Urgent- Help Needed - True Image Home 11 messed up my Windows drive
Before removing and reloading my Internet protection suite, I wanted to create a new full backup of Drive C (Win 7, Drives C-F on 500 GB disc) on Drive G (120 GB). Drive G had older full and some incremental backup of Drives C-F. Drive G was almost full, so I deleted the backups of C. I don't do this very often and didn't reread the instructions. I went to the TI 11 home screen and chose "Backup" and got the Wizard. I chose "My Computer", "Disks and Partitions", "Windows(C)", excluded NO files, chose the backup location and filename as "G:/disc-image/DriveC_backup.tib", chose "Create a new full backup archive" then for some reason I chose "Set options manually". I didn't add a password and didn't add any comments. Then I got a screen that said Create full backup archive from C to the G drive I specified, Operation 1 of 2, Saving partition structure, Operation 2 of 2 then Creating partition Image. I clicked on proceed and it started running. I stared at it for a while and kept looking at that 252 MB for Drive C and decided something was wrong and CANCELLED the backup,
I looked at Drive G and to my surprise there was no partial file named DriveC_Backup.tib. I looked at Drice C and it looked funny. A lot of folders were missing - like Browsers, Documents and Settings. They were on Drive H which my computer management says is "Offline". Also on there were the names of my other drives but I cannot access them from Windows Explorer.
Help - How do I get them back on Drive C? Can I just copy them? I can't find a way to restore them from Home 11. I don't know what is missing from the other drives. How do I recover those?
nirvash,
A back up operation will not delete files or folders from a source disk. This is a basic "read" operation that then writes a copy of a back up to a .tib file to the target destination. Files and folders can be excluded from a back up, but selecting these options does not delete or remove them from the source data being backed up. It simply excludes them from being included in the destination's .tib image.
If you believe you have missing files, you should restore them from a previous back up. Important data should always be backed up multiple times and saved to multiple locations. This ensures integrity and redundancy as I am sure you already know it is not wise to rely on a single image or piece of hardware.
TestDisk and PhotoRec are excellent FREE data recovery applications when you have deleted a file, image or partition which you don't have a back up for.
Quite frankly, what you say about back up operations would be my expectation, however the fact of the matter is that I now have about 15 empty folders with names like 9e9e32b717af774d0202636bd09f11 and some folders that look like they changed and some seem missing. You talk about restoring missing files from a previous backup. Well, there has to be a first backup from which all else springs. It was this first backup I was trying to create. I did have an earlier backup but I foolishly deleted it to create enough room on the drive to do this backup. I probably should have bought another drive but then hindsight is always perfect. Can anyone think of a reason why I shouldn't delete those empty folders - is there any possibility that Win7 uses their presence or names for something?
Greetings,
If you are referring to folders that exist in the root of your C:\ drive.... (and sometimes in the root of a data drive) these are system folders created by security patches and windows update. While you might be able to delete them successfully, I wouldn't because they can contain versioning history a new or previous update needs in order to install or update correctly. This is similar to the windows temp folder, which can be cleaned or emptied, but can cause installers to run and fail because of a missing prerequisite or package left behind from an earlier installation. Example, many zipped installers will unpack themselves to a temp folder in the temp directory before installing.
It is sometimes possible to use command line switches when installing service packs, which basically forces the installer to bypass creating a back up or "bread crumb" for an installer to reference should it ever need to be removed. Most software applications and installers have moved away from this procedure, but I'd want to be pretty sure before deleting a directory or folders that something you might use or need requires to update or run. In some instances they can be automatically removed using Disk Clean Up. The temp directory for your user profile can be emptied using %TEMP% from a run command, and deleting the files and folders in this directory, but agin, I'd do so with caution.
Not trying to discourage or scare you from keeping thing neat and tidy or from freeing up some disk space, just wanted to be sure you understood the potential consequences if done incorrectly. If they are empty you can probably remove them safely. An old time stamp without and recent access is also a good indicator of being safe to delete.