Restoring after failed WIN10 install on Dual boot HDD.
Hi guys 'n' gals,
I'll try to keep this as short as possible.
4 weeks ago, I decide to try updating my original WIN10, v1511 to v1903.
I have WIN7 HP on the "C" drive & WIN10, 1511 on the "D" partition...Dual boot option on a 500 Gig, HDD.
The installation failed so I did not proceed any further with the upgrade.
It took me quite a while to get the desk top PC to start correctly.
Now for the details of my problem...
I formatted that partition to remove any leftover crap & then extended the original "C" partition to the full 500 Gig.
All fine again.....or so I thought, but after a while I saw that there were all these weird tags had been added to
a lot....maybe all of my files. Didn't matter if they were .txt, .xml, .ini, .swf or whatever.
There were everywhere.
They appeared thusly......xxxxxxxxxxxx.xml~5FYGK3MA
The xx's are the various file names plus the type then a tilde & then 8 random characters/numbers.
At least when I opened a folder I could see which had been duplicated.
As I mentioned...they were everywhere.
Using Windows Safe Mode & enabling Windows "Protected Files" I was able to go through "most of" my Program folders along with "most of" the Windows ones.
I reckon I deleted about 3 to 4 Gig of the damn things. :)
After each "deletion run", I did an ACRONIS 2019 back-up. So far I've done this 5 or 6 times.
(I have it set for one FULL then two INCREMENTALS each week.)
I was surprised to see that along with the one FULL (119 Gig) & one Incremental (2.4Gig), the last INCREMENTAL
was around 9 Gig.
So apparently I had not deleted any of those duplicate files at all or something was re-creating them?
Sorry about the length of this. Turning into a real saga, ain't it?
I got sick of having to open each folder, check each one, hold CONTROL Key, select each duplicate, right click & hit DELETE.
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Anyway to my Q?...
I have one FULL & one INCREMENTAL backed up before all this occurred.
Will ACRONIS remove/delete/wipe the "C" drive & clean out all of the garbage/crapola duplicate files as well as
replacing all my original "stuff?"
Never had to use ACRONIS before, so that's why I'm asking.
Thanks for taking the time to read this & thank you for answering my Q? & saving my sanity.
:)
Rajah..
ps. Stay safe out there.
Hi again, Steve,
Many thanks for the response to my idiotic dilemma.
"What was the Source for your Full + Differential backup image?"
"Was this the whole 500 GB HDD with all partitions (C: Win 7 and D: Win 10)?"
1/. No. (A small, nay large correction is required here.)
Just the 1st half (about 260 Gig) of the "C" drive, 500 Gig HDD had WIN7.
The other partition on that drive was blank.
The original WIN10 v1511 was on the "G" drive which was on a 2nd separate 500 Gig HDD which had 3 equal partitions.
I loaded WIN10 v1511 on one of those. (NB: That's where I pointed the damn thing to go.)
The WIN10 v1903 upgrade SHOULD have gone into this drive & not touched the WIN7 drive. AFAIK.
I have both the one FULL & one INCREMENTAL on a 500 Gig, external HDD. That's where they live.
These were done before all this occurred, so they should be fine.
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"Have you created the ATI 2019 Rescue Media and tested booting your PC from this?"
2/. I have created one just not tested but not sure where it is ATM.
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"When doing the restore of your backup, this needs to be done as a Disk & Partition restore and at the top Disk selection level."
3/. O.K.
So, I just select "Restore" & select the FULL & INCREMENTAL that I did before all this rubbish occurred?
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"What partition scheme is used for the 500 GB HDD, is it Legacy/MBR or UEFI/GPT?"
4/. It's Legacy/MBR.
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Q? Does or will the restore wipe/format the "C" HDD now that I've extended the partition to the full 500 Gig?
I did this to stop any more dual boot ideas. :)
(I think I got all the above correct. Things were a tad hectic, what with the PC not wanting to boot & me trying to rid myself of all the crap.)
Thanks for the assistance.
Regards, Rajah..
Stay safe.
Rajah, just to clarify one specific point. When doing a restore / recovery from a Full with an associated Differential backup file, you only need to select the Differential which will also recover the original Full file contents too.
(If you recover the Full first, then that action is wasted because recovering the Differential will wipe the target drive again and overwrite the prior recovered data).
You can download an ISO image of the ATI 2019 rescue media from your Acronis Account web page if needed, then burn this to a CD or DVD media, else use a utility like Rufus or ISOtoUSB to make a bootable USB stick (latter must be 32GB max size, 2GB min size).
Hi Steve,
No Probs.
I will just select the INCREMENTAL.
So...The process is....I open ACRONIS & select RESTORE & point it to the INCREMENTAL file?
Then, grab a cuppa & some chocolate biccies & just sit & wait?
Y/N?
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You mention the 'Rescue Media" but there's nothing named as such, just Bootable Media & Universal Restore.
The Bootable Media is 640 Meg. & the UR is 364.7 Meg.
I found the USB key with the 2019, UR on it, so that's O.K.
Am in the process of D/Ling the Bootable Media file now. Oh, it just finished. :)
Thanks again.
Regs, Rajah..
Rajah, it is the Bootable Media that you need here. the AUR file is for when migrating to new hardware systems (not to the same from where the backup came from).
The linked forum topic above has a PDF file showing the steps needed for disk level recovery with screen images.
Hi Steve,
O.K. Got it now.
Will burn the iso to USB & boot from it in the AM.
Will, of course, let you know the results.
Thank you muchly.
Stay safe.
Regs, Rajah..
I'm baaaccckkk...
Well, Sir Steve, the report is in the +ve direction.
Apart from not being able to burn the iso to a USB key, all went sweetly.
I had to burn it to a DVD, so nothing to worry about there.
After a little sorting out & making sure that I read all the instructions correctly,
I loaded the DVD & booted the PC.
It loaded fine, I slowly went through all the screens & made sure that all the right options were
selected.
Then I hit the "PROCEED" button.
About an hour 'n' a bit later it had completed & gave me the O.K. sign.
Shesa back to "normal" & am in the process of checking a few things out.
I removed the WIN10 option on boot in the System Config Manager & now boots straight into
WIN7 with nary a WIN10 to be seen.
I seem to have lost one or two text files but they weren't really important.
I had to un-install a couple of programs that I'd done before but they only took a few mins.
I checked the "C" drive's Properties & now have 330 Gig Free instead of the 279 Gig I had before.
I only have one "paid for" program to re-install but I do keep all of the installer files & registration/activation codes, so no worries there.
I've double checked for any of those pesky ~R69UGB2X etc., etc., files in various places but NONE have been sighted.
Yippee!
ACRONIS worked just fine & performs exactly as "stated on the tin."
So, Sir Steve, you can chalk up another victory.
Many thanks for your assistance & guidance with my problem.
Regards, Rajah..
You all stay safe now.
Rajah, always pleased to read of success and to receive positive feedback! Well done for sticking with this and getting it done!
Hi Steve,
I always give feedback, be it -ve or +ve especially to creators/manufacturers etc., etc.
That's the only way that "things can be improved." (Most of the time anyway.)
Thanks once more.
Stay safe.
Regards, Rajah..
ps. I intend to carry out a little more testing on my installed programs etc., just to make sure they all function as per "normal."
Hi once again,
Just a quick follow-up with the latest development...
As stated, I have ACRONIS set for one FULL & the two INCREMENTALS each week.
It's just finished the last back up, was an INCREMENTAL....(No probs.)
BUT, I now have the original one FULL (11 v1, FULL 113 Gig), the original INCREMENTAL (11 v2, Inc. 2.0 Gig)
&...the 2nd INCREMENTAL (11 ,v2 Inc with 1 + 2 added.)
Sizes are O.K. That last weird one is just over 3.2 Gig, so it looks good.
Date of the originals is 4th April, 2020.
Back up today is dated 11th May, 2020.
I did not perform any genuine/savable back ups in the interval.....
(Well I did a couple as a test (after deleting the garbage duplicates) but deleted each of those back ups after each test & then had ACRONIS validate the originals. They both were O.K.)
Why did I end up with the weirdly named, 2nd INCREMENTAL?
Thanks for any ideas.
Regs, Rajah..
Rajah, if you are seeing files using _v1-2.tib then these are created when a backup was interrupted for some reason and a second backup file was created when the backup retried / continued.
See Backup file naming from the ATI 2020 User Guide that covers this naming convention (has been the same over most recent versions of ATI).
Hi Steve,
Many thanks again.
Understand the naming sequence now.
As per that article...
"My Back-ups etc., inc_b2_s2_v1-2.tib."
That is what I see.
Plus, As mentioned, I did a few test back ups & most probably "stopped a couple midstream."
That would explain it.
Would that also explain the slightly larger, (3.2 Gig) 2nd INCREMENTAL as opposed to the original at just 2.0 Gig?
So, the next FULL back up should start a new sequence......eg; FULL v12 xxxxxxx ?
Thank you muchly.
Regs, Rajah..
Rajah, your next backup should follow the Backup scheme settings for your task according to how many incremental files are to be created before making a new full backup. The failed incremental files do not count in that respect. It is the sequence number that matters, i.e. if you have set to create 5 incrementals then a new full backup, you should see S1 (full) followed by S2 - S6 for the incrementals then a new Bx_S1 starting a new chain.
Hi Steve,
Thank you.
As I only have it set for one FULL & two INCREMENTALS, I was curious as to why the 2nd back up was larger than the original.
3.2 Gig as against 2.0 Gig.
&, as I mentioned, all the test back ups were deleted in Windows & then Validated by ACRONIS.
Again...I'd still like to know why the 2nd INCREMENTAL ended up over a Gig larger than the original, seeing as I haven't installed anything new.
Thank you.
Regs, Rajah..
Stay safe.
Rajah, sorry but not possible to tell you why the second incremental was larger than the previous ones. There has to have been some changes present to cause this but you would need to try to check this yourself. You could try mounting the larger incremental to a drive letter (assuming this is a Disk or Partition backup) then doing the same with the previous one to a different drive letter, then compare the contents using a tool such as TreeSize Free to see where the extra data came from?
Hi Steve,
Thank you for that program.
D/L'd the portable zipped version & ran it.
(Bit hard to fathom the details/options etc...)
Perhaps a couple of images of the results may help?
The only real difference that I can see is the 11th May INCREMENTAL picked up the FULL back-up & named it as such, whereas the original INCREMENTAL picked it up but did NOT name it.
They both contain the .NET Framework files.
The 11th May INCREMENTAL has 41 Files, whilst all the others contain 42 files.
(I think this is because I deleted that .NET Framework file.)
It's got me stumped but cannot fathom why the larger INCREMENTAL back-up of over a Gig.
Not to worry, as the next series of back-ups should clear things out & be back to normal.
Thank you for your assistance.
Regs, Rajah..
(Trust moi to come up with these weird problems.) :)
