WINDOWS Backup & Restore utility not recognizing my backup file

I periodically backup my data files which is on another hard drive than WIN7 OS so this backup is not a system image. Every time I do a backup I do a restore to a dummy partition to double check the backup was successful. Anyway, I recently tried to restore my backup from March 2014 & the backup utility is not recognizing the file. It recognizes other backups so something must be off with this particular file.

I checked & it appears all of the catalogs & zipped files are present. Is there another manner or 3rd party software I could restore this particular file? The file is just over 100 GB. I should add that I have transferred that file from one hard drive to another since last March, but transferring should not be a problem as far as I understand.

Appreciate any suggestions

SIW2 said:

zipped files? You should be able to open those in windows explorer.Or use 7-zip.

Yep, I tried that assuming I did it correctly. When I went to ATTACH VHD & the popup dialog box to browse to the file it sees the file, but when I select it then it opens to the subfolders of the various backup set subfolders. When I select them the cascade of more subfolders is displayed. So that did not work or I am not executing the procedure correctly.

huskertsunami said:

SIW2 said:

zipped files? You should be able to open those in windows explorer.Or use 7-zip.

Yep, I tried that assuming I did it correctly. When I went to ATTACH VHD & the popup dialog box to browse to the file it sees the file, but when I select it then it opens to the subfolders of the various backup set subfolders. When I select them the cascade of more subfolders is displayed. So that did not work or I am not executing the procedure correctly.

Sorry, I must have responded to the incorrect suggestion. Someone suggested the DSK MGR.

Anyway, I do see the contents within WINDOWS EXPLORER, but how would I get the files to be assembled into the correct directory structure or organization as I had at that point in time?

I installed MACRIUM & I run into the same problem as I did with the WINDOWS utility. It appears all of the files are present in the backup, but how would I go about recreating the directory structure that organizes those files?

You say these are data files.

If that's the case, I wouldn't use an imaging application at all. Just a plain old file and folder replication program. No zipping, no imaging, no restoration process.

ignatzatsonic said:

You say these are data files.

If that's the case, I wouldn't use an imaging application at all. Just a plain old file and folder replication program. No zipping, no imaging, no restoration process.

Yep, you have a point, but up to this point the WINDOWS utility seemed to work just fine. I suppose it only takes 1 failure to motivate you to other options. Nonetheless, do you have any insight how I could reconstruct my files from this backup?

huskertsunami said:

Nonetheless, do you have any insight how I could reconstruct my files from this backup?

No I don't.

I gave up on Windows Backup a long time ago when I discovered it was quirky, cryptic, and not very flexible. It "works" within its limitations, but I didn't see any reason to have to learn what they are and then deal with them.

ignatzatsonic said:

huskertsunami said:

Nonetheless, do you have any insight how I could reconstruct my files from this backup?

No I don't.

I gave up on Windows Backup a long time ago when I discovered it was quirky, cryptic, and not very flexible. It "works" within its limitations, but I didn't see any reason to have to learn what they are and then deal with them.

I think the following link will address this problem:
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...indows-7-a.htm

I will attempt & report back.

mjf said:

I use but admit both Windows imaging & file/folder backup are not robust in auto locating backup data sets. A corruption of a small MediaID file is all that is needed.
I experimented a little and find this procedure works for me.

How to Manually Recover Windows file/folder Backups

This will retain your original directory/folder structure.

1) Right click your file/folder backup named like "JONES-PC". Select Open and choose a backup set folder eg. "Backup Set 2011-06-23 194949".
2) Double click to open the Backup Set folder. You will see a number of Backup Files folders eg. "Backup Files 2011-06-23 194949". One will be large and be the first main backup of the set. The other folders will be smaller and be subsequent incremental backups.
3) Open each "Backup files " folder and there are your backup .zip files. Start with the large "Backup file ..." folder.
4) Create a recovery folder somewhere (say a data partition or an external drive).
5) Install 7-zip so that it appears as a right click option.
6) Highlight one or more of the .zip files and right click select 7-zip.
7) Choose "Extract files...". Under "Extract to:" browse to your recovery folder.
Ensure "Path mode:" is set to "Full pathnames". Select ok.
8) Do this for all .zip files in each of the "Backup files..." folders.

That's it.

An advantage of the Windows file/folder backup is that the zip files don't form what is called a spanned set like many other backup programs so they can be individually recovered.

The above procedure seems to work. I am in the process of executing it.