk.

If I understand you correctly you should be able to restore your file/folder backups (.zip files) to a working OS. You need to do it from within the OS. If you don't have a working OS and you don't have an image then you can:

1) Run the automated system repair (multiple times up to 3 if necessary) from the system repair disk
2) Try a Repair Install
3) Do a clean install.

then restore your file/folders. If you can stand the time I'd opt for 3) and start keeping regular images to an external drive manually using the "Create a system Image Button" in the Backup and restore screen.

Thank you both for your replies.

I set up W7 again and this is the only way I can access my (file) backup set.

Restore however is major crap! With a file backup, windows won't restore to the original location in *any* system folder, you can only restore to another folder.

Eg. You choose to restore c:\program files\app1 to original location.
Also you want to restore c:\program files (x86)\app2 to original location.

Windows restore will give an error and won't copy anything; it will only work if you restore to another folder, eg c:\restore\ where it will put them in:

c:\restore\c\program files\app1
c:\restore\c\program files(x86)\app2

which is a major pain. If you choose to restore everything, it will skip system folders such as c:\program files and (x86), c:\programdata, c:\windows and others...

Running restore from safe mode doesn't work at all....


So I am left with a backup set which is useless.....

Option Two:

What I am trying now is to take a list of installed programs from the backup set.

I have installed most of them in the fresh windows setup. The idea is that if the programs installed are the same, if I am able to access my old profile which is in d: it should work.

But how do I access the old profile without overwriting it? Let's say that the original profile is in
d:\users\silkman together with
d:\users\default
d:\users\public
d:\users\updatususer

Allusers and administrator profiles (in the original w7 setup) were left in c:\users

I know about the process to move the default user profile location in another drive, but how will it access the old user? Should I try to use the "copy to" function in user profiles?

You shouldn't be using file/folder backup to backup system files or installed programs. Use imaging for that (& the works in fact).

You can always restore file/folder backups to another temporary location retaining the folder structure and simply copying them back to where you want them.

mjf said:

You shouldn't be using file/folder backup to backup system files or installed programs. Use imaging for that (& the works in fact).

You can always restore file/folder backups to another temporary location retaining the folder structure and simply copying them back to where you want them.

I know now...

Some just learned this before you. No big deal. View it as a positive.